UN T I T LE D
M O AT A Z N A S R 23 SEPTEMBER - 14 OCTOBER 2014
UN T I T LE D
M O AT A Z N A S R Out beyond ideas Of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field. I’ll meet you there. Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century Text by Fatenn Mostafa
UN T I T LE D
M O AT A Z N A S R
23 SEPTEMBER - 14 OCTOBER 2014
exhibition by
in collaborarion with
This quote from 13th century Persian jurist, theologian, Sufi and mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi perhaps sums up best the thread tying the entire artistic repertoire of Alexandria-born, Cairo-based multi-media artist Moataz Nasr. Bringing forth engaging universal works, Nasr borrows and is deeply inspired by his native country, Egypt and by Sufism. Sufism, defined by scholars as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, has always fascinated Nasr. This enduring attachment to Sufism is reflected in Nasr’s approach to and production of art. The spiritual and the worldly come into play at times forcefully, at others subtly, in his works, to help us search for the Alchemy of Happiness – alluding to one of the treatises of influential Persian Islamic thinker, Imam Al Ghazali. “I am an optimist at heart and I seek the positive in my surrounding – be they people or the environment I live in. Hope is always reflected in my work, no matter how grim the situation may be.” While Nasr claims to provide hope through his work, he doesn›t believe in giving answers or providing solutions to achieve that happiness or peace of mind we all search for, because he is adamant that it is not the artist’s role. Instead he compares himself to a gadfly – a fly that bites animals to keep them awake or a person who annoys the status quo. The gadfly analogy was first used by Socrates, a classical Greek philosopher, to describe himself and by Plato, Socrates’ ‘best disciple’ to defend Socrates as “the gadfly of Athens; all day long and in all places, always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.” Gadflies
keep people awake, persistently stimulating and upsetting their thoughts to know more about themselves, to pursue goodness and to question things. A self-taught artist, Nasr started in Egypt with a conventional media - painting - back in the early 1990s. After winning numerous local awards, his work soared dramatically in volume and international recognition and broadened to include video, performance art and installations. For over a decade, Nasr exhibited his versatile multi-media works across the four corners of the globe. The irony however is that this international recognition did not resonate in his native country, as Nasr remained absent from the local art scene for over a decade. Untitled, his upcoming exhibition at ArtTalks Gallery in Cairo, represents a milestone in the artist’s career – an impassionate desire to return as an artist to his native land, Egypt and a return to his artistic roots: abstract painting. Twenty-five new paintings will be exhibited in the upcoming solo show, deriving from years of subconscious accumulation of turmoil, revolutions, peace, wars, travels, international successes, homesickness and pent-up emotions. Moataz Nasr compares abstract art with jazz improvisation. It starts randomly and spontaneously until you find harmony in the painting. Nasr intuitively starts with a line, a spot, a circle, a color, randomly spreading these across the wooden board. La pièce de résistance is when he seeks harmony amongst all these random elements. His starting point, be it a line or a dot, comes from a visual memory of a microscopic detail he saw in his surroundings. He compares all he sees to different walls. For example, a red dot in the middle of a myriad of grey buildings in a street catches his loop and turns out to be a red nightgown hanging to dry in a Cairo balcony. Cairo is full of such walls, rich with history, energy, and layers of colors. Many other cities give him that same inspiration given their unparalleled richness such as Aleppo, Damascus, Istanbul, Napoli, and Marseilles. Yet Cairo remains his main muse with its people, culture, flow of knowledge and chaos. It is the ultimate multi-layered city reflected in and imposing itself on his abstract paintings. And despite a hiatus of over a decade, his return to abstract painting interestingly continues to utilize that same earth colors palette that he kicked off his career with, reminiscent of the colors of Cairo, despite all that the victorious city has gone through. Moataz Nasr was born in 1961 in Alexandria (Egypt). He lives and works in Cairo. After studying economics, he decided to change direction and take a studio in Old Cairo. This self-taught artist 4
