Khaled Alwarea (b. 1988, Damascus) is a Syrian architect and multidisciplinary artist based in Marseille, France. His practice fluidly blends architecture, photography, video, scenography, and public art into a unified artistic language — treating disciplines as tools to express the complexities of human experience.
Rooted in his personal journey from Syria to France, Khaled’s work explores themes of identity, displacement, and collective memory. He often moves between intimate narratives and large-scale public installations, seeking to connect the personal with the political, the ephemeral with the monumental.
He is the co-founder and creative director of UV LAB, a transdisciplinary collective that transforms public spaces into immersive, collaborative environments. His installations have been presented across Europe and the Middle East, including the monumental LE KRAKEN at Les SUBS in Lyon, awarded the Mondes Nouveaux grant from the French Ministry of Culture.
His experimental film Panic Attack received the Merit Award at the Awareness Film Festival in Los Angeles, and his photographic series Seeking Refuge earned an Honorable Mention from the Monovisions Awards in London.
He received the Marie-Thérèse Alli production award for Without Interpretation: About Autohomophobia and Other Insecurities, an immersive audiovisual installation exploring internalized oppression within queer experience.
Khaled is also the creator of Syria’s Queer Memory, an ongoing archival project documenting the hidden histories of Syria’s LGBTQ+ communities. This work was awarded the Prix Recanati-Kaplan 2025 and supported by Ettijahat – Independent Culture.
Through his diverse practice, Khaled creates poetic interventions across mediums and geographies — tracing the invisible threads between memory, absence, and transformation.
Art Residences:
- August 2023 
 Chez bushwick - villa Albertine New York, USA
- March 2022 
 Warehouse421 - Homebound Residency, Dubai, UAE
- January 2022 
 LA BRIQUETERIE, CDCN du Val-de- Marne, France
- October 2021 
 Château de Goutelas, Marcoux, Loire, France
- August 2021 
 HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden, Germany
- April 2021 
 Théâtre Romain Rolland, Villejuif, France
- Feb 2021 
 Maison des Métallos, Paris, France
- Oct 2020 
 Le Subs, Lyon, France
- Feb 2020 
 Saline Royale d’Arc-et-Senans, France
Awards and Honors:
- 2025 Prix Recanati-Kaplan La Fondation Recanati-Kaplan et la Villa Albertine, en partenariat avec l’Institut du monde arabe. 
- 2023 Guest speaker, Impact Symposium Pact Zollverein, Essen, Germany 
- 2023 production grant, Sanad in the Digital Realm, Ettijahat – Independent Culture 
- 2021 Production Fund Award, Mondes Nouveaux, by the French ministry of culture, LE KRAKEN at Le SUBS Lyon, France 
- 2020 Production grant, Marie-Thérèse Alli production award, Without Interpretation 
- 2017 Guest speaker, Equal Before the Image Seminar, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden 
- 2017 HONORABLE MENTION, Monovisions Awards “Seeking Refuge” Photoshoot London, UK 
- 2016 Merit Award, Awareness Film Festival “Panic Attack” Film, LA, California, USA 
- 2012 Honorable Mention, Mosaic Achrafieh International Photography Contest, Beirut, Lebanon 
- 2012 Guest speaker, MAG LAB Parametric Design & Architecture Conference Damascus, Syria 
- 2011 JCI Photography Award, A,B,C Damascene Story Photography Contest Damascus, Syria 
Selected Exhibitions:
- 2024 Censure - Collective 
 Without Interpretation - Audio Visual Installation
 Provence Art Contemporain, Marseille, France
- 2023 Land, Safety, and Grief 
 Free Watermelons - AI-reconstructed Photography
 Oyoun, Berlin, Germany
- 2023 Euphrates, Heritage, Eternity, 
 Photography Exhibition.
 Van Loon Museum , Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- 2023 Al Ayoun 
 Video Art
 Al Beyt Collective, Basel, Switzreland
- 2022 Maintain - Heaven For Artists. 
 Installation art.
 Beirut Art Centre, Lebanon
- 2021 Déflagration. 
 The Syrian LGBTQ+ Memory “artifact”
 La galerie de l’aa-e, Paris, France
- 2020 Arts From the Future, Information/Misinformation 040820, Participatory Digital Performance. 
 Virtual - USA
- 2020 States of Existence. 
 Video Art.
 Virtual - SEAS, Brighton, UK
- 2019 Festival Vision d’exil 
 Multimedia Performance/Installation
 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
- 2019 Brown University 
 Photography Exhibition
 Providence, USA
- 2018 Festival Vision d’exil 
 Installation art “BRUTALISTa”
 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
- 2018 Engagement Program 
 Audio/Visual Performance “PANIC BY PROXY”
 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA
- 2017 Syrian Eyes of the World 
 Photography Exhibition
 UNIVERSITÉ BORDEAUX MONTAIGNE, Bordeaux, France
- 2017 FESTIVAL DOULAB 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition
 Montréal, Canada.
- 2017 Bibliothèque de Verdun 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition
 Montréal, Canada
- 2016 DIASPORAM’ART 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition
 Paris, France
- 2016 "For the Love of the Arts" 
 Sculpture “ISRA”
 Station Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
- 2015 Arab Festival of Washington 
 Photography Exhibition
 Seattle, USA.
- 2015 5UN7 Gallery, 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition
 Bordeaux, France
- 2014 Festival du monde arabe 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition Montréal, Canada.
- 2014 Syrian Youth For Peace fundraiser 
 Syrian Eyes of the World, Photography Exhibition
 New York, USA
- 2013 Novelty Exhibition 
 Photography
 Jossor Art Gallery, Damascus, Syria
- 2012 Mosaic Achrafieh 
 International Photography Contest Finalists
 British Council, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2012 A Tale Every Day 
 Photography Exhibition
 Khan As’ad Pasha
 Damascus, Syria
- 2011 A,B,C Damascene Story 
 Photography Exhibition
 Gallery Mustafa Ali, Damascus, Syria
