Hazem Harb: Untitled #2, from the series Archaeology of Occupation

ISSUE 08/2019

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Contents

Issue 08 / 2019

INDUSTRY

PROFILE

The Shortest Distance Between Us: GPP

Sima Zureikat................................. 76

Editor’s note

Photo Week, Dubai. Inhabited Deserts:

By: T. Khalifa

As far as art lovers are concerned, this issue of Tribe arrives at one of the most

Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai. Age Old

Toufic Beyhum.............................. 80

important times of year in the UAE for the arts. Art season has begun: Sharjah

Cities: The Arab World Institute, Paris.

By: Maha Alsharif

Biennial 14 is inaugurated accompanied by March Meeting (MM19), Art Dubai

Out of Place: Athr Gallery, Jeddah.

Sara Naim...................................... 86

commences, SIKKA artfair is underway, DIFC’s Gate Village and Art Week at

Jameel Library: Jameel Arts Centre,

By: Sabrina DeTurk

Alserkal Avenue reopen with exciting and anticipated exhibitions. The art scene

Dubai. In Between / In Transit: Various

Nadim Asfar................................... 92

bustles once again with the energy and buzz we all remember from previous years.

Galleries, USA. On Photography in

By: Katherine Lawson

Lebanon: Kaph Books , Beirut. Punk

Walid Layadi-Marfouk................... 98

Orientalism: The MacKenzie Art Gallery,

By: Emma Warburton, adapted from

Regina. Playing Innocent: MMAG Fndn.,

text by the artist

For us at Tribe, this means many of our friends are back in town. It is a perfect time to catch up and see what is new on the creative frontier.

This issue of Tribe features work that skews the scales in favour of the conceptual,

Amman. .....................................12 - 15

whether to investigate the relationship of photography to other materials and

NEW MEDIA REVIEW

Mo’awia Bajis................................ 104

movements, to journey through personal narratives, or to contemplate and critique

Beirut Art Fair............................ 16

By: Joud Halawani Al-Tamim

the past and the future. The artists featured in this current issue leverage photography

By: Lizzy Vartanian Collier

Jamelie Hassan............................. 106

as a tool to both technically and conceptually engage with other ideas and art forms.

Jananne Al-Ani......................... 18

By: Corinna Ghaznavi

This issue celebrates the versatility of photography, and its ability to communicate

By: Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow Photos À La Chair...................... 24

SERIES

By: E. Nina Rothe

Ahmad El Abi................................ 108

eL Seed...................................... 30

Ayham Jabr.................................... 112

By: Anna Seaman

Ismail Zaidy.................................... 118

in conceptual, technical and even abstract visual language.

Enjoy.

Hamida Zourgui............................. 124 FEATURE

Shogh Ian....................................... 130

Ayman Baalbaki......................... 34

Alaini, Kaleem Books, Lia Gotsis Paschal, Lulu Al-Sabah, Maysoune Ghobash,

PROJECT SPACE

By: Lizzy Vartanian Collier

Tribe has been supported by: Al Serkal Avenue, Debbie Kanafani, Haitham Philip Lanier, Rami & Ramzi Tabiat, Rana Sadik and Samer Younis, Sirin Masri,

Low-Rez......................................... 134 PORTFOLIO

Sophie Bray, Tashkeel and The Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.

Akam Shex Hadi........................ 40

Cover Image 1: Untitled #2, from the series Archaeology of

By: Lulu Al-Sabah

Occupation (Detail) (2015) Archival pigment print, mounted

Jellel Gasteli.............................. 52

on 3mm aluminium composite, 172 x 120 cm.

By: Emma Warburton Hazem Harb.............................. 64 By: Sandra S. Williams

Cover Image 2: The Place is Mine #1 (Detail) (2018) Photography Collage and Plexiglas on fine art paper on canvas, 150 x 120 cm

In Partnership with:

f tribephotomag d tribephotomag - www.tribephotonewmedia.com Contact: editorial@ink.com, sales@ink.com Media Partnerships:

Publisher Mubarik Jafery

Editorial Assistant Emma Warburton

Business Development Nanda Collins

Design Channels

Print Consultant Sivadas Menon

Pre Press Rana Veera Kumar

Photo Editor Sueraya Shaheen

Assistant Editor Woodman Taylor

Distribution Maria Añonuevo

Artfair Coordinator Daveeda Shaheen

Production Manager Gopinath.V.C

Associate Editor New Media Janet Bellotto

Copy Editor Sabrina DeTurk

Legal Consultant Fatimah Waseem

Design Assistant Zia Paulachak Jafery Laradona Shaheen

Printing Supervisor Sreejesh Krishnan

Printer Jonson M Vargees Biju Varghese Raja Mani

This catalog is created as a showcase of creative works within the region. Its aim is to create awareness of the arts. Please note that the information in this magazine, including all articles, and photographs, do not make any claims. Any information offered is expressly the opinion of the creator/author of that material. The content created by the authors, creators and works on these pages are subject to copyright law. The reproduction, editing, distribution and any kind of exploitation outside the limits of copyright require the written consent of the respective author or creator. 7.05.16.9.3.4.5683.968

PHotoESPAÑA 2019 XXII Festival internacional de fotografía y artes visuales 5 junio – 1 septiembre

© Sharon Core

www.phe.es

Writers Corinna Ghaznavi is an independent curator and

Art History. A researcher, curator and art educator, she is

critical content on contemporary visual culture.

freelance writer. Since 1997 she has curated exhibitions

the Curatorial Assistant for the Toronto Biennial and the

Prior, she worked with art galleries, institutions,

across Canada and in the Netherlands. She has been

Art Editor for the Hart House Review. She has lectured

and artists in the UAE, Palestine and UK.

published in Canadian and European art magazines

and participated in programming both nationally

She obtained her BA in Art, Design, and Media from

as well as numerous exhibition catalogues. In 2011 she

and internationally. She has curated exhibitions at Y+

Richmond University in London. Interested in art

completed her PhD, which focused on the question

Contemporary, Scarborough; RYMD, Reykjavik; the

management, she went on to complete a MA in Art

of the animal in contemporary art. Ghaznavi lives and

Art Museum, Toronto; and the Art Gallery of Ontario,

Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, where she focused

works in Grey County, Ontario. f ghaznavic

www.katieblawson.com

her research on cultural policy in the Arab World. instagram: f mahasharif

Emma Warburton is an independent arts writer and

Joud Halawani Al-Tamimi is a graduate of Politics and

emerging curator currently based in Toronto, Ontario.

Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School

Nick Leech, an experienced journalist, feature writer

She holds a BA in Painting and Drawing and an MA in

of Oriental and African Studies. She currently works

and syndicated columnist, was a feature writer and arts

Curating Contemporary Art. She recently completed

at Darat al Funun as an Assistant Curator and is also

correspondent with The National, Abu Dhabi’s daily

a Curatorial Internship at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

the co-founder of Abajur, a collaborative space for

English language newspaper, for almost decade. Now

Today, she works as the Editorial Assistant for Tribe

artistic exchange and experimentation. Her most recent

based in the UK, Nick writes on subjects ranging from

magazine. Emma regularly writes for a number of print

projects have built on her deep-seated interest in the

art and photography to architecture and urbanism for

and online based art publications, and maintains an

subject of “the right to the city.”f joudaltamimi93

international publications such as The Independent (London), Domus (Milan), The National (Abu Dhabi)

informal but active art practise based in painting, drawing and ephemeral sculpture. f hellohellomissy

Lizzy Vartanian Collier is a London-based writer with

and Folio (Dubai). f leechspeaking

a strong interest in contemporary Middle Eastern E. Nina Rothe is a journalist and blogger who was

Art. She has a BA in Art History and an MA in

Sabrina DeTurk is an art historian, curator, writer and

born in Florence, Italy and grew up in New York City.

Contemporary Art and Art Theory of Asia and Africa

associate professor in the College of Arts and Creative

Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post,

from the School of Oriental and African Studies. She

Enterprises at Zayed University in Dubai. Her book

The National, Vogue Italia, Empire Arabia, Thrive

runs the Gallery Girl blog and has written for After

Street Art in the Middle East: Place, Politics and Visual

Global, Bespoke, Tehelka, CNN International and

Nyne, Arteviste, Canvas Magazine, the Guardian,

Style will be published by I.B. Tauris in 2019.

many other publications. Nina’s passions are cinema

Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Ibraaz, Jdeed Magazine,

with a conscience, art that explores heritage and

Suitcase Magazine and ReOrient. Lizzy is also curator

Sandra S. Williams is an assistant curator at LACMA,

conscious fashion because they each possess the

of Perpetual Movement at Arab Women Artists Now

where she has worked on exhibitions of Islamic and

ability to change the world. ENinaRothe.com

- AWAN 2018 (London) f gallerygirlldn

contemporary art from the Middle East. She wrote

Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow is Curatorial Manager,

Lulu M Al-Sabah is the founder and Director of

photography in Iran and has a forthcoming article

International Art at the Queensland Art Gallery

JAMM, an art firm specializing in contemporary

on the same topic that will be published in the Getty

| Gallery of Modern Art, QAGOMA in Brisbane,

Arab and Iranian art. In 2012, she established a

Research Journal.

Australia. Geraldine is interested in the energy arising

permanent exhibition space in Dubai. Al-Sabah is the

from the intersections between people and cultures,

former Director of the Middle East at Phillips de Pury

T. Khalifa is a writer, researcher and independent

drawing on her mixed Anglo-Celtic-Maori descent, as

& Company. In 2008 she curated an exhibition on

curator based in the Kingdom of Bahrain. She works

well as her work over the past two decades with artists

modern artists from the Middle East at the Saatchi

closely with artists and creative practitioners to produce

from Australia and around the globe. As a curator,

gallery in London. She contributes to magazines such

thought-provoking art exhibitions and educational

she has explored questions around the agency of the

as Canvas, Eastern Art Report and Tribe. Al-Sabah

programmes in collaboration with UK Colleges. She

individual, memory, space, trauma, justice, beauty

has an MA in social and cultural history from Birkbeck

is both an Independent Curators International (ICI) and

and the creative process.

College, University of London.

Kings’ College alumni, and has showcased exhibitions

Katherine Lawson is a graduate of the Master of Visual

Maha Alsharif is a writer and emerging critic.

institutions in Bahrain including The Bahrain Museum,

Studies Curatorial program at the University of Toronto,

She recently founded theartcricket.com, an

Shaikh Ebrahim Center for Culture and Research, and

where she previously completed her Master of Arts in

independent blog, focused on providing written

Al Riwaq Art Space.

her master’s thesis for the Institute of Fine Arts on

at the Shubbak Festival, Sikka Art Fair and a multitude of

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2019 ‫تتشرف كلية الفنون والصناعات اإلبداعية بدعوتكم لحضور معرض الخريجات لعام‬

College of Arts and Creative Enterprises cordially invites you to attend the Senior Exhibition 2019

‫الفنون المرئية‬ Visual Art

‫التّ صميم الداخلي‬ Interior Design

‫المتحركة التّ صميم الجرافيكي‬ ‫الرسوم‬ ّ ّ Graphic Design Animation Design

‫أبوظبي‬

Abu Dhabi

2019 ،‫ مايو‬4 - ‫ أبريل‬28 28 April - 4 May, 2019 S ‫ جاليري‬،‫السعديات‬ ّ ‫منارة‬ Manarat Al Saadiyat, Gallery S ‫حفل االفتتاح‬ Opening Reception ‫ | اإلثنين‬2019 ،‫ أبريل‬29 Monday | 29 April, 2019 ‫مساء‬ 7:00 PM ً

‫دبي‬

Dubai 2019 ،‫ مايو‬2 - ‫ أبريل‬28 28 April - 2 May, 2019 6 ‫ المبنى‬،‫حي دبي للتّ صميم‬ ُّ Dubai Design District, Building 6 ‫حفل االفتتاح‬ Opening Reception ‫ | األحد‬2019 ،‫ أبريل‬28 Sunday | 28 April, 2019 ‫مساء‬ 7:00 PM ً

INDUSTRY

The Shortest Distance Between Us Stories from the Arab Documentary Photography Program

The Shortest Distance Between Us: GPP Photo Week, Dubai

Infertile Crescent by Nadia Bseiso, which follows a controversial pipeline that transports water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, exploring the effects of war and ecological turmoil in the once-fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.

styles of visual storytelling, the exhibition included documentary

The Shortest Distance Between Us | Stories from the Arab Documentary

photography projects that allow the viewer to experience issues affecting

Photography Program is the headline exhibition for GPP Photo Week

the region without the tropes that so often dilute stories into statistics and

2019, presented with The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC),

visual repetition. The exhibition showcased experimental photography

Alserkal Avenue, in association with the Prince Claus Fund and Magnum

styles from photographers including Elsie El Haddad, whose work follows

Foundation.

men and women through their re-entry into society after time in prison in

The exhibition was curated by Jessica Murray of Al-liquindoi and

Lebanon, and Nadia Bseiso, whose work follows a controversial pipeline that

showcased in Concrete, Alserkal Avenue’s iconic space. The exhibition

transports water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, exploring the effects

featured curated works from projects made by seven photographers

of war and ecological turmoil in the once-fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.

who were awarded grants and commissions by the Arab Documentary

Other works included in the exhibition were Intersections by Hicham Gardaf,

Photography Program (ADPP). The program has been an instrumental

Live, Love Refugee by Omar Imam, West of Life by Zied Ben Romdhane,

force in shaping and nurturing self-reflective documentary photography

Moon Dust by Mohamed Mahdy, and Homemade by Heba Khalifa. The

from the Arab world since 2014. Working across a range of experimental

exhibition ran from 4-9 February, 2019.

