We were delighted to welcome Hayfa Dhouib, a Tunisian independent journalist and a researcher of political science, as the first Artists at Risk (AR) Human Rights Defender (HRD) pilot programme resident earlier this year. During her three-month residency, she was writing a blog, which she describes as “an unplanned act of memory from Helsinki”.
Hayfa writes “reflections and stories about art that resist silence and connect across borders”. Her journal-like blog entries tell about life and death, sorrow and joy, Helsinki and Tunisia. She depicts her life in this city of “the distant North”, the foreignness of it, but also the similarities and familiarities between her life during the residency and her life back home.
Writing both about the sadness of the situation back home in Tunisia and the connections she made in Helsinki, she shows how places have an effect on us and paints a picture of the contradictions of balancing between the relief of being somewhere else and the worry for people and the places that stayed in place.
Through writing she unpacks the contradictions and injustice around the world. After being stuck for so long in an environment distorted by fires, wars, and disappointments, in Helsinki, she was also able to immerse herself a little again in the art around her.
We are grateful for Hayfa to have shared her writings with us and wish all the best for her!
Check out all of Hayfa’s blog writings!
The programme is an initiative for protecting human rights defenders established in cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland and the City of Helsinki with key funding from ProtectDefenders.eu. Read more about the HRD programme.
