Rita is a multidisciplinary artist and architect born and raised in Damascus-Syria where she received her bachelor degree in architecture from Damascus University, and moved to Montreal-Canada to earn her BFA majoring in sculpture from Concordia University. Currently she splits her time between Berlin and Beirut.
Her practice, whether it is sculpture, painting, drawing, or site specific installation and performative action, is deeply rooted in social and political activism.
Rita questions the body in relation to borders, oppression and displacement and focuses on intersectional racial and gender-based discrimination from the point of view of a feminist Arab non-conforming woman.
The intersection between the two disciplines she’s trained in, architecture and sculpture, led her practice to be focused on public spaces and found in public art an ultimate platform to reach a wide audience and achieve accessibility.
Her public artworks stage permeable spaces where conversations and engagement can spark through interactive instruments made to be played and activated by the audience.
As Rita approaches the digital and virtual world as an alternative form of public art, she has been delving into collaborative and activism work through her two dimensional illustrations and comics work for politically and socially engaged Arab online platforms, and now she works as a graphic designer at Al-Jumhuriyah.net. Rita is the founder and creator of “Her dinosaurs Diary” feminist comics online platform, and the Co-founder of “Radical Care Lab”; Process based public art collective.