gained local recognition marked by many prizes before breaking into the international art scene in 2001, notably winning the Grand Prix at the 8th International Cairo Biennial and in 2002 winning the Biennale Prize of Dakar Biennale, Senegal. The artist has participated in many important international art events, including the Venice Biennale (2003), the Seoul Biennale (2004), the Sao Paulo Biennale (2004), the Yokohama Triennale (2005), the Canarie Biennale (2008), the Lubumbashi Biennale (2010), the Thessaloniki Biennale (2011), Çanakkale Bienali (2012), La Otra Bienal de Arte di Bogota (2013) and group events such as Arte all’Arte (San Gimignano, 2004), Africa Remix (Dusseldorf, 2004; London, 2005; Paris, 2005; Tokyo, 2006; Johannesburg, 2007), Ghosts of Self and State (Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2006), a solo exhibition at The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan, 2006, and last but not least at Château de Blandy-les-Tours in 2011. The most recent solo show are: The Tunnel, Galleria Continua/ Beijing, China; Collision, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE; Hidden Landscape, Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway; 2012, Tectonic Shift, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, France, 2013. The most recent group shows to which he has contributed include: MidEast Cut, Exhibition Center, Algiers, Algeria, 2008; Made in Afrika, National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya, 2008; Taswir, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2008; 21st Century: Art in the first Decade, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, 2010; Time After Time: Actions and Interactions, San Francisco, USA, 2012; La belle et la beste, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, France, 2012; Arab Express, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2012; Turbulences II, Boghossian Foundation / Villa Empain and Espace culturel Louis Vuitton (Paris), Terms and Conditions, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Every Day Matters, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Pen to Paper, Al Madad Foundation with Athr Gallery Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Soudi Arabia; The See Is My Land, MAXXI, Roma.
M O AT A Z N A S R B I O Born in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1961. He lives and works in Cairo.
Solo Shows 2013 The Journey of a Griffin, Villa Pacchiani Centro Espositivo, Santa Croce sull’Arno Harmonia, Centro Espositivo per le Arti Contemporanee SMS, San Michele degli Scalzi, Pisa Tectonic Shift, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Le Moulin, France 2012 Collision, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE Moataz Nasr / Hidden Landscape, Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway The Tunnel, Galleria Continua / Beijing, China 2011 In a Nutshell, Selma Feriani Gallery, London, UK Moataz Nasr -The Maze ( The People Want the Fall of the Regime), MAP, Mobile Art Production, Gothenburg, Sweden Réactions en chaîne, Château de Blandy-les-Tours, Blandy, France The Other Side of the Mirror, Galleria Continua / San Gimignano, Italy 2008 A Memory Fills with Holes, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano Cairo walk, Sultan Gallery, Sabhan, Kuwait 2006 The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan Entrapment, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy 2005 The Echo, Touchstones Art Gallery, Rochdale, UK
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2004 Falaki Gallery, The American University in Cairo, Egypt Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
2003 Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt Franco Riccardo Gallery, Napoli, Italy 2002 Franco Riccardo Gallery, Napoli, Italy «Espace-La Bodega» Gallery, Cairo, Egypt 2001 Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt 2000 Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt Egyptian Cultural Center in Paris, France 1999 Al Ahram House Gallery, London, UK Akhnaton Gallery, Centre of Fine Art, Cairo, Egypt
