Art And Blow

Beyrouth, 6db Underground - Portraits

2009-09-03T12:17:00.004-04:00

So Its been awhile... lets just say I was distracted.

A few months ago I was invited by friends to see a 45 minute documentary about the Underground music scene in Beirut. It was screened in conjunction with a photography exhibition by Tanya Traboulsi. The exhibition entitled "Music is Life- Lebanese Sound Stills" provided an intimate view into the different musicians currently involved in the music scene.

The documenary.. or as the co director calls it.. portraits.. is called Beyrouth, 6db Underground. Im still not sure about the title. Beyrouth 6db Underground. I guess it is supposed to give location, theme and Im assuming the underground part references war?
The Basement, a popular club in Beirut had a slogan during the war in 06.. Basement - Its Safer Underground.. but I digress.

I am going to preface this entire rant by saying this 45 minute piece is considered a work in progress. It is a long teaser to get you excited for what is to be a full length documentary.

NYC the Bronx hearts Gaza

2009-01-11T18:22:00.002-05:00

This is a piece that was done in the Bronx...

For those in Gaza ... you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Stay Stong

Tine

Tamer Nafar, DAM and Palestinian hip-hop

2008-12-28T01:15:00.008-05:00

A dear friend of A and B living in Beirut had seen Slingshot Hiphop at a screening in the Palestinian Refugee camp Bourj Al Barajneh last August and immediately emailed raving about what an impact the film had made. The film, directed by Jackie Salloum , documents the emergence of Palestinian Hip-Hop and the numerous obstacles everyone within the hip-hop community faces. When I met up with her a few months later she still could only talk about Tamer Nafar from DAM and what a wonderful source of inspiration he had been for her. When things began to feel overwhelming and she needed to look for inner strength.. she would think of Tamer.

Thanks Tamer for inspiring...

Tamara Al Samerraei @ Agial Art Gallery

2008-12-17T13:59:00.013-05:00

Recently I have noticed, the less an artist can say about their own work, the less likely I am to interact with it. The lack of a well drafted artist's statement leads one to believe that the artist is still not entirely convinced or perhaps comfortable with what exactly they are trying to express through their work. The artist's statement for Beirut based artist Tamara Al-Samerraei's solo exhibition Something White is one sentence long.

Going Back to the catalogue for the 2006 group exhibition of women artists Shu Tabkha ya Mara co-curated by Zena el Khalil and Halleh Founouni, Tamara included a brief blurb mentioning her own inability to describe her work. Instead, there is a paragraph signed Najah Taher

“I wonder who those girls are and how much simile there is between them and the artist. The little girls are fragments of her memory, representations of what could have been a thought or a situation, a teasing temptation. They could be little peter pans, fallen angels, or fickle fairies! They are mere shadows.
There is hesitation and stinginess in the work, as if she is afraid of finalizing a statement, like the fear of finalizing a memory. For memories are like shadows, they should keep changing or else they would fade and die.
How long can these peak-a-boo creatures maintain their posture before they get tired, bored, restless, and leave the set?”

While that description rings true, how much more meaningful would it have been if only the artist had described those emotions using her own voice?

The works exhibited in Something White are surreal moments presented to the viewer as eerie vignettes of possible dreams. These girls are preserved, frozen in a space/ time that is not defined. Depending on the point of view, they are either liberated from notions of time and space or isolated from them. The back ground is minimal and non-discript, thereby adding a crucial element of suspense. In fact that is what is compelling about her work, the way in which she captures the tension found in the pause before the climax.

One example of that is Mouse Trap. Caught just before the impending action, the painting depicts a girl mischievously acknowledging the viewer as she is about to put her hand out to trigger the device. This is a game of tempting fate, and the suspense lies in the moment just before the climax, this will hurt and she knows it will hurt, yet the girl continues to threaten the viewer that she is not afraid to consciously hurt herself.

Looking at these images there is a certain familiarity with the use of iconography. Monkeys, stags, or better yet replace the bike for the wheel chair or the hospital bed and these are all objects present in the paintings of Frida Kahlo. Yet these works lack much of the richness, the detail and the intimacy.

The color palette of faded, washed out pastel pinks, greens, yellows and blues dominate Tamra's work. Traces of crimson red add interest to images of her girls at the age of self-discovery. The tone of these works is consistent, mysteriously haunting and ethereal. Unfortunately, there is an overwhelming feeling of self doubt or a lack of commitment that comes across. Is it fear or hesitation emitted from the subject or is it coming from the artist? Are these youthful figures fading from the viewer or are they hesitant marks on a canvas?