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INDUSTRY

Age Old Cities: Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris Currently showing at The Arab World Institute is a major exhibition that combines giant screen projections, virtual reality experiences, archival documents and images, as well as videos and testimonials from local populations to give life to great sites in the Arab world that are threatened or have been destroyed: Mosul, Aleppo, Palmyra, and Leptis Magna. It invites visitors on a journey through space and time: into the glorious history of these places, and sadly into a recent past marked by destruction. The aim of the exhibition is to immerse the public in the splendors of these major centers of world heritage, but also to raise awareness about the stakes involved in preserving and protecting these precious and fragile gems.

Dasht-e Lut, from the series Inhabited Deserts. Courtesy John R Pepper

Inhabited Deserts: Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai

Photoshop, just a vintage camera and film, and his eyes. Sebastian Ebbinghaus of the Empty Quarter gallery says the exhibition “is art photography, telling another story of the

A collaboration between renowned Italian

desert” and leaving much to the imagination of

photographer John R Pepper and UAE-based

the naked eye, not even curating the exhibition

explorer Max Calderan has captured some

with titles of the photos.

of the most dramatic landscapes across the

“John Pepper shows how the desert should or

world. When John R Pepper embarked on

could be seen, and what he learnt from Calderan.

his Inhabited Deserts collection, it was never

John’s pictures show the desert differently­­—it

going to be the usual desert landscapes. The

is rather abstract, still mentally taking you, the

Italian photographer began the project with

spectator, into this unknown world.

a determination to create a new perception

“It’s abstract, black and white, and no picture has

of some of the world’s most arid terrains; no

a title, on purpose. The spectator sees and feels.”

From the exhibition Age Old Cities: A virtual journey from Palmyra To Mosul (2019) Installation view. Courtesy of Institut du Monde Arabe

a selection of works that reflect a shift in the conception of artmaking or a new departure for an artist when in unfamiliar contexts and faced with new discourses. As keen observers and “storytellers” of abstract notions and life in its many forms, artists

Out of Place: Athr Gallery, Jeddah

From the exhibition Out of Place (2019) Installation view. Courtesy of Athr Gallery

are immersed in the environment that informs their creative endeavor and often this space is reflected in the final work.

Indeed, the space of production is here at the

Participating artists: Ahaad Alamoudi, Ahmed Mater, Aya

The premise of Out of Place sheds light on the

heart of the discourse, what is the purpose of an

Haidar, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Dana Awartani, Ibrahim

creative process and experiences that occur when

artist residency, what are the artists exposed to

Abumsmar, Moath Alofi, Mohamed Monaiseer, Muhannad

artists are immersed in new environments and the

and how do they benefit from these experiences.

Shono, Nasser Al Salem, Reem Al Nasser, Sara Abdu, Sarah

influence on their artistic process and production.

The exhibition is loosely curated around

Abu Abdullah, Ziad Antar.

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INDUSTRY

Jameel Library: Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai Jameel Library, the UAE’s first open-access contemporary arts library and resource centre, opened on 11 November 2018 alongside the inauguration of Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai. The library features a comprehensive, bilingual collection of more than 2,000 books, journals, catalogues and theses. The library collection is extraordinarily collaborative, as experts from over 30 organisations have submitted materials that tell the story of the development of the local and regional arts scene and inform the public about regional artists’ practices. Knowledgegenerating library programmes include talks, research projects, symposia and reading groups, and Art Jameel Commissions will award a writer’s residency focused on research and publishing.

View of the Jameel Library in the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2019) Courtesy Art Jameel. Photography: Mohamed Somji

In Between / In Transit: Various Galleries, USA Focusing on the tentative, limbo-like experience of living between different cultures, In Between / In Transit brings together the work of five artists to explore narratives of immigrants who traverse the no-man’s land existing between home and hope.

Participating artists Oman Imam, Stefanie Zofia Schulz, George Awde, Gohar Dashti, and Tanya Habjouqa each strive to disrupt widely accepted misconceptions about immigration and otherness in order to tell a more accurate story. The photographs and videos presented here from Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, and Iran are testaments to the day-to-day struggles faced by many immigrants who seek some sense of normalcy, stability, dignity and a place to call home. Each body of work examines the experiences of those thrust into a culture that is markedly different from their own.

Tanya Habjouqa, from the series Tomorrow there will be Apricots

These stories illustrate the physical and psychological challenges faced, while

In Between / In Transit is a travelling exhibition, shown at Blue Sky Gallery

looking at the deeper discussion of what constitutes citizenship in the wake of

November, 2018, San Francisco Camerawork January, 2019, and San Diego

enormous migrations into Europe.

State University Downtown Gallery April, 2019.

On Photography in Lebanon: Kaph Books , Beirut Last fall, Kaph Books celebrated the launch of On Photography In Lebanon at the Sursock Museum in Beirut.

The art book features the work of forty contributors who share their perspectives on photography in Lebanon, and its numerous evocative forms. Examining techniques, practices, uses, objects, images, histories, and artistic approaches, the publication presents 380 photographs produced between the end of the 19th century and the present day.

14 tribe

INDUSTRY

Punk Orientalism: The MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina The MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Canada recently hosted Punk Orientalism, an exhibition exploring nonconformist contemporary art and artists of Central Asia, Caucasus, Iran and the Middle East.

“Punk Orientalism presents the work of artists who address issues of Soviet imperialism, and ‘friendship,’ revealing new pathways into history and geopolitics that are timely and relevant to understanding our current social and political climate,” said Sara Raza, the exhibition’s curator. “Bringing together an array of critical voices that slice through oversimplified narratives of history and place, these artists also speak to the wider influence of the former Soviet Union, beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus to include Iran and parts of the Arab world, to shape a different understanding of how one East perceives another East.” November 2018 to February 2019 From the exhibition Punk Orientalism (2019) Installation views. Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan. Courtesy Mackenzie Art Gallery.

Playing Innocent: MMAG Fndn., Amman Playing Innocent is a group exhibition recently hosted at the MMAG Foundation in

Arabian Street Artists. Homeland is Not a Series (2019) from the exhibition Playing Innocent at MMAG Foundation, Jordan Courtesy the MMAG Foundation

Amman, Jordan, that seeks to examine artistic practices from different geopolitical

of noise, they respond to another tradition of subversion and follow a different

contexts that focus on intervention as method. Playing Innocent deals with the

rhythm, a more subtle long-term cadence. Participating artists include Cristina

notion of innocence in all of its connotations, but namely understands it to be a

Lucas, Daniel Aguilar Ruvalcaba, Jill Magid, Levi Orta, Lawrence Abu Hamdan,

label for non-transgression. With the exception of a few more recent works included

Núria Güell, Omar Mismar, Pilvi Takala, Raed Ibrahim, Razan Mubaideen, Tanja

afterward, most of the artworks in the exhibition were produced between 2007

Ostojić, The Yes Men, Voina and Arabian Street Artists. Playing Innocent is

and 2014—the same period that witnessed the 15-M, the Occupy movements and

curated by Alejandra Labastida, Associate Curator at MUAC (University Museum

the Arab Spring, a moment when one could more clearly envisage a semblance

of Contemporary Art), in collaboration with Noura Salem, Deputy Director of

of change. Although these works coincided with that wave of resistance, and

MMAG Foundation.

tribe 15

REVIEW Images - Courtesy of Beirut Art Fair. Writer - Lizzy Vartanian Collier, arts writer and curator.

Beirut Art Fair: Across Boundaries A look at the evolution of Lebanese photography through public and private collections The 2018 edition of the Beirut Art Fair was the

Hashem El Madani who ran the Studio Shehrazade

“My goal is to bring to the public what Lebanese

biggest yet. Consisting of 53 exhibitors from across

in Sidon. Upon discovering that his wife had gone

photography private collectors are buying,” said

the Middle East, Europe and the USA, 2018 focused

behind his back to take the photograph, Mrs Baqari’s

Nahas. ACROSS BOUNDARIES presented a rich

on photography, with ACROSS BOUNDARIES—an

husband had slashed the image with a pin. Zaatari’s

culture of Lebanese photography and collecting,

exhibition of Lebanese photography from across

enlarged 2012 version amplifies the damage made

which created a dialogue between generations of

30 institutional and private Lebanese collections—

to the image while asking questions about the

artists, histories and traditions.

located at the heart of the fair.

circumstances surrounding the photograph.

Curated by Tarek Nahas, ACROSS BOUNDARIES

Where Documents resurrected memories, Territory

included around 100 Lebanese photographic

took in the landscape, capturing the presence of

works, spanning the early 20th century to today. The

nature and urban photography, and demonstrating

exhibition was divided into three distinct sections:

Lebanon’s constant affinity between city and nature.

Documents, Intimate and Territory and illustrated

Here, Tanya Traboulsi’s untitled Fujifilm 2011 Instax

the beginnings of photography in Lebanon, from the

photographs illustrate wide, aerial views of Lebanese

first photographic studios run by Armenian traders to

cities through a dusky haze of purple and blue, while

photojournalism that chronicled the civil war.

Randa Mirza’s Live up to your true nature, 2013, (from the Beirutopia series) shows where nature has been

ACROSS BOUNDARIES moved thematically, as

inserted into the city. The image consists of a glittering

opposed to chronically, allowing works by Manoug

pool—probably situated inside a luxury apartment

Alemian—the Syrian mid-century photographer

complex—surrounded by lush plants and palms.

who captured Lebanon’s cedar forests and ancient

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ports—to be displayed alongside artists like Joana

The highlight of the exhibition however, was in the

Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. The show’s opening

section titled Intimate. Consisting of sensual images

segment, Documents, addressed memory in the

that include kissing, nudity, vanity and eroticism,

context of photographic archives, shedding light

Intimate dealt with the paradox of the unseen

on their reinterpretation through contemporary

being revealed. Amongst vintage black and white

methods in order to construct new narratives. This

dreamlike photographs of women lounging in bed

idea was demonstrated in Raed Yassin’s Proposal

were vibrant film portraits taken by Saro, whose

for a Proposal 7, 2018, which consists of embroidery

women mimic Hollywood starlets, as well as the

on top of an intimate family photograph, physically

more understated work of Fouad Elkhoury, whose

building a layer of silk onto a previously much flatter

The Siesta, 1994, depicts the bottom half of the

image of memory. Also included here was Akram

female body. Lying on a bed, a pair of elegant legs

Zaatari’s Scratched Portrait of Mrs Baqari, 1959-2012.

is framed by the light coming into the room from

The scratched image is based on a photograph by

an open window.

Beirut Art Fair, installation views Akram Zaatari Scratched Portrait of Mrs Baqari (1959-2012) scanned from 4 Ă— 5 inch negatives from the archive of Hashem El Madani, Studio Shehrazade, SaĂŻda

tribe 17

REVIEW Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, curatorial manager.