Group Shows 2014 The sea is my land - artisti dal Mediterraneo, Triennale, Milan, Italy Heaven, Hell, Purgatory – The Divine Comedy from the Perspective of Contemporary African Artists, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Arab Contemporary - Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark 2013 The See Is My Land, MAXXI, Rome, Italy Terms and Conditions, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore THE WAVE Culture Festival, Sdr. Nissum, Humlum, Nørre Snede and Vorgod-Barde, Denmark Tappeti estremi, da Timbuctù all’Arte Contemporanea, Fondazione 107, Turin, Italy Video(works), Athr Gallery, Jeddah, UAE In peace and with compation. 5th Caravan Festival of the Arts, Cairo, Egypt; London, UK Métamorphose, FITE - Festival International des Textiles 6
Extraordinaires, Hue, Vietnam 100 3, Art Hotel Gran Paradiso, Sorrento, Italy Every Day Matters, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen Turbulences II, Boghossian Foundation / Villa Empain with the collaboration of Espace culturel Louis Vuitton (Paris), Bruxelles, Belgium Pen to Paper, Al Madad Foundation in collaboration with Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Cadavre exquis, suite méditerranéenne, Marseille Provence 2013 Capitale européenne de la culture en Pays d’Aix, Musée Granet Place Saint Jean de Malte 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France 2012 Long Live Free Art!, ArtTalks Egypt, Cairo, Egypt Mirages d’orient, Collection Lambert, Avignon, France Encounter: The Royal Academy in the Middle East, Gallery 1&2, Doha, Qatar In Spite of it All, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE La belle et la bêste, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, France System and Patterns, MGLC - Mednarodni graficni likovni center / International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia Fictions and dissentions, III Uluslararası Çanakkale Bienali / International Çanakkale Biennial, Çanakkale, Turkey Par Nature, Centquatre, Paris, France Métamorphose, FITE - Festival International des Textiles Extra ordinaires, Musée Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand, France Where is the Time?, Foundation IZOLYATSIA - Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Donetsk, Ucraina Mediterraneo: incontri o conflitti?/The Mediterranean Region: Bonding or Fighting?, Palazzo Gargasole, Gagliano del Capo (Lecce), Italy Radici, Memoria, Identità e Cambiamento nell’arte di oggi, Palazzo De Sanctis, Castelbasso, Italy Neon. La materia luminosa della luce, Macro, Rome, Italy Arab Express, The Latest Art from the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Revolutionary Bodies, L’animal a l’esquena, Celrà/Girona, Spain DAK’ART 2012, 10e Biennale de l’art africain contemporain, Dakar, Senagal Intrecci, Museo delle Trame Mediterranee, Gibellina (TR), Sicily, Italy Moataz Nasr-Loris Cecchini, Studio Carlotta Pesce, Bologna, Italy
Aboard the Heart of Gold, VII Bologna Art First, Palazzo d’Accursio (Piazza Maggiore), Bologna, Italy Histories of Now: Six artists from Cairo, Museum School and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Italy African Marketplace, International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands Light/Sound/VideoNight, Finstral, Unterinn am Ritten, (BZ), Italy
2011 Recistance, DARB1718, Cairo, Egypt Dancing on the Edge, Amsterdam, Netherlands The Maze (The People Want the Fall of the Regime), Hors Les Murs, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France Machine-RAUM, Vejle Art Museum, Spinderhallerne and Bryggen/Urban space, Denmark A Rock and a Hard Place, Old Intersections-Make it New, III Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA), Thessaloniki, Greece The Mystical Self, Video Art Project, Veneto Regional Archive for Video Art, Verona; Visual Container e [.BOX] Videoart project space, Milano, Italy Revolutionary Bodies, Isola dell›Asinara (Sassari) and Berchidda, Italy Resistance, Amsterdam, Holland
2009 Taswir, Islamische Bildwelten und moderne, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art - Thessaloniki International Fair, Thessaloniki Made in Afrika, National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya Amnesia, Nairobi Arts Trust / Contemporary Art of East Africa (CCAEA), Nairobi, Kenya [un]defined09 - Merano Arts Festival, Caserma F. Rossi, Merano (Bz), Italy Reflections of Africa, MAMA - National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; The African contemporary art, Exhibition center, Alger, Algery Tawassol – Contact, Artericambi, Verona, Italy Festival International d’Art Video de Casablanca, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Ben M’Sik, Casablanca, Morocco Mediterranean, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, Italy Traversées, Bab Rouah and Bab Elkbir, Rabat, Morocco Coexistencias / Coexistences, II Bienal de Canarias, Centro de Arte La Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria MidEast Cut, The Danish Film Institute & Backyard Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Shoes, Ebdaa Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
