Art against Corona ... talents from balconies and houses transformed into theaters

Abdul Majeed Faraji - Italy

Ayman al-Fudaylat - Jordan

Ismail Gabriel Tissot - Sudan

Arts have always been the means of peoples to communicate without language, but now they are their tool in clinging to the aspects of life and resisting the fear that has become inherent in the situation of most of the people of the world because of a virus that is chasing spirits, pushing them to stay in their homes. "By playing strings or with a brush and colors, the methods differed, but that was their aim to eliminate fear in different parts of the world.

Love life from balconies

Italians are a people who loves life even in the days of quarantine. The famous song "Bla Chao" (an old Italian song expresses revolution and resistance) is heard in alleys and streets, windows and balconies turned into theaters, stands and art galleries to draw the phrases "everything will go well" that has become a slogan Quarantine.

"Music is the only weapon I have to resist and improve the conditions we live in, because of being forced into the home," artist Daniele Vitaly - the famous saxophone in Italy - said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net in Naples.

Danieli gained more prominence during the days of the quarantine through his musical links that his neighbors curl up on the balcony of his house, especially with the play "Bla Chao" that achieved millions of views on his YouTube channel.

In turn, Nabil Hamaie, a young Algerian musician, records his almost daily presence by playing the violin in the San Salvario district of Turin, here in the city of "La Chau", a stronghold of leftists and fascist opponents, where Nabil awakens the anxieties of his old and young neighbors by playing His western and eastern music together.

"I feel that I am creating an enthusiasm among people to raise morale during this epidemic," he says, "so I, like other artists, contribute to alleviating the quarantine."

Luna and her boyfriend, Pietro, who are in the desert, near the northern Italian town of Vercelli, decided not to be out of tune every evening.

"In quarantine times, I found a valuable opportunity to sing, not like any other normal day," Pietro said, while Luna told Al-Jazeera Net that she was happy "that art can create social cohesion between us."

Umm Kulthum on the balconies of Paris

The Egyptian musician Tariq Al-Jarwani chose his balcony in the French capital, Paris, to play the violin instrument. The experiment began in conjunction with the application of the quarantine. At that time, Al-Jarwani decided to play the tune of the singer Dalida's song, “Sweet Oh My Country”, to enjoy his neighbors. The neighbors begin to wait for their daily melodies every evening.

The Egyptian player blended Western music with distinctive Arabic songs, such as "Umm Al Kulth Wa Leila" by Umm Kulthum, and his wife participated in singing some Arabic and French songs from the balcony of the house and sometimes from the kitchen.

Free art and architecture lessons

From Jordan, we met Kamel Mahadin, a former university professor and politician who managed to turn the curfew into a message of hope for his students and followers through his Facebook and YouTube accounts.

Mahadin is spared no effort in providing advice and guidance to his students and followers in more than fifty countries around the world, both Arab and foreign, who watch his lectures on architecture through a live broadcast on his Facebook page.

In his lectures, Mahaden targets his students who teach at the American University in Jordan, and offers classes in architecture courses, after suspending studies at Jordanian universities in the middle of last month.

And it is followed by students from Jordanian, Arab and foreign universities, in addition to architects, teachers and amateurs who are looking for learning the arts of free and architectural drawing, and it is followed by hundreds of thousands in learning the arts of drawing in pen and water colors and others.

Mahadin did not expect the size of the wide participation of his lectures, as some technical lectures amount to one million views on YouTube.

He says, "The beautiful thing in distance teaching is to transfer the student to your home, studio and library, so you feel the importance of what he is doing, and give the students a dose of hope and optimism, and get them out of the state of isolation in which they live in light of the curfew we live in."

Street arts outreach

In Sudan, plastic artists have launched an initiative to raise awareness of the dangers of the Corona pandemic through plastic panels displayed on social media platforms.

Despite its clear goal to raise health awareness of citizens, artistic pleasure was a presence in the hands of the initiative, which took two artistic paths. The first track focused on the murals in the main streets of Khartoum, on which the art paintings for awareness of the Corona virus are painted.

As the idea of ​​the second track tends to set up a plastic exhibition without an audience, and it is concerned with the awareness campaign about the dangers of Corona, to be displayed directly on social media platforms.

The artist, Amir Shafiq, owner of the initiative "An Art Gallery Without an Audience", says that the idea that will be implemented soon is considered the first of its kind, and was dictated by the precautionary measures to prevent gatherings.

Despite the lack of the direct communication feature between the public and the showroom, Shafiq assured Al-Jazeera Net that this will not reduce the artistic pleasure, and the viewer can remotely communicate directly with the owner of the painting through communication applications such as the Skype application that the showroom provides for followers inside and outside Sudan.

In his talk to Al-Jazeera Net, the plastic artist Abdel Majid Afifi pointed to the path of murals with the expressive idea launched by the plastic artists in favor of the Sudanese revolution, and they are currently employing them to raise awareness of the dangers of the Corona pandemic, in cooperation with the Central Doctors Committee.

For his part, Muhammad Al-Ashraf Abu Samra - who is interested in plastic art and followers of the initiative - describes the use of plastic art to raise awareness of the dangers of Corona with a smart gesture, because of this aesthetic pleasure that he tasted while pursuing artworks on communication platforms, and Abu Samra stressed that accuracy and skill in the use of colors They contributed greatly to the delivery of the required message.

Yemeni singing from a distance

In Yemen, a group of artists decided to present their Yemeni heritage songs by singing remotely, as they presented an integrated lyric group composed of singers and playlists, each from his home, in an invitation to the public to adhere to the homes within the sanitary isolation procedures.