Dareen Abbas is a 33-year-old visual artist, originally from Syria. She stayed in our guest house next to our studio in Odense (Denmark), while she was working in the studio and learning a lot.
Dareen's work takes inspiration from the four elements (water, earth, fire and air) and the movements of the body, as well as having abstract qualities.
During her residency at Funen Printmaking Studio, Dareen has tried new printing techniques and connected with new people. She has worked with etching on copper, line etching and aquatint, with the assistance of Trine Anderschou. She had previous experience with some of these techniques, but consciously tried to forget her usual ways of doing things in order to fully commit herself to a new learning process and get the most out of her stay.
Dareen found herself fascinated once again with the traditional etching technique, and very much welcomed the opportunity of having the time to concentrate fully and solely on working with prints again. Her residency gave her quiet time to immerse herself in printmaking, and this focus really shows up in the artworks that she has produced in the studio.
One of her print projects references a childhood nightmare of white wolves recounted to Sigmund Freud by one of his most famous patients, Sergei Pankejeff, also known as the 'Wolf Man'. The dream intrigued Freud, who closely analysed it and later published Pankejeff's case in From the History of an Infantile Neurosis.
As part of her residency, Dareen also did an artist talk for 50 studio members and facilitated two print workshops for children.
Residency dates: 1st - 31st March 2022
Dareen Abbas is a Syrian visual artist that lives and works in Berlin. She studied graphics in Damascus University of Fine-Arts and in 2015 she received a Master's degree in arts from ERG School of Graphic Research in Brussels, where she focussed on system theory and history of cybernetics in relation to memory and cinema. Since then, Abbas has participated in various exhibitions and residencies such as Taipei Biennale 2016, as well as WIELS Art Centre- project room 2020 among others.