2010 Fames:Family Vaudeville, DARB1718, Cairo, Egypt Sphères 3, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, Boissy-le-Chatel, France 21st Century: Art in the first Decade, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia Time After Time: Actions and Interactions, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, USA Hiwar, DARB1718, Cairo, Egypt Rencontres PICHA, Biennale de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi Time after Time, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, USA Common Sense. We are less Greek than we think, St. Michael, Eppan-Appiano, Italy Miraggi, Castelli in terra di Brindisi e Taranto, Brindisi, Italy MOATAZ NASR-DARB1718, GEO-graphics. A map of ART practices in AFRICA, past and present, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium Idoles, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, France Un peu, beaucoup, passionnement…, Galerie Alice Mogabgab, Beirut, Lebanon BARAKAT/The gift, Stuxx Gallery Chealsea, New York City, USA Hiwar / Discussion, La Marsa Nessim, Tunisia Il piacere del collezionista, Finstral, Unterinn am Ritten, Bolzano,
2008 Al Madina, Ebdaa Art Gallery, Cairo Traversées, Darb 1718, Cairo (Egypt) Les Recontres Internationales de la Poto, Centre Cervantes, Fes, Moroco Traversées (Crossings), Grand Palais, Paris (France) 11 atists from Africa Remix – fringe touring exhibition, Mbabane (Swaziland); The Cultural center of Maputo, Maputo (Mozambique); Alliance Francaise, Pretoria (South Africa); Alliance Francaise, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg (South Africa); The cultural center of Windhoek, Windhoek (South Africa). 2007 Dans la ville et au-delà, Recontres Africaines de la Photographie 7
de Bamako 2007, Paris, France 11 artists from Africa Remix – fringe touring exhibition, Maseru (Lesotho); Durban (South Africa); Cape Town (South Africa). Machine-RAUM – a biennale for video art and digital culture, Vejle Art Museum and part of the Spinning factory, Vejle, Denmark The Sneeze, Durban Art gallery, Durban, South Africa L’invention de la mémoire, Espace Jeumon, Saint-Denis la Réunion 24th Memorial NADEŽDA PETROVIĆ, Čačak (Belgrade), Serbia AFRICA REMIX, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa A.B.O., curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Bologna Artefiera, Bologna, Italy 2006 Another World. Bamako 2005, La Centrale Electrique/European Center for Contemporary Art, Bruxelles, Belgium AFRICA REMIX, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Un autre monde – 6e édition de la photographie de Bamako, BnF, Paris, France L›image révélée : de l›orientalisme à l›art contemporain, Musee de la Ville de Tunis, Palais kheireddine, Tunis 3a Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006, Japan AFRICA REMIX, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Cross-Currents: Water as a Metaphor for (African) Identity?, Tufts University Art Gallery. Aidekman Arts Center, Talbot Avenue, Medford, USA Ghosts of Self and State, Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia CCA 94th Annual Conference, CCA – College Art Association, Boston, USA 2005 Forming with Light, Palace of Art, Opera House, Cairo, Egypt Bamako Biennale for African Photography, Mali, Yokohama Triennale, Japan AFRICA REMIX, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France “Mediterranean Encounters”, Sicily, Italy 4x4, Artists Space, Broadway, New York, USA Imagining the Book, Alexandria Library, Egypt Sharjah Biennale, U.A.E., awarded the Grand Prize Loose Your Identity, Kunstverein Kreis, Ludwigsburg, Germany Museum of Contemporary Art, Bahea, Salvador, Brazil French Cultural Center, Damascus, Syria 8
