Each year, Maison Cantegrit organises an artistic residency in Saint Antonio de Portmany on the Island of Ibiza. It is the meeting place where artists (painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers), for one month, can create works and interact freely in an environment conducive to creation. At the end of the residency, the artists will be exhibited in San Antonio and in galleries and museums in Europe.

For the 2019 edition, the artists will work on the theme "From the Chaos of Origins". And we have notably selected Katharine Cooper, a South African artist whose remarkable work on the White people of Africa, and on Aleppo, city ravaged by war ("Aleppo mon Amour", Arnaud Bizalion Publisher) struck us.

During our conversations, Katharine spoke to us about a young Syrian artist whom she met whilst visiting this war-torn country: Antoine Makdis. A young student in Political Sciences, he spends his free time photographing the chaos which surrounds him and seeks the glimmer of hope which allows him, his friends and his family, to survive.

Antoine has, several times, shown his work in Europe, but has never been able to make the journey himself; the administrative constraints are considerable, and above all, he lacks the necessary funds.

Katharine writes about Antoine: "I met Antoine in 2017 when I visited Aleppo for the first time, three months after the end of the fighting in the city. I was looking for a guide and translator in order to take pictures of this ancient city ravaged by war. The four weeks that we spent exploring the streets of Aleppo will remain forever in my mind. Thanks to Antoine, I discovered the great life force which survives in Aleppo. Thanks to him, I realized how strong the pulse of life beats in this city with which I fell in love… Antoine was used to Westerners coming to photograph the destruction, ignoring the scenes of daily life all around. When he saw that I was interested in just those things, in the beauty of humans in their ordinary environment, we made an immediate connection. In Antoine I discovered a photographer of extraordinary sensitivity, who had such a humane attitude towards his neighbors be they Christian or Moslem, managing with great ease to navigate amongst these various communities in order to photograph them. He told me that I had inspired him to do this. After I left Aleppo, I continued to watch the progress he made, all the while thinking that certain things could be improved on a technical level."

For this 2019 residency, other artists, apart from Katharine, include Yannick Fournié, a well-known French painter who exhibits worldwide, as well as Andreina Ramos, a young Venezuelan artist, living as a refugee in Spain. Antoine will have the opportunity to see and share in the the works of Clarisse d'Arcimoles, a young Franco-British artist living in London, who will show one of her latest installations in the San Antonio Museum.

By coming to Europe, Antoine will also have the opportunity to finally see his works exhibited for real and not merely through photographs that have been sent to him.

This year, Maison Cantegrit has offered to host him but the travel costs are high.

Help Antoine to make this dream come true.

Help Antoine, young photographer from Aleppo, to make his dream come true…

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