Ward Zaraa is a Palestinian artist and writer born in Syria. He came to Sweden after the war broke out there in 2015. Ward’s writings and illustrations revolve around gender political and spatial identities. As a transgender man, he experienced the intersectionality of physical and spatial transmigration as a human being who came to life as a refugee.
He is working on a collection of poetry entitled “So that Suitcases Don’t Slip” comprising several poems written in Syria before gender transitioning and immigration. He also has a large number of articles highlighting minorities such as queer, women and refugees, and the intersections between these, environment and capitalism.
Ward had participated in many exhibitions in Syria, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also had a solo exhibition at the Blåstället Gallery in Göteborg in 2022 entitled “#WARD_ NOW”, with works drawn from diaries indicating the reflection of political events in the world on his daily life. In 2020, he did a land art project entitled “Tree Society” in Helsingborg, where he made clothes for trees from natural materials. The project expresses equality between human beings living on this planet, regardless of our gender, color, or political and ethnic identities.
About the work: As a trans man, born a Palestinian refugee in Syria, and made a refugee again after leaving Syria to come to Sweden during the war, I have always been the product of the situations and political changes around me. Following the news has never been something I do for enjoyment. I have never had the luxury of choosing whether or not to watch the news, as it is usually speaking about me or my family. This became even more the case after the war in Syria, when I became a refugee in Sweden. Refugees were a major feature in every headline and every election. My nationality was recorded as ‘stateless’ because the world didn’t recognize me as Palestinian. My gender and national identities are breaking news, and every breaking news item is me and others like me.
The latest news is always about the facts of our daily lives. A piece of news could change my life indefinitely, and redirect my path towards a place I had never planned to go… Who decides my destiny? Who is at the steering wheel of my life? #WARD_NOW is a record of my diaries using drawings in ink and watercolors. They are a cry about our daily suffering. They are our breaking news.
works in the exhibition
“Spotlight on Syrian Queer” series (2023)
- digital print on paper
- dimensions: (variable)
- venue: Room 2037
exhibition.school 