Jananne Al-Ani: Black Powder Peninsula History and the occupation of landscape ‘By adopting the bird’s eye view of the fighter pilot

rises as if we are being lifted out of the landscape.

or the cruise missile, it was possible to represent

The sensation is akin to an out-of-body experience:

the landscape of the Middle East as a barren,

a lucid dream. The work also reveals layers in our

unoccupied desert.’ (1)

globally connected histories, and takes its name from gunpowder, introduced into Europe and the

The films of Iraqi-born artist Jananne Al-Ani reveal

Middle East in the thirteenth century from China.

the imprint of history, conflict and occupation on the landscape. We see no trace of the human body, but

The film is a loop, an endless cycle. We rise up

in the act of viewing, we become aware of our own

above sites that are key to the flow of power and

bodies in space. The artist observes:

resources: the frothing liquid of a waste treatment plant, buzzing electrical infrastructure, the repeating

‘One of the most striking effects an aerial view offers

geometry of greenhouses, the skeletal beams

is the possibility of flattening and abstracting any

and cell-like remains of munitions factories, and

standing structures, including the human body. When

the circular imprints of defunct oil tanks and long-

used in war, the privileged perspective of those in

dilapidated stone fortifications. There is a humming

the air can reduce the visibility of the population on

tension of interconnectivity: we hear the rotor blades

the ground: the image of the landscape becomes

of a helicopter, the cry of a bird, the crackle of a radio,

two dimensional, cartographic.’ (2)

an intense substation buzz of electricity. All these systems connect us, feed us, turn the lights on, fuel

satellite imagery created a watershed in the history

Al-Ani describes her latest film Black Powder

our society. Some are the lifeblood of power, others

of war reportage.’ (4)

Peninsula 2016 as focusing ‘on the British landscape

the artefacts of past technologies.

and, by implication, Britain’s historic role in the

These images of war were circulated broadly across

formation of both the United States and the modern

Black Powder Peninsula is an aerial journey over

the world, and offered a disembodied view of the

Middle East’. (3) To establish her visual language,

the artist’s present home, the United Kingdom. Film

violence affecting life in Iraq. Al-Ani is deeply aware

she drew on World War I aerial reconnaissance

locations are sites of military, economic or industrial

of the legacy of first the British Imperial, and then

photography and the practice of aerial archaeology,

power — the remains of the Curtis’s and Harvey

the American, military and economic power that

which uses the long shadows of dawn and dusk to

explosives factory at Cliffe, the ghostly footprint

shaped her life and the lives

identify ruins from altitude.

of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company refinery on the

of countless others around the globe.

Isle of Grain, and the ruins of nineteenth-century Al-Ani’s earlier films convey a sense of falling to earth,

Palmerston Forts in the Medway Estuary.

recalling the perspective—in eerie slow motion—of

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Jananne Al-Ani’s works draw our attention to historical layers within the landscape. Black Powder

a missile nearing its target. Black Powder Peninsula

‘My interest in the representation of sites of conflict

Peninsula documents the flow of power and natural

also employs an aerial perspective and bleached,

began with the ‘91 Gulf War, in which the prominent

resources linking us all, both throughout history and

sepia-toned footage, but this time, our viewpoint

role of digital technology, aerial photography and

in the contemporary world.

Black Powder Peninsula (2016) Single-channel digital video, dimensions variable

The film is currently on show in the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA in Brisbane which runs until the 28th of April 2019 Endnotes 1 - Jananne Al-Ani, quoted in Charlotte Harding, ‘Reimagining war beyond its exceptionality,’ British Journal of Photography, 28 October 2016, <www.bjp-online.com/2016/10/reimagining-warbeyond-its- exceptionality/>, viewed June 2018.

2 - Jananne Al-Ani, quoted in ‘Disappearance of the body: An interview with Cécile Bourne Farrell’, Philosophy of Photography, vol.7, nos.1–2, 2016, p.77.

3 - Al-Ani, quoted in Bourne Farrell.

4 - Al-Ani, quoted in Harding.

The films of Iraqi-born artist Jananne Al-Ani reveal the imprint of history, conflict and occupation on the landscape. We see no trace of the human body, but in the act of viewing

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Black Powder Peninsula (2016) Single-channel digital video, dimensions variable

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REVIEW Images - Courtesy of Camille Zakharia. Writer - E. Nina Rothe, journalist and blogger.

Ali Karimi and Camille Zakharia: Photos À La Chair A caravan of culture project captures the soul of Bahrain “Photography is truth” goes the first half of a

Their collaborations have included Bahrain-

now infamous quote by French filmmaker Jean-

based artists Jaffar Al Oraibi, Abs Khan, Sonu

Luc Godard. Yet in the case of the Photos À La

the Dhol Magician, Zuhair AlSaeed, Mohammad

Chair project, photography also turns into a tool

Bu Hassan, Mai Al Moataz and Ghada Khunji, in

to capture and highlight the history behind that

settings that range from Malkiya Beach to the

truth: the culture, heritage and natural landscape

Royal Camel Farm in Janabiya, the Bahrain Fort

of the country of Bahrain.

Museum and, most recently, A’ali Village. Karimi admits that their dream location is the Bahr Valley,

Born in 2017 out of the collaboration between

a rocky valley that turns into a small lake—hence

Bahraini-born architect Ali Ismail Karimi and

the name “little sea”—when the weather is nice.

Lebanese photographer-slash-engineer Camille

But until they get there, Zakharia admits, they are

Zakharia, Photos À La Chair can only be described

indeed “enjoying the ride!”

as a meeting of minds, featuring great local artists in a public community setting and highlighting

While it may seem almost magical that Zakharia

the various people who call Bahrain home. Do

and Karimi have not really had to pitch the project

not expect to find the scheduled events at regular

since, as Karimi explains they have “been pretty

intervals in time, or within a gallery setting. But

lucky because after the third event, people

do expect to be moved by the global intimacy

have been approaching us,” there is another

of their images and touched by their beauty.

explanation for that. Karimi clarifies that they “haven’t had to pitch the project to institutions

Zakharia explains that he first yearned to

because we don’t need permission or funding,”

collaborate with Karimi when he saw his

for their sessions, adding further that “Bahrain is a

installation during Al Riwaq, The Nest, in 2017

small country and a small art community but there

and that work touched him. But he also noticed

aren’t a lot of chances to experiment formally.”

a “lonely, almost sad” aspect to it and thus

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Photos À La Chair can only be described as a meeting of minds, featuring great local artists in a public community setting and highlighting the various people who call Bahrain home.

decided that he “needed to do something with

The result of this meeting of different disciplines—

the place to activate it.” One of the things that

architecture, photography and even the art of

on Instagram the photographs which emerge

came to his mind was to move the work to a

collage from Zakharia’s background—has been

from the project are immediately captivated by

public setting and “to have an artwork placed as

a series of encounters, in public spaces within

their multiple layers of splendor. Be it elegant

a backdrop and have passersby sit on a bench.”

Bahrain featuring, as Karimi points out “people

horses adorned in tassels, dapper looking men

That’s how the Photos À La Chair project started,

who have no engagement in the arts and do not

in their best thawb or the profiles of beautiful

with the first backdrop provided by Bahraini

attend galleries or museum or art shows.” The

women of different heritages, Photos À La Chair

artist Mohammad Sharkawi and shot in the hip

artists and their occasional participant find this

possesses a spirit all its own, which has to be

neighborhood of Adliya in Manama.

juxtaposition exciting and the people who view

viewed to be believed.

From the project Photos Ă&#x20AC; La Chair 4. Background artist Mai Al Moataz (2018)

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From the project Photos Ă&#x20AC; La Chair 5. Background artist Dilmuni Couple (2018)

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From the project Photos Ã&#x20AC; La Chair 3. Background artist Zuhair Al Saeed (2018)

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From the project Photos Ã&#x20AC; La Chair 2. Background artist Jaffar Al Oraibi (2018)

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From the project Photos Ã&#x20AC; La Chair 6. Background artist Ghada Khunji (2019)

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REVIEW Images - Courtesy of the artists and eL Seed. Writer - Anna Seaman, independent arts writer.

eL Seed: Perception Artist and writer weaves the reader through an immersive Cairo passage It is not often that you get to see the inner workings

vein, the book itself was a collaborative project.

of an artist’s mind. Mostly, artists prefer to express

Through intimate portraits and sweeping vistas,

themselves in a visual language and rightly so,

the book is also dedication to imagery. Some

after all, that is what we would expect. It was

of the photographs were taken candidly and

therefore, a joyful discovery to opening the book

throughout the process by Ouahid Berrehouma

Perception, written by eL Seed, to find that not

and Mahdi Khmili, core members of his small

only is he a skilful artist but an eloquent writer. The

and faithful team, who helped him with every

book begins with an immersive passage taking the

aspect from mixing the colours of the paint, to

reader to the streets of Cairo, weaving amid the

hoisting the lifts, filling in outlines and of course,

traffic and through the sounds and smells before

documentation. The other images, portraits

landing in the district of Manshiyat Nasr at the

of the members of the community as well as

base of the Mokattam mountain. It is a place that

atmospheric shots that bring the words to life in

most locals don’t dare to venture. It is shrouded in

vivid colour and drama were taken by Christina

mystery and superstition, which in fact, as it turns

Dimitrova. Together, the effect of the images and

out, is the basis for eL Seed’s artistic adventure. In

the words allow the reader to see the mural taking

the book, he explains that he has selected the area

shape over the course of the project and also

because it is so marginalised. It is where a large

bear an intimate witness to the deep and lasting

community of mostly Coptic Christian people

friendships and connections made.

live and whose primary occupation is sorting the city’s garbage. Because of this association

The limited editions of the book (the first 500

with the trash, the common perception is that

copies) also contain pages of recycled paper made

these people must also be dirty and stinky, hence

by the community in Manshiyat Nasr as well as a

their nickname ‘the Zabaleen’ (or people of the

hand-painted cover. Each cover contains a single

garbage). However, what unfolds in this beautifully

section of the circular image that was painted as

written book is a story about how his perception

a mural over 50 buildings. In the same way as

changed of these people when he entered their

the original mural could only be seen together

community to paint a mural.

from one vantage point, the first 500 copies of the book will only ever spell out the words again

eL Seed’s entire practice is based on the idea of

if placed together. It is a subtle yet clever nod

social cohesion and breaking down barriers. He

to the nature of the artwork and the deep and

always chooses to paint in the public sphere and

underlying message: that there is more strength

engage as many people as possible in order for

in unity and togetherness than there will ever be

them to feel ownership of the project. In the same

in division.

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From the book Perception (2016) Image courtesy of Ouahid Berrehouma

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From the book Perception (2016) Image courtesy of Christina Dimitrova

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From the book Perception (2016) Images courtesy of (Left) Mahdi Khmili and (Right) Ouahid Berrehouma

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FEATURE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Lizzy Vartanian Collier, arts writer and curator.

Ayman Baalbaki: Painter Smartphone photographs serve as inspiration ‘We are in a period of explosion of photos, the camera

base myself enormously on photos, but this may not

and the photos are everywhere, surely they became

be the case for my journey in the future.’

essential and heavy.’ – Ayman Baalbaki Amongst his images are a number of self-portraits Ayman Baalbaki, who was born in Adaisseh, Lebanon,

that were not taken on a smartphone—in which

is famous for his large-scale paintings of conflict. His

Baalbaki’s face is covered in a scarf. The photographs

canvases, densely covered in thick oil and acrylic paint,

look like studies for paintings from a series called Al

often consist of destroyed buildings, combat and

Moulatham, which date from 2008. In the images a

weapons. And, while he is known across the world as

man appears with his face covered by a kuffiyeh, a

‘The relationship between painting and photography

who could not find the original high definition images,

is an organic bond and a mutual enrichment,’ says

so sent a picture of the photographs from the paint

Baalbaki, ‘We have a long demonstration of this

splattered floor of his studio.

