Keifkon–Refugees Communal integrations
“To the million of lives that got disturbed and displaced, to the souls that left home with the hope of one day returning back, and towards a harmonised community and fresh start."
Keifkon is an exhibition about the Syrian crisis and the state of being a refugee. Keifkon communicates the journey of the refugee from taking the decision of leaving home till reaching a new home in a new host community. It aims at igniting a bas for discourse about the Syrian crisis.
Naming concept
Keifkon in Arabic means how are you doing in the Syrian dialect. Through the word “Keifkon” people are asked how they are doing and what are their emotions, the answer of this word is what they said during the interviews.
Keifkon in Arabic means how are you doing in the Syrian dialect. Through the word “Keifkon” people are asked how they are doing and what are their emotions, the answer of this word is what they said during the interviews.
The project is the design outcome of the research titled 'Refugees Communal Integration'.
Communal Harmony refers to the principle of having people with different backgrounds and ethnic values living together within one community peacefully with the aim of reaching mutual goals that benefit them and their community.
Integration is a dynamic process that occurs at both the level of the individuals and the host community. It includes the access to social welfare and participation in the cultural, social, economical, and political life of the local community through belonging and identification in the neighbourhood and enrolment in social interactions and social institutions. Therefore, it is a two directional process that involves the refugee as well as the host community.
How the process of Integration take place?
For a refugee to reach full integration, he has to pass through major points where the refugee is a member, a contributor, and the refugee sharing his opinion concerning the community affairs. These major points are called indicators of integration.
For a refugee to reach full integration, he has to pass through major points where the refugee is a member, a contributor, and the refugee sharing his opinion concerning the community affairs. These major points are called indicators of integration.
Indicators of Integration
For a refugee to be fully integrated into the host community, he has to pass through four main domains; Means and Markers domain, Social Connection domain,Facilitators domain, and Foundations domain.
For a refugee to be fully integrated into the host community, he has to pass through four main domains; Means and Markers domain, Social Connection domain,Facilitators domain, and Foundations domain.
Concept development
The main aim of this project is studying the circumstances of the Syrian refugees in general and in Egypt in specific. So understanding the stories of the refugees and understanding their needs and wants was the target in the first part of the project. Therefore, Syrian refugees living in Egypt were the main target group.
In the second part, the design outcome is targeted for a more broad target audience on local and international level thats why the design outcome is expected to be in both English and Arabic to reach the majority of the people with the statement that anyone could be a refugee over night.
The main aim behind creating the exhibition design approach is creating a communicative space where the target audience would experience what means to be a refugee. The exhibition helps in conceptualising the story and the statements of the project in a three dimensional space.
This was taken further through stating the big idea of the exhibition, conceptualising the schematic design of the exhibition, creating an exhibition script, and information outline of the possible exhibits.
Exhibition statement
Based on the conducted research and interviews with the Syrian families living in Egypt, and upon listening to their stories came the main exhibition statements "Anyone could be a refugee over night" and "Humans are not numbers on pages or statistics in the news".
Based on the conducted research and interviews with the Syrian families living in Egypt, and upon listening to their stories came the main exhibition statements "Anyone could be a refugee over night" and "Humans are not numbers on pages or statistics in the news".
Design process
The design elements were based on the core values that the project aims at communicating with the audience. Typography was intended to have a brutal heavy structure in both the Latin and the Arabic choices. The core values are reflected in the layout structure, photography approach as well as other graphical elements like the textures and the photo collage technique.
The design elements were based on the core values that the project aims at communicating with the audience. Typography was intended to have a brutal heavy structure in both the Latin and the Arabic choices. The core values are reflected in the layout structure, photography approach as well as other graphical elements like the textures and the photo collage technique.
Design outcome
The exhibition and a publication that curates the refugees stories in details.
The exhibition and a publication that curates the refugees stories in details.
Keifkon is dedicated to the souls that left their homes with the hope of one day returning back. Keifkon was supervised by Jochen Braun, Thank you for your guidance.
