The first exhibition of the new project “Art Leaves a Trace — 2026” has opened at the National Center for Visual Arts in Damascus. More than 200 works by 197 artists of different generations and movements are gathered in one space: painting and graphic art, sculpture and calligraphy, photography, digital art and new media.
This is not merely a large group exhibition. For the first time on such a scale, the Syrian art scene receives a space where different generations, techniques and ways of seeing the world find themselves side by side. The project is conceived as a regular platform for the country’s contemporary art, capable with each new edition of capturing its development and diversity.
Art Without a Single Plot
The most striking thing about the exhibition is its breadth.
There are works here connected with memory and the human experience of recent years. But alongside them are landscapes, abstract compositions, experiments with color and form, calligraphic sheets, photographs and works created with the help of modern technologies.
An artist may turn to memory, or may explore pure color. May work with a specific place, or may create an entirely abstract world. May continue the tradition of calligraphy or use digital tools.
All these directions exist simultaneously. And it is precisely this diversity that becomes one of the project’s main gestures.
The exhibition shows how broad the space of art can be when it is not obliged to speak only of historical experience. Here memory becomes one of the possible artistic materials — along with color, form, line, space, nature and technology.
197 Artists — One Scene
The organizers deliberately sought to present the country’s artistic life as broadly as possible. The project includes recognized masters and young authors, artists working in classical techniques, and those who experiment with new media.
Different generations meet in a single space. This makes it possible to see not only the differences between them, but also how artistic ideas continue to be passed on, to change and to acquire a new resonance.
Instead of a single curatorial statement, the viewer receives a multitude of independent voices.
This is precisely one of the project’s important features: it does not offer a single view of contemporary Syrian art, but creates a space in which different aesthetics, themes and artistic positions can exist simultaneously.
From Calligraphy to Digital Practices
The aspiration to embrace as many artistic languages as possible is also evident in the structure of the exhibition.
Besides painting, sculpture and graphic art, it features ceramics, Arabic calligraphy, printmaking, photography, video, installations and digital works.
In contemporary works, calligraphy can become an independent plastic form — line, rhythm and space. Alongside it exist technologies and new media that expand the customary boundaries of the artwork.
Thus the exhibition shows contemporary art not as a set of separate genres, but as a constantly expanding field in which traditional forms can meet with experimentation.
Memory — One of the Materials
Among the works are pieces that directly address the complex experience of recent years. Among them are “Martyr-Angel” by Yousef al-Boushi and Maria al-Sarkhan’s lithograph “Shock and Denial.” The exhibition also features works connected with Damascus, Maaloula, Palmyra and other places.
But alongside them are works that do not seek to tell a story literally.
Here memory does not become the only language. It turns out to be one of the many materials with which artists work.
For one author it may be the image of a city, for another — color, for a third — line, for a fourth — the human figure, for a fifth — the digital environment.
Art gains the ability not only to preserve what has been lived through, but also to create new images of the present.
A Space for Dialogue Between Generations
An important part of the project is the meeting of artists of different ages and creative biographies. In a single space are found masters whose practice has been shaped over decades, and authors only just beginning their path.
Such a format creates a space for dialogue — between experience and experiment, tradition and technology, already established languages and those that are only emerging.
Instead of dividing by generations, the exhibition proposes seeing them simultaneously: as parts of a single artistic scene that continues to develop.
Therefore the project becomes not so much a summation of a certain period as the beginning of a new artistic conversation.
The Exhibition as the Beginning of an Archive
The project also has a longer-term dimension. The organizers announced the creation of a professional system for selecting and awarding works, as well as the acquisition of individual pieces for the national art collection.
The exhibition program is complemented by five seminars and three specialized workshops, linking the exposition with an educational and discussion program.
Thus an infrastructure is gradually taking shape that can exist longer than a single exhibition. Each new edition will be able to add new names, works and directions to the artistic archive — recording the changes within the contemporary artistic life of Syria.
The Trace Being Created Now
The project’s title can be read not only as a reflection on preserving the past, but also as a statement about the present.
The trace of art can be material — a painting, a photograph or an object that will enter a collection. It can be visual — an image that will remain in the viewer’s memory. And it can be cultural: an idea, a technique or an artistic language that will continue to live and develop in the next generation.
In this sense, “Art Leaves a Trace” speaks above all of creation.
Of the possibility of gathering in a single space 197 different artistic voices. Of the meeting of recognized masters and young authors. Of the proximity of memory and abstraction, landscape and calligraphy, traditional techniques and new media.
For the first time such diversity becomes part of a single project — and precisely in this lies its significance.
If the initiative continues, in time its trace will become not only a collection of individual works, but also the gradually created history of contemporary art in Syria — a history in which different generations and artistic languages can continue to meet, change and create something new.
