Zupperman

Hussam Halawa

2018 – Ongoing — Lebanon

About this series

Zupperman is a satirical take on the struggles of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and beyond. It refuses self-pity and navigates daily hardships with resilience and irony.
Despite his superpowers, he ends up on the wrong shore while escaping to Europe, exploited by smugglers; or trapped in precarious jobs due to a lack of paperwork; or even falsely accused of terrorism.
Determined to adapt, Zupperman learns English, striving for a TOEFL or IELTS certificate. Yet for refugees, especially Syrians, securing a visa often feels like a mission requiring supernatural abilities. Sometimes, he thinks visiting space might be easier.
In light of Syria’s new political landscape, the series also revisits school memories in Syria—mandatory army uniforms, morning assemblies, and the search for healing through yoga and meditation.

Photographer: Hussam Halawa
Nationality: Syrian
Based in: Madrid, ES -Beirut, LB 
Website: www.behance.net/hussamhalawa
Instagram: @hussamhalawa

Hussam Halawa is a Syrian visual artist based between Beirut and Madrid. Working primarily with photography—through art direction, fashion aesthetics, and performative strategies—his practice examines displacement, identity, and visibility.
His long-term project Zupperman, initiated in Lebanon in 2018, reflects on lived experiences of mobility and precarity through staged imagery and DIY visual language. The series is currently evolving into the photobook THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM TO THE MOON: A Step-by-Step Manual, and has expanded into the short portrait film I Am Always Thinking About Space, co-directed with Fares Hamde, which premiered on Nowness.
Halawa has exhibited internationally and participated in artistic residencies across Europe and the Mediterranean.