News

Beyond Borders launches it 2012 programme of events with The Enduring Middle East, an exhibition by Scottish artist Joseph Maxwell Stuart that will be shown in London and Edinburgh in June 2012.

Beyond Borders is shocked and saddened by the news of Marie Colvin's death in Homs today, along with French photographer Remi Ochlik. Marie was a brilliant and courageous journalist who insisted on getting to the heart of the situation and staying with those worst affected, rather than leaving them stranded.

A memorial exhibition of the works of Border artist Caroline McNairn (1955-2010), showcasing a selection of her smaller more intimate paintings, giving a moving insight into the poetic lyricism and humanity of her unique vision, which blends local tradition with an international outlook.

This year’s film programme focuses on four small nations emerging from confl ict: Palestine, Kurdish Iraq, Libya and Sri Lanka. In celebrating these cultures, we aim to create a vibrant international platform for cultural exchange and small nation dialogue in Scotland. Each film will be followed by a discussion featuring filmmakers and writers as they take questions from the audience and try to illuminate both the film, and the plight of each nation.

Following in the footsteps of Orientalist painter David Roberts, Joseph Maxwell Stuart exhibits a selection of oil paintings from a Roberts-inspired journey across Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon & Syria. And Revolutionary Images from the Libyan uprising, captured by photojournalist Dutch Teun Voeten.

War Crimes and human rights atrocities have been alleged to have been perpetrated in countries such as Libya, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Gaza. The UN Doctrine of Responsibility to Protect has been tested to the limit. Meanwhile the International Criminal Court has issued a number of writs against leaders such as Gaddafi. When and in what circumstances should the UN intervene militarily in countries to save lives?

In 1842, the Afghan people inflicted upon the British their greatest military humiliation, with crudely armed tribesman destroying an entire army of the most powerful nation of the world. The bare outlines of this first disastrous entanglement are well known; what is less well known are the clear and relevant parallels with the current deepening crisis in Afghanistan: the extraordinary similarities between what the US and her allies faces today in cities like Kabul and Kandahar, and that faced by the British in the very same cities, fighting the very same tribes, nearly two centuries ago.

A debate on how the power of art and satire is being used to express protest and foster revolution.

Egyptian musician Ramy Essam went to join the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo with his guitar as soon as the January 2011 uprising started. He became known as the voice if the Egyptian uprising, dubbed ‘the Billy Bragg of Tahrir Square’.

Graffiti – scratched, scrawled or painted on public property – is by its nature a political medium, used to express social and political anxieties. Dutch photojournalist Teun Voeten has covered conflict in Yugoslavia, Haiti, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Most recently Voeten has been working on the human violations in Columbia, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and women trafficking and forced prostitution in the Balkan. These images were taken in Libya in Spring 2011.