Then there is a work like A love Story to restore faith in the artist. The painting is one of the strongest in the exhibition compositionally speaking. A lone girl, clad in a vivid red dress kneels over a stag type animal that is on its back, legs in the air. Her red dress at the same time appears to almost flow from the animal's body. The viewer's eye circles visually clockwise from the girl's head, to the out-stretched hand, to the red dart in the animal and finally back to the red dress. The scene is contained within a half circle that anchors the image, repeating the circle.

With a piece such as this ... Tamara Al Samerraei is an artist to watch for her haunting portrayal of how we hurt ourselves; bows and arrows, guns, mouse traps, life and love.

Tamara Al Samerraei Something White at Agial Art Gallery from December 4th to December 27, 2008
.T

hometown baghdad - 38 webisodes

2008-12-16T16:00:00.010-05:00

This post is in support of Muntazer Al-Zaidi ...

Hometown Baghdad is a webumentary. It is a 38 part series that follow the life of 3 college age Iraqis; Adel an engineer student and rock musician, Ausama a student at Med school, and Saif a student in dentistry. Each one is living or barely living in Baghdad. artandblow is a little late in checking it out, but better late than never!
click here to the watch all 38 installments of the webumentary...

Hometown Baghdad was launched in March 2007 and the webisodes were uploaded over a period of 3 months.
The project was a collaboration between Iraqi filmmakers Ziad Turkey, Fady Hadid and New York based youth dialogue media company, Chat the Planet.

Hometown Baghdad is currently included in War as a Way of Life guest curated by Clayton Campbell at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA.

The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art submission open call

2008-12-16T13:45:00.005-05:00

Hello to all the artists in the Middle East and beyond...
artandblow just received an email about a submission open call
There are many museums out there and they need to be represented...

Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art now accepting images

World-renowned Collection’s First-Ever Call For Submissions
The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art, the world’s largest collection of images of art museum toilets taken at various art museums around the world, is seeking to add to its unique collection through a call for submissions from other art museum art toilet aficionados.

The site currently houses exclusive images ranging from the prestigious marble lavatory at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, behind-closed-doors shots of the Hermitage’s latrines and the decaying (yet still flushing) pictures of the MongolianArt Museum’s commodes.

“Our collection is one-of-a-kind, yet we realize that in today’s globalized world that it is important to expand our collection of images,” stated R. M. Schlemielle, Director of The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art. “We are seeking to have an image from every museum on the globe represented in our collection.”

The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art was officially founded in 2005 and since its inception, staff members have tirelessly been collecting images from around the world. Believed by experts to be the world’s largest, it was built to showcase the forgotten art that can be found in every museum.

By opening its doors and asking the public to add to its collection, the museum is entering an exciting new chapter for both the museum and the art world.
The official submission process includes sending an image to: submissions@artmuseumtoilet.org. Museum officials ask that each image be labeled with the name of the museum, the day the photo was taken and the name of the photographer. All will be posted if the image is selected.
"The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art was founded in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp, who in 1917 produced the sculpture “Fountain” and changed the way we view art," Schlemielle said. "This piece essentially showcased that art may not be hanging in the proud walls of a museum gallery, but in the common objects of everyday life -- even in the restroom. This website is asking some of the same questions about the current art establishment and questions what defines high brow art."

For more information about The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art please contact: info@artmuseumtoilet.org.

*Please note all images sent to the museum become property of the museum and can be printed & distributed at will and become property of The ArtMuseumToiletMuseum of Art.

The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art is a collection that features digital works. All images, text, concepts sent to the museum become property of the museum and can be copied, distributed and utilized for marketing collateral at will. The Museum also sells a catalog, select clothing, postcards, posters, prints and CDs.

Here is an example:

Je Veux Voir (I Want to See)

2008-12-14T18:27:00.012-05:00

Recently I had the chance to see Khiam, a film by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas presently at Pratt Manhattan Gallery as part of the Zones of Conflict exhibition curated by TJ Demos. I must admit that when I had received a reminder email about a screening of Je Veux Voir at the MoMA I was hesitant to leave home and make the trek to mid-town, the heart of holiday shopping madness. However, its winter in NYC and what better way to stay warm than seeing a movie. Over several years now I have followed the work of the directors of the film and I was a bit curious. Plus, who could pass up a chance to see the ever elegant icon of cinema Catherine Deneuve acting along side Rabih Mroueh?

