Diala Brisly is a Syrian artist and activist who uses a variety of media to portray, among others, the living conditions of women, basic human rights and the role of children. From December 2017 to April 2018, she was an artist in residence at the Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Diala Brisly was born in Kuwait to Syrian parents in 1980, and grew up in Damascus, Syria, where she lived until the outbreak of war forced her to flee in 2013 to Beirut and then to Turkey, before arriving in France. She began her career in 2001 as an artist for the channel Spacetoon in Syria. She taught herself model-making and worked on the animated series DumTumSalimeen. She went on to experiment with various different genres such as computer-aided design, animation, conceptual art, painting and cartoons, which led her to collaborate on twelve animated films and six television programmes for the BBC and Al Jazeera Kids.
Dara Brisly is actively involved with several causes which are close to her heart, and acts as a spokesperson for children, the most vulnerable, and for those who have suffered as a result of the conflict in Syria. Through her art, she casts a critical eye on the living conditions of women and refugees, and on the educational situation of Syrian children. Her commitment also led her to support strikers in the Adra women’s prison, a strike which resulted in the liberation of 23 detainees. She has been featured in press articles in Le Monde and Deutsche Welle, and in interviews on the BBC, PBS, Al Jazeera and TV5 Monde.
Diala Brisly sees art as a way of giving people autonomy, and hopes that her work will be of use for future generations. No doubt it will remain as a weighty testimony of the current conflicts taking place in the Middle East.
From December 2017 to April 2018, Diala was a resident artist at the Parc Jean-Jacques Rousseau. She took part in several workshops, most notably a presentation of her work followed by a discussion on the theme of ‘engagement without borders’.