I create a kinship between subject and treatment of the painting, where the street and its aesthetic reality remains my first basic inspiration

[painting and photography] the imagination that

Baalbaki was born in 1975, the same year as the

are ripped and torn, and it is almost like you can

reproduces and offers new benchmarks to another.’

beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, and his paintings

touch the textures. The viewer has the same feeling

In effect, Baalbaki is likening the photographs he takes

are most often associated with the conflicts that haunt

when confronted with Baalbaki’s paintings, where

to the sketches artists have made in preparation for

the Middle East. His photographs too remind the

they are tempted to reach out and touch the dense

constructing a larger painting throughout history, or

viewer about the effects of war in the region. Amongst

layers of paint.

the act of artists copying the work of one another in

the iPhone images are the road markings covered in

order to improve their own skill. That said, Baalbaki

the Lebanese flag that one can expect to see across

‘I am inspired by reality, by moving between my

explains that he is aware that some frown upon using

Beirut, as well as buildings covered in bullet holes, and

influences,’ Baalbaki explains, ‘I create a kinship

a photograph as a reference. ‘During my academic

other structures that are struggling to stay standing at

between subject and treatment of the painting, where

studies the use of pictures to paint was a flaw, almost

all. ‘We live in a chaotic region, massively destroyed,

the street and its aesthetic reality remains my first basic

a taboo,’ explains Baalbaki, who studied at the École

broken and torn, and my painting is related to this

inspiration.’ Like the paintings that take inspiration

Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris,

reality’, explains Baalbaki, ‘The panels I take pictures

from them, Baalbaki’s photographs comment on

‘In my work the use of the photo was a choice that

of are more for pictorial influences for the treatment

the effects that war and destruction have had on

contradicts my training, the choice was imposed by

of my painting and the use of materials… than the

Lebanon. The images are raw, un-airbrushed and

my approach in a research phase that was related to

representation of the photo itself.’ In some of the

honest, confronting the viewer with an aftermath that

memory and more to a memory that fades quickly... I

photographs the posters that are covering buildings

is very much present across the country.

a painter, these artworks—which have been exhibited

garment that is often associated with war. ‘The first

at the Venice Biennale and are in the collection of

Moulatham were taken from pictures that I had found

London’s Tate—have been influenced by photographs

in newspapers and magazines, after [these paintings]

taken on Baalbaki’s smartphone.

I had the desire to compose a scene more faithful to what I think in perspective and look,’ explains Baalbaki,

example in the history of art. The two support

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Untitled, iPhone photo (reference material for Concrete Beirut Barrier)

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Untitled, iPhone photo (reference material for Concrete Beirut Barrier)

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Untitled, iPhone photo (reference material for Al Moulatham)

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Untitled, iPhone photo (reference material)

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PORTFOLIO Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Lulu Al-Sabah, art consultant.

Akam Shex Hadi: War and displacement A compassionate document of the devastation Photographer Akam Shex Hadi is tired, yet he

living in my grandparents’ house, which made me

of Baghdad, Shex Hadi’s uncle had been lost from

continues to make the five-hour journey from his

live less child-like because, as the family’s first born,

his family for over 20 years. ‘I met my uncle for the

hometown of Sulaymaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan to Mosul,

I was the only child.’ He lived among his aunts and

first time in 2005, which granted me 6 more cousins,

a city in northern Iraq that fell to the Islamic State

uncles, having to act beyond his years. When he was

four of them were older than me.’ A year prior, he

of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in June 2014. After a

six years old, the whole family fled, along with the

began using a camera for the first time. His preferred

three-year occupation, the Iraqi army launched a

rest of the Kurdish nation, to Iran. ‘I remember that

style is staged photography with a strong element of

military campaign to liberate the city, which resulted in

my legs were weak, and I was on my grandmother’s

documentary. In 2013, he created a photo installation

a nine-month battle that killed more civilians than the

back,’ he says. When Kurdistan was liberated from

of the 1988 chemical attack. To tell the story of 15

ISIL occupation itself. Over one million people were

Saddam’s control, they returned home but lived in

survivors from that attack, he photographed them

displaced. Victory in July 2017 came at a high price,

severe poverty. His mother sewed clothes to put food

at the site of the attack, with each survivor holding a

with the population decimated and the city in ruins.

on the table. ‘I was separated from my sister in school

balloon etched with a smiley face in front of their own

Armed with a digital camera, Shex Hadi documents

and we only had one backpack to use,’ he recalls.

face Those photographs symbolise new beginnings

the devastation whilst providing a compassionate

At age 10, the family had to flee to Iran again due

after debilitating trauma.

ear to the traumatised survivors. Few countries have

to the fighting amongst the political parties within

been bombed, battered and bruised like Iraq. Having

Kurdistan. ‘We became refugees in a cold winter,’ he

The majority of Shex Hadi’s photographic work

lived through the country’s most tumultuous time, he,

states. They eventually returned. ‘War changed our

focuses on the fractured state of present-day Iraq

too, is a survivor.

childhood,’ he says, ‘even the materials we would

and the effects of war and displacement on its

play with were parts of the aftermath of war such as

residents. He was among five artists chosen to

cartridge cases for bullets.

represent the National Pavilion of Iraq at the 2015

Shex Hadi hails from a city known as ‘the Paris of Iraq.’

Founded in the late 18th century by a Kurdish prince,

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Venice Biennale. The works were commissioned

the city of Sulaymaniya, surrounded by mountains,

Despite the bouts of exile during his childhood, it was

by the Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture

had been a cultural centre, home to poets, writers,

at the age of 18 that the concepts of one’s homeland

in Iraq and curated by Phillipe Van Cauteren. The

historians and scholars. The photographer’s own

and exile began to take shape in his mind. The US

photographs he presented focused on the fate of

extended family includes many writers and politicians.

invasion of Iraq in 2003, and, in particular, the rumours

Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people as a

Unfortunately, Shex Hadi was born, as he says, ‘at a

that Saddam was planning to unleash chemical attacks

consequence of ISIS. Shex Hadi photographed four

bad time.’ He was three years-old when Saddam

on Kurdish cities forced the photographer to flee

refugee communities across Iraq, including Yazidis,

Hussein used chemical weapons to gas 5,000 Kurds

to a village in the mountains. He states, ‘I spent my

Kobanis, Christians and Kakais. The images were

to death. The genocide occurred on 16 March 1988

days in the village listening to the radio to know what

taken in the refugee camps where they now live: Erbil,

in Halabia, near the Iranian border, an hour and a half

was going on. I was in the mountains, feeling like a

Barika camp, Hawar and Slemani. He spent a week in

drive from Sulaymaniya. Eighteen close members of

refugee in my own country.’ When he returned to his

each camp, taking a photo each day to portray their

his extended family were killed. Shex Hadi had to

city, Saddam’s regime had fallen. ‘We all celebrated

day-to-day lives. The 28 black and white images, each

grow up fast: ‘My dad was a peshmerga [the military

in Kurdish clothes as if we were part of the victory,’ he

30 x 45 cm in a simple black frame, had a common

forces of the federal region of Iraqi Kurdistan] and was

recalls. The fall of the regime allowed his father to look

element, be it a woman holding a baby in front of a

in a revolution against the old regime of Iraq. I was

for his long-lost brother in Baghdad. Being a resident

cross, a child looking towards the camera, a priest in

Christian #7, from the series Invisible Beauty (2014-2015)

a makeshift church, a woman praying, or a man looking solemnly towards the

to pay a great price to be a part of the far-from-war modern countries.’ In

floor, the subjects were mostly shown standing inside a circle of black cloth

another series, entitled Mattress (2016), the haunting images portray thin,

that trailed in a snake-like fashion. The black cloth a symbol for the terrorist

narrow mattresses strewn across a desert landscape. These mattresses were

organization that drove them from their homes. About this series, entitled

used by those in transit, providing temporary comfort to rest the tired bones

Invisible Beauty (2014-2015), Shex Hadi says, ‘I realised that terrorism was not

of the fleeing masses. In War Games (2016), Shex Hadi uses soldiers as his

only around the borders, but it surrounds every Iraqi civilian… the black cloth

subjects, their faces concealed with masks created by children. The soldiers

could represent a symbol for terror that came from the outside… different

were from different forces on the front line of the battle to liberate Mosul.

from our existence and culture.’

Speaking about this series, Shex Hadi says, ‘The effect of war was everywhere no matter how far it was because you had live footage of war in homes. I would

In Homeland, Exile (2016), the standing subjects- men, women and children

hear kids talking about war like experts do… I taught the kids how to make

from Sulaymaniya- are surrounded by barbed wire and small colourful kites

masks, without them knowing why. Later, in the colouring of the masks, you

of varying sizes handmade by Shex Hadi. These images, shown at the 5th

could see the aftermath of war. I took those masks to the battlefield between

International Canakkale Biennial in Turkey, just north of the epicentre of the

the peshmerga and terrorists during war time.’

European refugee crisis, speaks of the mass displacement and migration as a result of war and conflict. The kites symbolise our desire for freedom, which is

After working on a project in Kirkuk, home to Iraq’s oldest oilfields, the

an illusion as kites are tethered to a hand, whilst the barbed wire symbolises

photographer faced new challenges, which he describes as ‘the life of

national borders, which the photographer describes as, ‘commercial lines

banishment.’ The project focused on the city’s stolen riches and the destruction

put down by capitalism to create war in some places so the other places can

of its culture. Due to his involvement with refugees and his most photographic

live safely, and through this they break all cultures and values and you have

projects, Shex Hadi was held captive in his own home and put under surveillance

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Kakalan #6, from the series Invisible Beauty (2014-2015)

by the military forces. To this day, they won’t renew his passport or let him frame. Shex Hadi speaks of the various constrictions placed on the human mind, showcase his new projects. He says, ‘I think about the life of banishment body and spirit within his or her lifetime, and how only our imaginations can break more than ever, for the sake of my own life and the sake of my future works.’ these frames. The final photograph is a white surface without any humans or frames, What he faces brings to mind an earlier series he created in 2011 consisting which asks the viewer to ponder an essential question: which frames do you allow of 13 photographs, printed on canvas, each 50 x 70 cm. Each image is a yourself to be constricted by? genderless person within a frame in the centre of a clock. The images are taken from far above, while the character, made of black crude, moves within Shex Hadi’s work delves beyond the surface to look deeper into the human psyche. the frame. The project, he explains, was ‘contemplating the essence of time His experience has shown him human cruelty beyond measure at an early age and the frames [restrictions] that surround people in a way that it appears to and yet he offers images of hope, love and unity. Like the shadows of the broken remain throughout their lives, but their imagination always crosses the border ladders and the blood splattered on the walls in his series, Ladder of Life, he knows of time.’ Each photograph has its own meaning, shown through the numbers, that humanity’s trajectory towards enlightenment is a long, arduous road. He will frames, shades and light: The first photo represents the beginning of existence continue to make the journeys, document the progress, and live his life, as much in his/her mother’s womb, the second photograph, the human enters the life as humanly possible, outside of the frame.

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Kakalan #7, #3 and #4, from the series Invisible Beauty (2014-2015) Next Page: Kubani #1, from the series Invisible Beauty (2014-2015)

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From the series Homeland, Exile (2016)

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From the series Mattress (2016)

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From the series War Games (2016)

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From the series 1...........13

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From the series Ladder of Life

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PORTFOLIO Images - Courtesy of the artist and Selma Feriani Gallery.

Writer - Emma Warburton, arts writer and researcher.

Jellel Gasteli: Form and Surface An interplay of principles, dimensions and art movements Contemporary Tunisian photographer Jellel

series is a visual representation of time itself,

Gasteli has maintained a close relationship with

and proof of its relationship to landscape. Série

formalism over the last three decades. Since

Eclipse is not about the shadows, but what the

his early career, the artist has adhered to a set

shadows represent, and in conceptual art the

of principles guiding the subject matter and

principle idea is the most important aspect of a

style of his photographs, and always considers

final work. In Série Eclipse, the concept behind

the interplay of colour, line, shape, and texture

the photographs is more important than the

in his work. But Gasteli’s work is not purely

individual photographs themselves, since the

formalist. On the contrary, a striking feature

documentation of any shadow over a period of

of the artist’s photography is that it references

time would essentially illustrate the same idea.

numerous contemporary art movements at once, including conceptualism, minimalism,

In later photography projects Gasteli abandons

and abstract expressionism to name just a few.

in part the conceptual angle to explore principles behind minimalism, hard-edge

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Using framing techniques Gasteli flattens three dimensional spaces into two, and combines multiple planes into a singular surface.

Gasteli shot much of his early work in black

abstraction and colour-field painting. Carnet

and white, and the monochromatic trend lent

de Marrakech and Carnet de Tanger (2017)

itself to his propensity for formalism. But these

mark a distinct shift in the photographer’s

projects also reveal the artist’s initial interest in

style as he abandons the monochrome palette

minimalism and conceptual art. Série Blanche

in favour of a full colour spectrum. Gasteli’s

(1996) is a collection of monochrome images

approach remains rooted in formalism, and

of outdoor walls, corners and passageways

as seen in earlier work, walls and shadows

described in white concrete. The scenes are

feature prominently as the subject matter in

still and quiet, and lack any suggestion of

both series. But now Gasteli experiments with

movement, time or life, except for the cast

shortening the distance between himself and

shadows caused by the sun. Here we see

the surfaces he photographs, thus abstracting

Gasteli bridge formalism with conceptualism,

them from their surroundings and intensifying

The resulting compositions are reminiscent of

as shadow takes on metaphoric significance.

the viewer’s focus on texture, line, and form.

