Mutte Ahmed Qasem Dammaj is the newly appointed culture minister in Yemen’s internationally recognised government in the south of the country. Yemen faces rampant looting, unguarded heritage sites, and a society weary after more than a decade of war. But in an interview with The Art Newspaper, Dammaj remains positive—in part, because positivity is an asset in itself. “When I’m reading news about Yemen, it shows the bad situation, but not the reality—not our heritage, not our culture,” he says.