A new course of Aula Árabe Universitaria begins with this lecture by Miriyam Aouragh, Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster.

May 2023, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was welcomed back to his seat on the Arab League. On one of the news photos, we see a dozen leaders pose for a portrait in Jeddah (KSA) capturing the formal acceptance of Bashar al-Assad.

How do we interpret the come-back of a smiling Assad receiving a warm welcome twelve years after he was thrown out of the Arab League due to his severe suppression of mass pro-democracy protests?

It was not the first time a sense of demise surfaced, Assad’s troops (convoyed by the Russian military) entering Der’a in the summer of 2018 as Free Syrian Army (FSA) members surrendered across rebel-held regions. The moment an official regime flag was raised in the birthplace of the Syrian uprising, was jarring. Ghouta and Aleppo had already been crushed into submission following unprecedented bombing campaigns 18 months prior. The Guardian, Al Jazeera, BBC and many more news headings heralded a full-circle storyline.

Without irony, Bashar al-Assad tells the Arab League “I hope that it marks the beginning of a new phase of Arab action for solidarity among us, for peace in our region, development and prosperity instead of war and destruction.” Those smiles, kisses and handshakes covered the press photos were illustrative, yet remembering the uprising it raises the question: What was it all for? In fact, at this circular moment, exactly one decade after the start of the uprising, a somewhat pressing feeling returned, was there really a revolution?

To help make sense of this almost existential query, three themes come together in this presentation: how we remember major events; the way capitalist infrastructures turn political events into spectacles; the particularities of visual content that enable a space for meaningful political reverberation.

Further information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/archiving-an-impossible-revolution-visual-testimonies-digital-memory-making-and-syrian-resilience