Ellsworth Kelly’s minimal hard-edge paintings of

His project Série Eclipse (2001) carries this

For many of the images found in Carnet de

the 1970s, or Mary Heilmann’s more expressive

metaphor further in a sequence of images that

Tanger and Carnet de Marrakech, the artist

colour field paintings of the same era. Several of

traces a building’s shadow as it travels from

creates minimal compositions guided by the

the surfaces are divided into grids, recalling the

West to East with the movement of the sun. The

naturally occurring textures, shadows and cracks

work of Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter and

images in Série Eclipse are captured at precise

on the walls. Using framing techniques Gasteli

theoretician whose minimalist grid paintings in

intervals throughout the day, in order to illustrate

flattens three dimensional spaces into two, and

primary colours highly influenced art and fashion

the concept of time passing. Essentially, the

combines multiple planes into singular surfaces.

of the late 20th century.

No.VII, from the series Carnets de Marrakech (1996) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125 cm

In more recent work, Gasteli expands his photography practice to experiment

on simplified forms and crude marks on the wall, suggestive of artists such

with some of the fundamental principles underpinning neo and abstract

as Jean Michel Basquiat or Jasper Johns.

expressionism. A series of untitled photographs of walls from 2018 shows the artist making a gradual departure from the influence of flat, hard-edged

Gasteli began his practice as a formalist, and essentially he remains a formalist

minimalism, instead turning his camera to raw textures and more expressive

today. Cosmetic considerations like colour, line and composition will always

surfaces. Untitled No. IV and Untitled No. XVI, for instance, capture in detail

be at the core of his creative process, for as long as he continues to point and

the cratered surfaces of walls that are badly chipped and peeling. The images

shoot. But while formalism is typically known for its stylistic and conceptual

are strongly reminiscent of abstract expressionist paintings, in particular

rigidity, Gasteliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s version is comparatively playful, curious and open, and he

the work of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Jean Paul Riopelle, whose

experiments with multiple visual languages in his photography work. He is a

dynamic paintings emerged from pouring, splattering and dripping paint

photographer who appreciates subtlety and the poetics of place. He seeks

onto canvas in layers. For other images in the series, such as Untitled No. IX,

to capture formal beauty in informal circumstances, and redefine the banal

Gasteli embraces the primitive aesthetic of neo expressionism by focusing

and the imperfect with a new artistic value.

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No.VI, from the series Carnets de Tanger (1996) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125 cm

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No.VIII, from the series Carnets de Tanger (1996) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125 cm

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No.XI, from the series Carnets de Tanger (1996) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125 cm

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No.VII, from the series SĂŠrie Blanche (1996) Archival pigment print, 120 x 120 cm

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No.IX, from the series SĂŠrie Blanche (1996) Archival pigment print, 120 x 120 cm No.I, from the series SĂŠrie Blanche (1996) Archival pigment print, 120 x 120 cm

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Untitled No.VI (2018) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125cm

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Untitled No.IX (2018) Archival pigment print,125 x 125cm

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Untitled No.XVII (2018) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125cm

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Untitled No.XVI (2018) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125cm Untitled No.IV (2018) Archival pigment print, 125 x 125cm

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PORTFOLIO Images - Courtesy of the artist and Tabari Artspace. Writer - Sandra S. Williams, curator.

Hazem Harb: New Histories Collaging Palestine’s past By bringing the forgotten and marginalized to the

Gaza and the West Bank, cut apart by politics

fore, artists have the power to wrest the writing of

and actual concrete. By creating elisions in the

history from the victors. Palestinian artist Hazem

photographic records, Harb also points to gaps

Harb is one such case. His photographic collages

in historic narratives, particularly those written by

gather the fragments of Palestine’s pre-Nakba

hegemonic powers, where omissions and erasures

history and reformulate them into works that

facilitate a neat, sanitized state ideology.

explore memory, power, and heritage, to question who gets to write history, in what manner, and

Absence (of key details, of faces) and presence (of

for whom. Harb, who was born in Gaza in 1980,

concrete security walls, of technology) suspend

trained in visual arts at IED Istituto Europeo di

Harb’s collages outside of time, where we are

Design, Roma and stage at the Academy of Fine

never completely in the past or the present. In

Arts of Rome, and considers himself a painter but

the TAG series (2015) Harb adds small square

has maintained a fascination with photography

frames around people’s faces and on buildings

since childhood. Several years ago, he began to

in archival photographs, referring to the photo

collect archival photographs of Palestine from the

tagging feature found on Facebook. The squares

internet and private individuals, but only started

suggest these people and places are identifiable

incorporating them in his art in 2015. Harb creates

but no names appear next to the boxes and

collages by cutting and layering the photographs,

instead they remain unknown. In their visibility,

compositing them with his own drawings, opaque

however, the loss of information seems to call for

paper, plexi-glass, and other found materials—his

remedy and input. There is a suggestion that the

method of reclaiming and reworking history.

data might one day be crowdsourced and filled in, the people tagged, known, and remembered,

Among the series Harb made in 2015 was

and that the present might salvage the past.

Archaeology of Occupation, where stark

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By refashioning and recasting the physical photograph, Harb highlights the medium as a malleable and potentially faulty reminder of the past and, more broadly, the imperfect nature of memory itself

geometric shapes and concrete structures assert

Harb returned to the participatory nature of

themselves over late 19th and early 20th century

history writing in his Power Does Not Defeat

The glass has the added effect of reflecting back

landscape photographs of Palestine. Portions of

Memory series (2018). As with the Archaeology

the viewer, making us a part of the composition

the bucolic scenes, once used to attract visitors

of Occupation, he again cuts and layers

and collapsing time. Through this self-referential

to the Holy Land, are blocked and obliterated.

the photographs but here the colors and

tactic, Harb draws his audience into his practice

The concrete forms, including security barriers

compositions are decisively more optimistic. He

of rewriting history and enlivening memory. Such

and fragments of Brutalist architecture, tumble

layers on brightly colored plexi-glass, tinting the

animating of the past reappears, in a different

onto or else hover threateningly over towns and

audience’s view of the past so that they might

manner, in his series Reformulated Archaeology

people. Harb’s photo-collages can be read to

see boats on the Sea of Galilee or a woman in

(2018), where he collages and draws on images

reflect the disjunctive landscape of present-day

traditional Palestinian dress in a literal new light.

of ancient artifacts, giving them a biomorphic

Untitled #27, from the series Archaeology of Occupation (2015) Archival pigment print, collage

appearance. The implication is that like cells or viruses, the historic fragments

concrete is captured in his sculpture In Transit, in which three slabs of

have the potential to evolve. In both series, Harb conveys that the past is not

concrete are strapped to, and therefore, crushing a mattress. The horror

a fixed entity but one that continues to grow, develop, evolve and rewrite.

foreshadowed in the collage manifests in the sculpture, each conceptually reinforcing the other.

Evolution is fundamental to Harbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practice as an artist who works across several mediums. The geometric shapes that appear in paper and plexi-

By refashioning and recasting the physical photograph, Harb highlights the

glass throughout his collages derive from his earlier paintings such as

medium as a malleable and potentially faulty reminder of the past and, more

the al Baseera series in which he layered color and shapes in dynamic,

broadly, the imperfect nature of memory itself. He questions the process

Constructivist-like compositions. Harbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multi-disciplinary practice allows

of recording history by exposing the ways in which it can be manipulated

him to select the medium that will best convey his concept and builds

and encourages us to participate in its reworking by reflecting our images

bridges between his various series. For example, in one image from the

in his work. Through the many media he interweaves, Harb conveys the

Archaeology of Occupation, a concrete barrier hovers just over the land,

complexities of memory and longing that define the intractable state of

looking as though it is ready to settle down, poised to crush the man

Palestinians without resorting to overwrought symbolism. In doing so, Harb

sitting in the field beneath it. While the man and barrier are suspended

opens the work up to deeper reflections on the very nature of remembering,

in perpetual and dreadful tension in Harbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collage, the full weight of the

power, and the politics of space.

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#13 and #15, from the series TAG (2015) Archival pigment print, collage, 50 x 70 cm

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#2, from the series DearLord, (2016) Archival pigment print, collage 100 x 17 cm Below: #1 and #3, from the series DearLord, (2016) Archival pigment print, collage 100 x 17 cm

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#1, from the series Reformulated Archeology (2018) Pencil on archival doc, and original photography of a woman from Gaza 1940 on hand made fine art paper, 58 x 76 cm, Below: #7 and #3, from the series Reformulated Archeology (2018) Pencil on archival doc, on hand made fine art paper, 58 x 76 cm,

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Land to Land (2017) Photography collage on fine art paper on wood, 105 x 80 cm #1, from the series Tiberius (2017) Photography collage on fine art paper, 105 x 80 cm Private Collection LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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#1, from the series Power Does Not Defeat Memory (2018) Photography and collage on fine art paper, 102 x 82 cm

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Clockwise: #5, #4, #6 and #7 from the series Power Does Not Defeat Memory (2018) Photography and collage on fine art paper, 102 x 82 cm,

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1# and #2 Memorial Architecture (2016) Photography and acrylic on collage on fine art paper mounted on wood 102 x 91 cm

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Untitled #27, from the series Archaeology of Occupation (2015) Archival pigment print, mounted on 3mm aluminium composite, 185 x 150 cm. Private collection Next Page: Untitled #2, from the series Archaeology of Occupation (2015) Archival pigment print, mounted on 3mm aluminium composite 172 x 120 cm.

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PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - T. Khalifa, writer, researcher and independent curator.

Sima Zureikat: A Court for Reed and Rush A reinterpretation of Jordan’s landscape In today’s world, the photographer is faced with the

the desert. However, upon revisiting the sites years

quandary of how to create work with verisimilitude,

later, specifically after the Arab Spring, during a time

especially in a time where the medium has been

when Jordan was experiencing a high population-

marred by instant and filtered digital imagery. Sima

growth due to the influx of refugees hailing from

Zureikat (b. 1978), an American with Jordanian

neighbouring countries, the edges of the city she

heritage, has mastered this challenge by confronting

previously photographed were gone. ‘I just drove

her audience with a complex awareness, something

and drove and the city just kept going on,’ she

more than a click of her camera. In her work, A Court

explains, ‘so I thought maybe I’m thinking about it

for Reed and Rush, for the 30th anniversary of Darat

wrong. My thinking is too linear, (instead) I have to

al Funun, in Amman, Zureikat interprets an excerpt

think more in a circle.’

from a Mahmoud Darwish poem The truth is black, write over it with mirages of light in a triptych series.

Upon that conviction, her latest series began to

Tribe magazine sits down with Zureikat to get a better

take shape. For her triptych, Zureikat exchanges the

understanding of her passion, her drive and what has

placement of buildings, and then further re-exposes

inspired such an evocative rendering of the Jordanian

the original images and finishes by placing bodies

landscape.

of water in the centre. By bending the horizon into a hoop, she creates irises of juxtaposed buildings

Since Zureikat’s moved to Jordan in October 2001

surrounding what she calls her ‘mirages.’ When

upon completing her, B.A. in Studio Arts from Oberlin

asked what the mirages represent to her, Zureikat

College, Ohio. She hopped on a plane towards

elaborates, ‘The mirage is something that you desire

Jordan, to sate her need for connecting with her

to see but feels like it’s just outside your reach…the

heritage. ‘I just went crazy,’ she professes, ‘I just did

water in this sense represents life, fertile ground,

‘I do have to be surprised by the work. I usually start

everything, really experimental work, while I still

and sort of promise of life, you know, like a promise

with a very clear idea about what and why I want to

studied…the analogue process. I had a dark room and

of prosperity.’

do something or let’s say how I want to start. And why

I was doing all kinds of things with layering multiple

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I just did everything, really experimental work, while I still studied… the analogue process.

I had a dark room and I was doing all kinds of things with layering multiple exposures, alternative processes and utilising different kinds of cameras.