AFRICA REMIX, Hayward Gallery, London, UK 2004 Museo del Cristallo, Colle, Italy La Forma delle Nuvole, ‘Arte all Arte 10’, curated by Achille Bonto Oliva and James Putnam, Montalcino, San Gimignano, Poggibonsi, Colle di Val D’Elsa, Siena, Buonconvento, Italy Sneeze 80x80, Athens, Greece Castello di Trani, Bari, Italy Le Opera e I giorni, Triennale, Certosa di Padula, Italy 25th Sao Paolo Biennale, Brazil Milly Pozzi Arte Contemporanea, Como, Italy Bosane Biennale, South Korea AFRIKA REMIX, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal. Awarded the Ministry of Culture Prize 2003 ‘Miart’, Milano Art Fair, Milan, Italy Bologna Art Fair, Bologna, Italy Espacio Arte Contemporaneo Camargo, Spain Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Disorientation, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany 2002 Unplugged, Arts Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria Video Marathon, Chisinau, Moldova Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea Premio Suzzara, Italy Dakar Biennale, Senegal. Awarded The Biennale Prize 2002 You Can Touch, Espace Karim Francis, Cairo, Egypt 2001 Intresecus-Extrincus, Studio Casoli, Milan, Italy Ambiente: Le Area Non Protette, Palazzo Pretorio Sala del Consiglio Communale, Sandrio, Italy Cairo Modern Art Exhibition in Denhag, Holland 8th International Cairo Biennale. Opera Arts Palace, Egypt. Awarded the Grand Prize Participated with Martin McInally in Al Nitaq Festival, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt
Prepared and participated in the art exhibition For Jerusalem in Hanager Opera House, Cairo, Egypt La Bodega, Cairo, Egypt Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt Nitaq Festival of Art, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt 1999 27th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt Small Artworks at the Center of Art Cairo, Egypt 1998 26th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Akhnaton Center of Art, Cairo, Egypt The First Show for Artists over 35 years and honored, Museum of Fine Arts (Hussein Sobhy), Alexandria, Egypt 4th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics, Center of Art, Cairo, Egypt The Days of Kom Ghorab, Cairo, Hanager Gallery, Egypt
Workshops
Others 2013 A Talk with Moataz Nasr, The Archive, Dubai, UAE 2009 Global Art Forum, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar 2008 Founded Darb 1718 - Contemporary Art and Culture Center, Fustat area, Cairo, Egypt ARTIST TALKS CCCS, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Firenze, Italy 2000 Member of the Jury Board at the 15th Art Festival Sondrio, Italy Commissary of the Egyptian Contemporary Art exhibition in Nikosia, Cyprus 1996/98 Participated in Kom Ghorab Project in Old Cairo, Egypt
2012 Meddance: incontri in movimento, Masseria Torcito, Cannole, Italy HS_Projects, France 2002 Close Up Workshop, 3 Egyptian artists with 3 Swedish artists, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo Workshop The Open Studio in Townhouse Gallery Cairo (10 Egyptian and 10 foreign artists) 2000 Participated in the Fashion Design workshop at the University of Applied Arts, ending in a number of exhibition in the Gezira Arts Center, Townhouse, Zeinab Khatoun and the Goethe Institute in Cairo, Egypt
2000 The Palm Tree, Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, Egypt … with Egyptian and Italian artists, Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt 9
UN T I T LE D 10
100 x 100 cm Mixed media on wood
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80 x 60 cm Mixed media on wood 11
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60 x 43 cm Mixed media on wood
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122 x 150 cm Mixed media on wood 13
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70 x 50 cm Mixed media on wood
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45 x 45 cm Collage, mixed media on card board 15
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22 x 30 cm Pastel, work on paper
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22 x 30 cm Pastel, work on paper 17
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22 x 30 cm Pastel, work on paper
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22 x 30 cm Pastel, work on paper 19
Egyptian Museum of Modern Art Collection 20
80 x 122 cm Mixed media
Al Ahram Institution Modern Art Collection
87 x 67 cm Acrylic on hard board 21
8 El Kamel Mohamed Street Zamalek - Cairo, Egypt
UN T I T LE D
Catalogue Published on the occasion of the show Moataz Nasr UNTITLED September 23 - October 14 2014 ArtTalks | Egypt
Graphic Concept & Realization Omar Mobarek
Texts Fatenn Mostafa
M O AT A Z N A S R 23 SEPTEMBER - 14 OCTOBER
+20227363948 +201005550585 info@arttalks.com arttalks.com
Coordinators Cherine Chafik Lisa Lounis Aynour Zeitoon
Photographs Blink Photography
Printing Concorde Press