Kurzbericht (Short Report)

Kurzbericht (Short Report) is a comic project that tells the story of a refugee; a human rights and freedom activist strongly attached to their homeland, yet forced to flee. Stuck between the hammer of dictatorship, settler colonialism, and the anvil of bureaucracy, they stand strong in the face of the dictator’s power, the entrepreneurs of ethnic cleansing, and faintly tailored freedom—all while wrapped in oppression.

This comic tells the story of trauma and oppression, but also the story of standing strong and fighting back. When a story is difficult to put into words, comics are the language to be heard. The story is based on a fictional character that combines two real people: Subbar; the character, rapper, and superhero created by a Syrian rapper refugee, and the personal story of the narrator; the comics artist. Two people with different backgrounds, but with mirrored stories.

This comic comes at a time of being chained by the systematic silencing and the system’s denial of my identity. This comic is my story, Subbar’s story, and the story of many others who were and are still forced to live under repression, tyranny, systematic injustice, racism, ethnic cleansing, and colonialism.

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Kurzbericht (Short Report) in Arabic:

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Feature image: “The photo includes a letter from the German police given to me after confiscating a Palestinian flag on the 15th of May 2022, in which raising it was the reason the police decided to arrest me on that day. In the background you can see the flag that was confiscated; which I brought back from the police station the next day. This event was the reason Subbar wrote the lyrics of his rap song, which I transformed into these frames.”

All images in Comic: Michael Jabareen, Digital Illustration, 29.7×21 cm, 2022.

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Michael Jabareen is a collective experimental artist, designer, architect, and performer who chose his passion and driven will towards art to be a way of existence. He focuses on the development and utilization of art expression methodologies to effectively connect and communicate with the audience and create positive change and impact. By experimenting the combination of artistic human experiences, both visual and performative, Michael works on speaking out and supporting marginalized and silenced humanitarian and environmental causes around the world. Throughout more than 11 years of local and international experience with a bachelor’s in Architectural Engineering and a Master’s in Visual and Experience Design, Michael dedicates his passion towards art to influence social and individual practices using the power of image in visual communication and behavioral guidance, applying this technique in different fields including business entrepreneurship, illustration, comics, graphic design, animation, videography, multimedia production, theatrical practices, and spatial design. [@michaelmjabareen]