I want to start but I don’t always have the complete

exposures, alternative processes and utilising different

Each piece displays one of three key sites: the city

picture of the end until I am in the middle of the

kinds of cameras. I fell in love with the landscape and

landscape of downtown Amman, the mountain

process…. There’s still so much to explore with as

Jordan. It gave me so much inspiration.’

terrain between Jordan and the Golan Heights,

Jordan, itself, keeps changing and because it keeps

and the agricultural region of the Ghor along the

changing work keeps changing.’

The series A Court for Reed and Rush is the outcome

Jordan River. Her multi-layered visions becoming

of resurrecting an older unfinished landscape project

an amalgamation of the past and the present.

A Court for Reed and Rush is in the group exhibition

entitled The Edge of Amman. The previously taken

Zureikat describes her work as a kind of alchemy,

‘Truth is black, write over it with a mirage’s light’ at

photographs captured the edges of the city; the

where she inextricably merges each element to

The Khalid Shoman Foundation: Darat Al Funun to

areas where the city’s boundaries tapered off into

create something completely new and remarkable.

celebrate the Foundation’s 30th Anniversary.

#1 Downtown, from the series A Court for Reed and Rush (2018) 110 x 110 cm

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#2 Downtown, from the series A Court for Reed and Rush (2018) 110 x 110 cm

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#3 Downtown, from the series A Court for Reed and Rush (2018) 110 x 110 cm

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PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Maha Alsharif, writer and critic.

Toufic Beyhum: Amoji Characterising masks and digital behaviours in Namibia Professional creative director, and humbly self-

To visualise this phenomenon, Beyhum chose a

shows in detail the exterior anatomy of an arm

proclaimed amateur photographer, Toufic Beyhum

comparatively primitive approach, in which rather

with tense, flexed biceps. In the emoji world, the

connects with his surroundings through the camera

than confronting it digitally, he made it tangible

icon connotes physical and mental strength. While

lens. Whether on his daily commute in Berlin or

and focused on capturing natural physical gestures

that interpretation is true to the image, Beyhum

attending Friday prayer in London, he is candidly

that occur behind the mask of a particular emoji.

extends the meaning by contrasting elements from

observant, in search of behavioural and sociological

He collaborated with two local artists to create six

classical Western and African art. In that, historically,

patterns and trends. Beyhum deliberately refrains

emojis in the form of wearable traditional African

Western art placed significance on accurate realism

from intervening in his environments, as to allow

masks, made from locally found material. In the

and physical perfection, while African art focused

his viewers access to an honest, reportage-like

following months, he drove around the country

on symbolism, cultural beliefs and functions. It is a

account of secrets that lie in the cultures that he

with the masks in a trunk and at random stops,

particularly interesting combination because most

encounters. Since relocating to Namibia, Beyhum

presented them to people and requested they select

relate to the symbol of strength in the image, and

continues to follow his natural urge to observe and

one for a picture. Through his process, Beyhum not

so it asserts the richness of African heritage and how

report. While he did experience a unique culture,

only identifies the power of iconography, but also

it has become a major pillar in today’s global visual

he noticed that influences of digital communication

identifies the pivotal role that African tradition plays

experiences.

have made their way through the fabric of society,

in contemporary visual culture. Much like it inspired

in which Namibians too, are speaking the universal

revolutionary art movements in the past, it maintains

Similarly composed, Folded Hands (2018) shows

language of emojis.

a robust connection to visualising human emotion

two hands in a praying position. In perfect symmetry

and expression, even in the digital age.

the hands come out of stacked square blocks of

Considering there are infinite variations and

concrete, as if the body is imprisoned. Symbolically,

combinations to communicate with emojis, Beyhum

Heart Himba (2018) is perhaps one of the most striking

the image speaks to freedom and spirituality. The

took interest in exploring the dialect created in

images from series. Taken in natural light, in a natural

concrete blocks represent industrialisation and, more

Namibia, and Africa in general. He conducted a

setting, and on what appears to be an ordinary day in

broadly, human accomplishments and civil order;

casual survey to characterise emoji preferences

Windhoek, the subject of the picture is remarkable. A

whereas the hands represent fear of the unknown and

and digital behaviours, which developed into the

Himba woman sits on the side of a street close to a

the instinct to ask for protection, clarity, serenity, and

concept, Amoji—or simply African emoji. He found

display of bangles for sale. She is wearing the smiling

blessing. Through connections between basic visual

that everyone he spoke to is familiar with and uses

face with heart-eyes mask. When presented with the

shapes, the image illustrates man’s innate gratitude

emojis, with the exception of a few who refer to

masks, Beyhum says ‘she laughed but couldn’t speak

and hopefulness.

them as expressions; the majority choose black

English and I couldn’t speak Oshihimba, which is their

emojis as opposed to light or neutral coloured

language.’ Nonetheless, he was able to communicate

In Amoji, Beyhum materialises universal digital icons

ones; and finally he concluded the most popular

his intention, and with little hesitation, the indigenous

into physical objects inspired by Namibian culture.

are: smiling face with heart-eyes, face with tears

woman agreed to model her favourite mask.

The final 36 colourful images take the viewer on a

of joy, grimacing face, pleading face, winking face

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journey of interactions, full smiles, cries and heart-

with tongue, crying face and grinning face with

Flexed Biceps (2018) is faceless yet instantly

filled eyes. Beyhum presents his personal experience

squinting eyes.

recognisable. Captured in daylight, the image

in Namibia, both in and out of the digital realm.

Flexed Biceps, from the series Amoji (2018)

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Vulcan and Raised Fist, from the series Amoji (2018)

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Folded Hands, from the series Amoji (2018)

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Clockwise: Yellow Bench, Crying, Heart Sunflowers and Shocked tires from the series Amoji (2018)

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Shocked Security from the series Amoji (2018)

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PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Sabrina DeTurk, art historian, curator, writer and educator.

Sara Naim: Building Blocks Blurring the boundaries of memory Soap from Aleppo, jasmine flowers and soil

came to see them as descriptive elements in the

from her grandmother’s garden—these are the

work in their own right. According to the glitches,

materials that artist Sara Naim uses to explore

which, ultimately, she began to intentionally

her relationship to her native Syria, a location no

introduce and embrace in the scanned output,

longer physically accessible to her but which still

help you realize that you don’t know something as

looms large in her imagination and memory. Naim

well as you think you do—a disorientation which

describes her nostalgia for Syria as “warped,”

is connected to the experience of nostalgia. In

in that the longer she is distanced from her

a video work included in Building Blocks Naim

homeland, the more her view becomes skewed,

filmed the monitor that shows her navigating the

her memories blurred.

microscope across a sample. The nature of the process is such that a tiny sample of material can

In Building Blocks, Naim’s second solo exhibition

be navigated for hours, as the artist searches for

at Dubai’s Third Line Gallery, the artist illustrates

its boundaries, looking for the edge. As the search

the push and pull between memory and materiality

plays out on screen, the viewer becomes lost in

in sculpture, video and photographic works. Naim

the abstraction of the sample, its material reality

used a scanning electron microscope to explore

transformed into a surreal landscape. Naim notes

the cellular structures of the Aleppo soap as well

that this tool, the scanning electron microscope,

as the jasmine and soil that her grandmother sent

thus functions in a way that blurs boundaries and

her from Syria. The large-scale C-type digital prints

to complicate vision, despite our assumption that

that are exhibited capture a visual journey into the

it is a technology intended to make visible and

of the soap samples as envisioned in the photo

terrain of that which is at once intensely familiar

to clarify.

prints to the material reality of the soap structures

and yet, paradoxically, becomes through micro-

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The nature of the process is such that a tiny sample of material can be navigated for hours, as the artist searches for its boundaries, looking for the edge on the gallery floor.

inspection wholly unknown. The shift between

The photos and video are complemented by

macro and micro and the idea of breaking down

sculptural installations made from the same Aleppo

Naim is conscious of the “exoticism” that

boundaries by looking at basic structures of these

soap used in the samples for scanning under the

is sometimes projected onto Syria and the

nostalgic materials is central to the artist’s practice.

microscope. Naim had the soap manufactured in

possibility, which she herself has to guard against,

That her own dead skin cells become incorporated

Syria, each bar stamped with the phrase “building

of “fetishizing” the country and its people. She

into the samples as she works with them further

block.” They are arranged in simple structures,

views her work as not as an exercise in fetishistic

complicates and enriches her exploration.

the dull tan of the soap recalling the stone used

nostalgia, however, but rather as a practice that

in construction of traditional Syrian architecture.

has allowed her to become more engaged with

Naim is also intrigued by the glitches that are

The blocks are built up in layers, evoking the

her parents and the stories of their lives in Syria, as

introduced into her work through errors in the

metaphor of a cell as a building block. Thus, the

a way of remembering something she was never

microscope’s scanning process. Originally, she was

shift between macro and micro is again apparent

a part of and connecting to a physical past she

offended by these unintentional errors but then

as the viewer glances from the abstracted detail

will never know.

Form #1 (2018) Digital print, wood, plexiglass, 70 x 84 cm

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Form #3 (2018) Digital print, wood, plexiglass, (2018) 167 x 108.7 cm

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Form #6 (2018) Digital print, wood, plexiglass, 182 x 143 cm

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Form #5 (2018) Digital print, wood, plexiglass, 239 x 300 cm

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Form #8 (2018) Digital print, wood, plexiglass, 106 x 90 cm

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PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Katherine Lawson, researcher, curator and arts educator

Nadim Asfar: Habiter le jour Between body, tool and place The paradigmatic shift of what has been identified

the shifting of their weight and gait; the relationship

as the spatial turn has spawned a reconsideration of

they have with their own shadow.

different visual and textual representations of space, more specifically but not limited to urban space and

In Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday

the metropolis. As language acts and conduit for

Life, he positions the city walker as an agent

the experience and interpretation of space, fictional

who is constantly transforming spatial signifiers

and factual accounts of cities provide an opportunity

or manipulating the very foundations of spatial

to map a web of peripatetic, phenomenological

organization, an idea founded on the conception

and optical experiences—varying in their historical,

of space as a finite number of stable, isolatable and

social, material and geopolitical conditions. Within

interconnected properties. Pedestrian movement,

a multidimensional framework, space is viewed as

rather than merely producing a graphic trail, has the

a dynamic, flexible actor playing a crucial role in the

ability to occupy a space of enunciation, it is an activity

creation of social life.

which structures determining conditions of the city and of its social life. Asfar’s photographs serve as an

In Habiter le Jour, Nadim Asfar develops a visual

evocative manifestation of this principle, as we image

language to capture the textures, lines and bodies

the paths each pedestrian carves through the city

of contemporary Beirut from his home and studio

over time continually make and unmake the space

overlooking a dynamic crossing in the city. In a series

around them.

of photographs taken over several years by the

As opposed to contemplation, here one deals with

French-Lebanese artist, parked cars, neighbourhood

In 2018, the photographs were published in an

pure action: the trees that grow, the clouds that pass

balconies and passersby are framed and fixed from

eponymous book by Kaph Books with text by Hisham

by, the rivers, which move in a profound and powerful

three stories up. As a photographer and filmmaker,

Awad and the artist himself, which allow the viewer to

unconsciousness.

Asfar’s mastery of both still and moving image come

situate Asfar within the constellation of stolen glances

across through the way the photographs seem to be

that Habiter le Jour offers. Through writing, we come

In the photographs themselves, there are limited

suspended between the two, akin to the cinematic

to understand the ritual of his sustained engagement

visual cues to give a sense of place aside from the

still—there is an arresting sense of dynamism, of a part

with the street below and his dance with the blistering

architectural signifiers of surrounding apartments—

of a greater whole. The subtlety with which quotidian

mid-day sun. We become privy to his consideration of

figures move towards and away from undisclosed

details of these minimal street scenes are captured

photography as an embodied practice, as a constant

locations. Instead, these images ask us to tune our

allow the project to resist the sterile aesthetics of

negotiation between body, tool and place. He claims:

senses to the other more latent or subdued layers

surveillance or typology. Despite the fact that the bird’s

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The subtlety with which quotidian details of these minimal street scenes are captured allow the project to resist the sterile aesthetics of surveillance or typology.

that come to form public space in all its fluctuations.

eye view of anonymous pedestrians do not allow for

Writing and photographing are acts of disappearing

In looking at the body of work as a whole, a rhythm

the default practice of facial recognition, they come

and preserving oneself in the strength of words or

emerges through the artist’s intuitive choice of framing

to serve as intimate portraits through a different kind

images. ‘Perhaps I was not only looking to inhabit,

and composition that create new poetic possibilities

of presence: through the most minute of gestures or

but also to become a place, like the trees are a place.’

in imagining urban space and its inhabitants.

