Dana Lixenberg
Peace Building through Dialogue and Play / Amman, Jordan
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, has exacted a heavy toll on hundreds of thousands of children and their families.
It has also created a serious refugee and displacement crisis that has affected millions of people and spilled into neighbouring countries. The influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan has put a strain on the already overburdened infrastructure and services there, resulting in increased tensions between the refugees and the host communities they live in.
photo Gallery
© 2019 – IOC / Dana Lixenberg - All Rights Reserved Gene
Generations For Peace (GFP), headquartered in Amman, is tackling this issue by engaging children, young people and adults across Jordan in a range of activities, including sports and the arts, as well as awareness-raising activities. Here, Syrian refugees come together with Jordanians. Dedicated to sustainable conflict transformation at the grassroots level, GFP empowers volunteer youth leaders to promote active tolerance and understanding through programmes that offer safe spaces in communities plagued by conflict and violence.
BIOGRAPHY
Dana Lixenberg was born in 1964 in the Netherlands and studied photography at the London College of Printing and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. The Imperial Courts 1993-2015 series, which is her most extensive body of work to date, was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2017. Dana Lixenberg has exhibited in New York, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Centre photographique in Rouen, the Photographer’s Gallery in London and many other prestigious venues around the world.
Able to photograph her subjects at profound moments in their lives, Dana Lixenberg offers an analytical examination without imposing judgement. The artist’s subtle and sophisticated feel for colour and sensitivity in capturing the most minute details of human expression are a striking feature of each of her portraits. Her Imperial Courts 1993-2015 project follows the changing shape of a small, underserved community in Watts, Los Angeles, through videos, audio recordings and a series of black and white photographs taken with a wide-angle camera.