After reading some posts about the movie by other writers who had seen the film either in Beirut last month or in France where it was released last week ... I was prepared to come out wishing I had never gone in, even if there were supposedly a handful of memorable moments. Like Rabih Mroueh points out in the film, he wasn't very interested in taking a trip to visit the south because it made him feel like a tourist, I too was apprehensive about watching this trip. Yet the film had gained notoriety at the Cannes Film Festival this year where it was included in the "Un Certain Regard" selection. So maybe it wouldn't be that difficult to sit through.

Entering the MoMA movie theater, almost all the seats were taken so I sat front row center. As soon as the movie began I was positive I would in fact have a good laugh ...and not in a good way. Within the first few minutes however I was drawn in, and excited to participate in this day trip. I wanted to see where they went, experience getting there, and how the story would unfold.

Before continuing any farther, I think it is necessary to make a brief detour. Je Veux Voir brings forth issues of memory that have surfaced in past films by the directors. Autour de la Maison Rose (1999) is one of Khalil and Joana's first full length films whose story line was centered around the re-urbanization project of Beirut following the end of the civil war. The film depicts the debate within a family made refugees during the war as they confront eviction from an abandoned house they had squatted. Members of the local community become involved in their fight to save the house they had made theirs. With the re-urbanization project many old historic homes were torn down to make way for large modern apartment buildings. In reality, this came to be quite a topic of debate for many because of its socio economic impact of the city. Looking back on that film and the issues it raised about rebuilding, erasing the urban landscape and the memories attached, it is interesting to see how these same directors, almost ten years later found a way to discuss the southern suburbs of Beirut and the devastation of the south in 2006. With the climax of the film there is a troubling sensation of disorientation.

What stunned me most about this film is its simplicity. It is exactly what it is, two people meeting for the first time, about to embark on a trip that would bring them closer. During the car ride there are touching moments of intimacy where the two begin to talk about life, and acting yet are brought back to the reality of the situation. They are interrupted abruptly by the sudden noise of Israeli jets flying over head or by land mines under foot. It is as if there is no escaping the war despite its official end. Watching these two actors develop a relationship we see the apprehension and uncertainty in Catherine Deneuve's face. The more uncomfortable she feels the more she stresses the need for fastening her seat belt as Rabih continues with the certain confidence one can only gain through experience.

Having seen the film, the book Le Tour de France par Deux Enfants , written by G Bruno after the annexation of Alsace Lorrain comes to mind. It is an example of what this film achieves. The book followed two children as they enbarked on a year long trip to discover the regions of the country. They were visiting areas of the country that had not been accessible for a period of time. Mandatory reading in French grade school, Le Tour de France par Deux Enfants was a sort of rediscovery of the richness of the country. While Je Veux Voir is by no means intended as a propaganda or instructional tool as was the case of Le Tour de France Par Deux Enfants, there is a common idea of the trip as a way of confronting and renegotiating one's country. Rabih and Catherine with the help of the directors are discovering and at the same time rediscovering an area of Lebanon that had in recent history been occupied as well as being the site of an extremely destructive war. It would seem that the act of making this trip to the south is a type of memory site as described by French historian Pierre Nora. As Nora suggests "fear of a rapid and final disappearance combines iwth anxiety about the meaning of the present and uncertainty about the future to give even the most humble testimony, the most modest vestige, the potential dignity of the memorable." This film blocks the work of forgetting with its willingness not to forget the recent past.

Truly Khalil and Joana have an eye for visually poetic moments. The over all look of the film is visually exquisite. Throughout the film, the moments of silence can at times be more powerful than the dialogue. Like in life, sometimes absence of speech is stronger than words. At other points there is visual relief from the seriousness of the subject matter as the countryside rolls by with its lush greenery and rich colors of the crop fields.

It is interesting to mention Wael Noureddine's July Trip as a contrast. July Trip took the viewer into the heart of the 33 day war. Wael filmed the seemingly endless miles of destroyed shops and houses from his car window. Driving and filming the structures we got a sense of the magnitude of the situation. He chose to show the gruesome effects of violence. Yet Khalil and Joana take us to one village or rather a portion of a village after the cease fire, and in doing so they define the location, it is where Rabih spent his childhood, making the trip intimatly personal. For Catherine Bint Jbeil will no longer a word on a map, it is the familial home of someone whom she would refer to as a friend by the end of the film.