From the project Habiter le Jour (2004-2011)

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From the project Habiter le Jour (2004-2011)

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From the project Habiter le Jour (2004-2011)

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PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Writer - Emma Warburton, arts writer and researcher. Adapted from text by the artist.

Walid Layadi-Marfouk: RIAD Breaking preconceptions to resonate beyond cultural boundaries On August 10, 2016, the New York Times Magazine

attitudes towards Islam have been patterned by the

entrapped within a complex framework of thought

devoted an entire special issue to the Middle East

stories we hear, one news report after another. This

that it does not belong to, and it relinquishes

and its recent history of conflict and violence. One

collective ignorance has spawned a brand of fear

ownership of its own identity.

notable article, the only article in the entire issue

that we are all familiar with, however the issue is not

in fact, featured a comprehensive timeline of the

simply one of misinformation. If the Middle East,

As a young adult educated in Europe and the

turmoil the region is infamous for. From the Six-Day

North Africa, and their cultures are almost exclusively

U.S., Layadi-Marfouk acknowledges that he is

war of 1967 in the Sinai peninsula to the freeing

pictured in dire conditions, factual enlightenment

partially unqualified to discuss the ‘general muslim

of Palmyra from Daesh last summer, the in-depth

cannot—will not—suffice to reverse the deadly

experience’ (if ever such a blanket term carried

account is a critically acclaimed and remarkable

ideologies and problematic politics that have arisen

any meaning). But by telling his own story and

piece. Its ability to synthesize and clarify some

out of years of mis-education.

photographing people close to him, the artist

of the most complex issues in the region, and of

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attempts to shift the paradigm and bring diversity

our time, deserves the highest of praises. Yet, the

Growing up in Morocco, Walid Layadi-Marfouk was

to the Western-centric dialogue on Muslim culture

article is also evidence of an evil that has pervaded

fortunate to be surrounded by some wonderful

and its people.

the perception of the Middle East in the collective

men and women who remain in his life today. He

Western mind since before the artist was born. Ever

describes these relatives and friends—the people

Riad seeks to present its subjects in Middle

since the mid 90s, the region—and by association,

who shaped his upbringing—with admiration and

Eastern narratives that are unique to them, and

all Muslim cultures—has chiefly been represented

respect. Yet he expresses his disappointment in the

that transcend the oversimplified and generic ones

in contexts of violence, religious extremism, war,

inadequacy of language to describe people without

on offer in the mainstream media, because “...

bigotry and so on. Such depictions have at time

limiting them to a type, or an expectation. To the

singular identities are too often mischaracterized

been necessary, to catalyze world mobilization in

artist, glorifying the word “strong,” for instance, when

or even uncharacterized, and stripped of their

the face of human tragedy. But unfortunately these

describing a woman is to suggest that strength for

own individuality...” The artist uses himself and

representations are so prominent that they dwarf all

her is a special accomplishment. “In [photographs]

his relatives as subjects, and pictures them in

other aspects of Middle Eastern, North African, and

women are too often represented as soulful and

the ancestral home of his great-grandfather, in

Muslim cultures in Western mainstream media. The

resigned, sitting, holding their heads or praying—

Marrakech. Constructing a deeply personal visual

average American or European asked about Islam

while men are more likely to be shown standing

language, Layadi-Marfouk tries to separate these

is likely to conjure grim images of veiled figures or

and combative.” Layadi-Marfouk is generally

individuals from any preconceptions embedded in

sandy ruins—strikingly similar, in fact, to the main

opposed to these oversimplified representations

traditional Western imagery. Shot in an analog 4 x

image featured in the aforementioned New York

of roles and identities. He finds problems, too, with

5 chamber, the images are imbued with intimate,

Times special issue.

cultures being represented in the terms and codes

sentimental and empathetic quality, allowing them

of outsiders. Indeed, an argument could be made

to resonate beyond cultural boundaries. The world

Somehow, and tragically, these images have replaced

that certain adjectives and expressions in any given

of Riad is a self-contained environment, a reality of

all other possible representations of the culture and

language are necessary to build understanding and

its own, an island of autonomy and power in which

people of Islam. Abundant histories have been

empathy between groups. But when a culture is

the audience can perceive a sliver of Islamic culture

flattened by one sad, continuous narrative. Our

entirely described by an outsider’s codes, it becomes

in Morocco the way the artist did and still does.

Houma Bjouj (Comeradeship in Love) (2017) Archival pigment print, 111.8 x 90.2 cm

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In Memoriam (Her) and In Memoriam (Him) (2017) Archival pigment print, 111.8 x 90.2 cm

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Oum (Mother) (2017) Archival pigment, 111.8 x 90.2 cm

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Haya Jat (Starifixion) (2017) Archival pigment print, 111.8 x 90.2

NEW MEDIA Images - Courtesy of artist and Darat al Funun.

Writer - Joud Halawani Al-Tamimi, curator.

Mo’awia Bajis: Sounds of the City An audiovisual archive of multilayered urban experience Sounds of the City is an audiovisual installation

Traversing the quotidian and the political, Sound

by artist Mo’awia Bajis, part of Darat al Funun’s

of the City likewise reflects the disparities and

30th anniversary group exhibition. Delivering

contradictions characterizing a capital undergoing

an immersive sonic and visual experience, the

aggressive neoliberalisation and rapid urban

work features self-recorded sounds and videos

growth. The work as such reflects Bajis’ interest

from the urban scape of Amman. The scenes

in power and public space, or the ways in which

captured on a three-channel video projection

the political shapes the everyday. The young

deliver continuous contextual shifts fraught with

emerging artist believes that “urban elements

tension, moving back and forth between refugee

and objects can tell us a lot about existent

camps, informal markets, extravagant residential

hierarchies.”

areas, high-end supermarkets, working-class cafes, public schools and shopping malls.

The sociopolitical dimension of the audible becomes evident as sounds come to manifest

The effect is further heightened by the myriad

growing disparities. Low-income areas frequently

sounds that Bajis has been documenting

appear to be louder than the richer parts of

incessantly over the course of one year. The

Amman and their discourses are markedly

viewer is met with everything from cha’abi music

different. In a city where gentrification and

to the sounds of unofficial street sellers, fridges,

commercialisation have already exacerbated

Fourth Circle protestors, security forces, young

an entrenched socio-spatial segregation,

students and fervent football fans. The result is

Bajis presents an apt sociopolitical reading of

motive, however, is the transience of sound versus

a soundscape that submerges the viewer in a

the place, casting a critical lens on rampant

the more lasting essence of what is captured

multilayered urban experience.

inequities, dispossessions and erasures.

by video. The ephemeral nature of the sounds that narrate our cities comes with anxiety for

These sonic and visual experiences probe the

The artist’s interest in sound is twofold, and

Bajis, who is keen on recording stories that

complex identity of the city. The appearance of

it underscores his multidisciplinary approach.

speak to our collective memory before they

chanting football fans crowding up the streets

According to Bajis, “images provide a limited

vanish or disappear. This anxiety is intensified

and public squares might seem random at first

scope for imagination.” Bajis believes that the

by the accelerated pace of social, cultural and

glance, but to anyone who is familiar with the

various layers and textures of an urban scape

economic transformations. “In such a context, the

history of the country it evokes an identity politics

are impossible to record through image alone;

preservation of memory becomes increasingly

that has long shaped the trajectory of Amman.

“sound enables us to better understand latent

important,” insists Bajis. In a way, the work comes

Everyday scenes from Palestinian refugee camps

complexities and contradictions.”

to denote a protest against forgetting.

histories that have come to shape the city’s

The decision to combine image with sound

Sounds of the City, part of Darat al Funun’s 30th

development over the years.

is thus a strategic one. An equally significant

anniversary group exhibition.

are similarly reminiscent of all the layers and

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Sounds of the City, Audiovisual installation Sounds of the City, Stills from audiovisual work

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NEW MEDIA Images - Courtesy of artist. Writer - Corinna Ghaznavi, curator.

Jamelie Hassan: Neither from the East nor the West Complex connections through fragments of a verse

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Jamelie Hassan’s Neither From the East Nor the West

Hassan’s parents moved to Canada from Lebanon in

is an installation consisting of eleven log cut sections,

1914 and 1939. Hassan grew up in a small Canadian

mirror plastic panels with colour photography, and a

city in southwestern Ontario, a first generation

wall mounted roundel of calligraphy.

Canadian in a large Arabic household. Hassan

studied in Paris, Rome, Beirut and Baghdad and

The logs originate from a Norway Maple tree that

also has travelled extensively through Mexico,

fell during a storm on the artist’s property in London,

Cuba, Europe, the Middle East, India and China.

in the province of Ontario, Canada. When cut up for

Her work often references cultural exchange

firewood the interior of the tree revealed intricate

using traditional and contemporary art forms.

hollows and patterns like arabesque forms that had

Hassan complicates histories, representation

been hidden beneath the exterior of the tree trunk.

and constructions. Her resistance to binaries

Inspired by these forms and their relationship to

opens up ways of including contradictions and

Arabic calligraphy, Hassan inserted photographed

discontinuities, and reconsidering how the foreign

fragments from the Nur verse in the Qur’an that is

and familiar combine to create both distinct and

found on the ceiling of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul,

fluid cultures. Neither from the east nor the west

Turkey. Printed on mirror plastic the panels are

takes a quintessentially ‘Canadian’ tree, a maple,

inserted into nine of the eleven sections of log both

wherein arabesque forms are found, and connects it

the very nature of migration and new contexts

illuminating the cross sections and obscuring them on

to the wood of a sacred olive tree; using calligraphy

means that some references have become lost

the one side. The Nur verse is about light: Allah is the

she combines a traditional Arabic form with new

or are recuperated into new contexts. Neither of

light of the heavens and the earth. The example of his

media and found, site specific material, to create

the east nor of the west does not signify a lack of

light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is

an installation that demonstrates the connections

location but rather an alternative space where the

within a glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white]

and discontinuities of cultures. Depending on the

connections and meanings are fluid and changing,

star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree neither of

viewer, the calligraphy may be read or may appear

and where the whole is never fully transparent nor

the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow

as aesthetic form the mirrored surface of the panel

does it perhaps exist at all.

even if untouched by fire. In a gesture typical for her

both holds the form and resists penetration. Pulling

practice Hassan pulls together diverse references,

together the various threads we have a Qur’an

As history commences, migration occurs, new

geographies, the secular and the spiritual, to create

verse that relates the light that is Allah, a light that

allegiances are formed and traditions combine with

an installation that addresses complex connections.

is universal; forms that connect found in the natural

the new. Links between individuals, geographies

Light reveals intricate arabesque forms within the

world, and a culturally distinct script; the secular and

and communities complicate, creating culturally

hollows of the tree trunk; the hollows allow light

spiritual, traditional and contemporary, and distinct

distinct, specific and open identities. Splitting open

to penetrate and cast shadows, while the mirrored

geographical locations. One does not need to

a log in southwestern Ontario reveals references

panels reflect and radiate the light.

‘know’ all to be embedded in this artwork because

to an Arabic script that aresilent yet illuminating.

From the series Neither From the East Nor the West (2014) Dimensions variable 11 maple wood log sections; digital photography mounted onto mirror plastic, blue wall paint Photo credit: Rehab Nazzal

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SERIES Artist - From Egypt, lives and works in Cairo.

Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Ahmad El Abi: Selfie Destruction “It’s important to love what you do,” states Ahmad El Abi, an Egyptian artist who left a career in medicine to follow his true passion and devotion to conceptual arts. He takes a hands-on approach with his projects, from ideation to delivery. His work reflects diverse subjects inspired by people and their everyday experiences. El Abi always seeks to develop new ways of embodying visual impulses in his artwork.

Often El Abi begins with writing down random ideas inspired by the daily situations he comes across. He visualizes them and builds on them and rarely sketches before staging his photographs. Instead, he relies on his faculties of imagination and improvisation to guide the artistic process. El Abi buys and collects objects and props all the time, even when he doesn’t have a plan for when or where he will use them. Because El Abi can never predict what will inspire him.

El-Abi is an Egyptian artist who transitioned from medicine into the creative field of art making. His work has been featured in numerous print and online international publications, as well as at major art exhibitions in Egypt, the UAE and France. Alongside his private artistic practice, El-Abi currently works as a senior art director in an international advertising agency in Cairo.

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The Anatomical Mask, from the series Selfie Destruction (2015)

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Clockwise: The Safety Officer (2018) The Bird Man (2017) The Muppet Man (2015) The Gift (2015) From the series Selfie Destruction.

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The Extensive Celebration, from the series Selfie Destruction (2016)

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SERIES Artist - From Syria, lives and works in Damascus.

Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Ayham Jabr: Collage Works Ayham Jabrâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collage work exists between science fiction and autobiography. The artist uses the internet, magazines, archival photographs, scans and other sources to juxtapose imagery from his surroundings of Damascus, Syria, with alien landscapes and references to outer space. The resulting images use a unique visual vocabulary to articulate the surrealistic details and absurdities of war. Jabr sees collage as a form of communication, just like painting, music and poetry.

Jabr is a surreal collage artist, a video editor, a videographer and a graphic designer. He studied electronics at Damascus University, and continues to live there. He spends most of his time working in his small studio or walking through the old city. He works as a video editor for a televised series and is currently focusing on a short tele-documentary.

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Internal Landscape (2017) Digital collage, 34 x 47 cm

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Previous page: The Clear Message (2017) Digital collage, 21 x 32 cm Damascus Under Siege (2016) Digital collage, 43 x 58 cm A fleet of martian spacecrafts besieges and surrounds Damascus, the oldest capital in the world.

With as they claim, “We Came For Peace”. And ends in the total annihilation… To THEM.

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Surah (2016) Digital collage, 34 x 51 cm The Visionary of Wayfaring (2017) Digital collage, 32 x 46 cm

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The Guardian of Life (2017) Digital collage, 34 x 47 cm

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SERIES Artist - From Morocco, lives and works in Marrakech.

Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Ismail Zaidy: Personal World Twenty-one year old Ismail Zaidy was born and raised in Marrakech, Morocco, where he completed a BA in International Management in 2018 from Cadi Ayad. Zaidy started taking pictures during the summer of 2017 as a way of capturing his artistic perspective on his personal world. From his experiments in photography, Zaidy has developed a style that is abstract and minimalist. He takes the majority of his photos with a Samsung phone. Family is intrinsic to the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creativity, and his siblings appear in much of his work.

Zaidy lives and works in Marrakech, Morocco. In 2018, he was awarded Instagram Account of the Year at the Maroc Web Awards and was named one of five top photographers of the year by VSCO Edge to Edge. Zaidy was also interviewed for CNN Arabia, and for an upcoming article in Vice: Arabia. The artist has a future collaboration planned with Habibi Funk at Hassan Hajjaj Mi Casa su Casa for the 1-54 art fair in Marrakesh. @L4artiste

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Catch A Dream (2018) The orange is symbolic of the artist.

The image of the cloud is a reflection of our dreams.

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Silence Speaks (2018)

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Fatima Zohra (2018) Moroccan artists are not given a creative platform, so I felt the need to shine the light; Orange symbolises the artist.

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Equality (2018) Two young people refusing to adhere to sexual divisions/inequality Next page: Strained Bonds (2018) Creatives pulling against each other despite having the same objectives.

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SERIES Artist - From Algeria / France, lives and works in London.

Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Hamida Zourgui: Digital Collage Growing up in France, Hamida Zourguiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Algerian background played a major role in the construction of her identity, which is a recurring subject in her work. The artist works primarily in mixed media collages often make reference to cultural duality, colonialism, as well as the female spirit and body. Zourgui often strives for fresh portrayals of the Algerian woman, and her work illustrates her interest in aesthetically and conceptually moving away from the typical notions of Orientalism that have tinted collective views of modern Algerian women. Zourgui has said that her background in art history has played a significant role in her approach to art-making, as the artist often appropriates and repurposes archival images from the French occupation of Algeria into her work.

Zourgui is a French-Algerian mixed media artist based in London. She has an MA in art history and sociology and has worked in museums and art spaces in varying capacities. With the Muslim female artists collective Variant Space, Zougui showcased her work in London and New York. The artist has also given talks as part of the Pop Art from North Africa collective exhibition at the P21 Gallery in London. Zourgui holds the post of assistant curator at Variant Space, London, and is a freelance art journalist.

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Alf Hila ou Hila (2018)

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Clockwise: Lasnamia, Golden and Choufou el Hila (2018)

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Hayek (2019)

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From the series Insight Into Nature (2017)

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From the series Insight Into Nature (2017)

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SERIES Artist - From Lebanon, lives and works in Beirut.

Images - Courtesy of the artist.

Shogh Ian: Faceless People of Renaissance Shogh Ian has been experimenting and creating from a young age. Art was always a fascination, and a way for the artist to think on and engage with her environment. Ian began making art with a pen and paper, moving to oil and brushes and eventually practising with digital mediums and her computer. For Ian, concepts are more important than materials and tools. The artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work is informed by mood, emotion and intuition, and deals with themes of infinity and energy. Of her work, Ian has said â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I want people to ask themselves questions such as, how do I identify myself, beyond familial and social conditioning? Is it possible to be spontaneous, real and authentic? What are the masks that I wear, and who is behind them? Why do we seek to escape reality?

Essentially, who am I, as an individual?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Shogh Ian was born to Lebanese Armenian parents. Her interest in color and form was apparent at an early age, and she later took formal studies in Fine Art and Interior Architecture. Over the past few years Ian has participated in numerous group exhibitions and shown her work alongside many talented Lebanese artists. At present, she lives and works in Beirut, where she maintains an active art practice.

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The Melting Mask, from the series Faceless People of Renaissance (2018) 50 x 65 cm

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The Witnesser, from the series Faceless People of Renaissance (2018) 20 x 29 cm

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Clockwise: Clown 30 x 42 cm, Portrait II, 50 x 65 cm; The girl with an ermine, 50 x 65 cm; Portrait III 50 x 65 cm from the series Faceless People of Renaissance (2018)

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PROJECT SPACE Various Images from Instagram account

Low-Rez: Fares Akhaoui

and World Music. For

Jump-starting a platform for emerging creators

has negative and

Akhaoui, the internet positive aspects but Low-Rez would not have been possible

Fares Akhaoui is the creator of Low-Rez, a photography and culture magazine,

without the internet.

which originated out of the realisation that many of his friends were interested

In discussion about the

in having their work seen, but did not know where to show it.

current pace we live in he states ‘The internet

‘Well, this first issue is really just some of my photography and just a kind

is cool though, you can

of tester for me, as it’s my first-time publishing anything,’ said Akhaoui.

look up whatever you

The first issue by Akhaoui was an experiment, and his first experience in

need when only 30

publishing. ‘For the future, however, I want to make it a haven for up and

years ago people had to go to libraries and look things up. I can’t imagine

coming artists. Whether that be through interviews or photoshoots or even

how much more effort that must’ve taken. It’s a more complicated time but

being featured on Low-Rez radio—a weekly Spotify playlist that I’ve been

I can’t really imagine being born before it.’

making,’ continues Akhaoui.

Digital photographers like Rinko Kawauchi and Wolfgang Tillmans are some of

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Akhaoui’s main goal is to become a filmmaker. There are also various

Akhaoui’s favourite artists. He has a strong appreciation for experimentation,

filmmakers that have inspired his projects. ‘So a lot of films come to mind,

and finds sticking to one medium, such as film or digital imaging, limiting.

Jonas Mekas’s As I was moving ahead occasionally I saw brief glimpses of

The ability to experiment with a variety of media and sources provides a lot

life is probably my main source of inspiration for Low-Rez. David Lynch’s work

more potential to develop and explore. Akhaoui looks to the future: ‘I want

and the distortion of reality he shows in his films is another huge source of

to start shooting more on digital but I just need to graduate high school

inspiration.’ He also is motivated by a variety of music from Pop, Rap, Ambient,

before I really go out and start planning.’

ART DUBAI CONTEMPORARY ADDIS FINE ART, Addis Ababa · AGIAL ART, Beirut · AICON ART, New York · AKAR PRAKAR, Kolkata / New Delhi · ANDERSEN’S, Copenhagen · ASPAN, Almaty · PIERO ATCHUGARRY, Pueblo Garzón / Miami · ATHR, Jeddah · ATISS DAKAR, Dakar · AYYAM, Dubai · CARBON 12, Dubai · GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Havana · CUSTOT, Dubai · DASTAN’S BASEMENT, Tehran · ERTI, Tbilisi · EXPERIMENTER, Kolkata · ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE, Dubai · GAZELLI ART HOUSE, Baku / London · GREEN ART GALLERY, Dubai · GROSVENOR, London · HAFEZ, Jeddah · LEILA HELLER, Dubai / New York · KRISTIN HJELLEGJERDE, London / Berlin · IN SITU-FABIENNE LECLERC, Paris · MICHAEL JANSSEN, Berlin · DR. DOROTHEA VAN DER KOELEN, Mainz / Venice · KORNFELD, Berlin · KRINZINGER, Vienna · ANNA LAUDEL, Istanbul · LAWRIE SHABIBI, Dubai · CHRISTIAN LETHERT, Cologne · MAM, Douala · MEEM, Dubai · VICTORIA MIRO, London / Venice · FRANCO NOERO, Turin · OFFICINE DELL’IMMAGINE, Milan · ORBITAL DAGO, Bandung · OTA FINE ARTS, Shangai / Singapore / Tokyo · GIORGIO PERSANO, Turin · PRIMO MARELLA, Milan / Lugano · PROJECT ARTBEAT, Tbilisi · RONCHINI, London · THE ROOSTER, Vilnius · ROSENFELD PORCINI, London · SANATORIUM, Istanbul · SEISMASUNO, Madrid · SFEIR-SEMLER, Beirut / Hamburg · SMAC, Johannesburg / Cape Town / Stellenbosch · FILOMENA SOARES, Lisbon · SPRÜTH MAGERS, Berlin / London / Los Angeles · WALTER STORMS, Munich · TORE SUESSBIER, Berlin · TEMPLON, Paris / Brussels · THE THIRD LINE, Dubai · VOICE, Marrakech · WADI FINAN, Amman · ZAWYEH, Ramallah · ZIDOUN-BOSSUYT, Luxembourg · ZILBERMAN, Istanbul / Berlin BAWWABA · Curated by Élise Atangana 856G, Mandaue City – Kristoffer Ardeña · AICON CONTEMPORARY, New York – Adeela Suleman · ANNE-SARAH BÉNICHOU, Paris – Chourouk Hriech · CANVAS, Karachi – Hamra Abbas · GUZO ART PROJECTS, Addis Ababa – Wanja Kimani · GYPSUM, Cairo – Gözde İlkin · EMMANUEL HERVÉ, Paris – Sérgio Sister · JHAVERI CONTEMPORARY, Mumbai – Shezad Dawood · PERVE GALERIA, Lisbon – José Chambel · VERMELHO, São Paulo – Marcelo Moscheta RESIDENTS · Curated by Fernanda Brenner & Munira Al Sayegh A GENTIL CARIOCA, Rio de Janeiro – Laura Lima · PIERO ATCHUGARRY, Pueblo Garzón / Miami – Verónica Vázquez · BARRO, Buenos Aires – Nicanor Aráoz · RUTH BENZACAR, Buenos Aires – Luciana Lamothe · CASA TRIÂNGULO, São Paulo – Rodolpho Parigi · GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Havana – José Manuel Mesías · INSTITUTO DE VISIÓN, Bogotá – Mazenett Quiroga · MENDES WOOD DM, São Paulo / Brussels / New York – Luiz Roque · GALERIA PILAR, São Paulo – Flora Rebollo · REVOLVER, Lima / Buenos Aires – Jerry B. Martin · SERVANDO, Havana – Luis Enrique López-Chávez · LUISA STRINA, São Paulo – Alexandre da Cunha ART DUBAI MODERN DAG, New Delhi / Mumbai / New York · DHOOMIMAL GALLERY, New Delhi · ELMARSA GALLERY, Tunis / Dubai · GROSVENOR GALLERY, London · MARK HACHEM, Beirut / Paris / New York · HAFEZ GALLERY, Jeddah · GALLERY ONE, Ramallah · PERVE GALERIA, Lisbon · SANCHIT ART, New Delhi · TAFETA, London · UBUNTU ART GALLERY, Cairo