Let it Go by Scrambled Eggs signals the end of the film. It is a wonderful track and a perfect ending to a not so perfect day.

Love dear love just listen to me let it go.. let it go go..

The Trailer:

Interview with Rabih Mroueh:

A selection of scenes from the movie:

Adel Abdessemed - Situation and Practice

2008-11-18T19:25:00.009-05:00

Growing up watching Tom and Jerry, the conflict was always the crux of the cartoon,
but the underdog would always win. Jerry would always get away and Tom would always get hurt. There was never murder, just self-defense. The violence that we were cheering in the cartoon was justifiable. Jerry was out witting Tom for survival. Adel Abdessemed is not afraid to show what happens when the Cat eats a Rat. The food chain in action, an animal eating another. Isn't it just survival of the fittest? Is his piece Birth of Love (1'30" sec. loop, 2006) art or straight up controversy?

An exhibition of his work entitled Dont Trust Me was to open last March at the San Francisco Art Institute but instead it was canceled due to protest from animal rights activists. The exhibition consisted of 6 looped videos of animals - a sheep, a horse, an ox, a pig a goat and a doe - getting their heads bashed by a sledgehammer. The image lasts seconds, so quick its difficult to fully comprehend what is happening, are we witnesses to slaughter or sacrifice? Abdessemed is pushing the limits of moral, social, religious constructs to demonstrate a sort of beauty in violence. This type of violence is something humans inflict on each other daily and yet there is little outcry. The social critic is simple; Trust blindly and we as humans are just as easily subject to a similar fate.

Axe On (2007) is an installation using 154 kebab knives arranged in clusters of 12-15. Through a open advertisement at Appartement 22 in Rabat, Morocco, People were invited to donate their used knives to the project. The knives were then placed in clusters, point side down, as if they were odd bouquets growing out of the floor.

At the 52nd Venice Bienniale, Abdessemed replaced several exit signs with the word exil in neon light. An obvious word play, Exil also brings to mind feelings of isolation and exclusion that the word often becomes associated with. It is one of the examples of the wit employed by the artist to engage the viewer.

The Rue Lemercier was the setting for a more complex street action. With the help an animal trainer, Abdessemed unleashes animals once native to North Africa; a horse (Jump and Jolt,2006), a lion (Seperation,2006), an adder (Zero Tolerence,2006) and wild boars(Sept Freres-2006)onto the empty street of the residential "Haussman" 17th arrondissement of Paris. These animals are placed in a context far from their native habitat. The banal, wild animals, are made dramatic by putting them in an urban context. Mirroring the large number of North Africans assimilating to life in Paris, there are direct parallels between the human experience and that of the animals. The street action or Act, a term Abdessemed prefers to use because of political implications the word connotes.

His work is a direct critic of violence that extends beyond the east/west divide. He experiments with a variety of media from sculptural installation to video and photography, from animation to street interventions. Abdessemed plays with subjects that touch a more global interest in human relations, morality, social and religious taboos. Yet he is direct, and to the point. In a recent interview with Brian Sholis published in ArtForum, Abdessemed explains, "Art today should be about building something new, not only destroying what is unjust or what you do not like. To destroy is easy, to build is quite hard."

Practice Zero Tolerence is a life size terra cotta sculpture of an over turned car from the riots that swept through the Paris Banlieu into the heart of the city in 2005. The car as an object has become a symbol of wide spread violence from car bombs that have affected civilians from Afghanistan to Algeria to street violence in urban centers.

The exhibition Situation and Practice is a collection of new and recent works by Adel Abdessemed currently at the List Visual Arts Center at MIT in Boston.

Emily Jacir - Hugo Boss Prize 2008

2008-11-14T05:57:00.011-05:00

Installation view of Material for a Film (2005 to present) Venice Biennale 2007

Emily Jacir has won this year's Hugo Boss Prize. The $100,000 award, established in 1996 by the Guggenheim Museum and named for the German men's wear company that sponsors it, is given every two years for significant achievement in contemporary art.

Jacir was given the award for her work that ``bears witness to a culture torn by war and displacement,'' the prize's jury said, in a statement. ``Emily is a visionary,'' Hugo Boss spokesman Philipp Wolff said in an interview yesterday evening, after the announcement. ``What's so special about her is that her work is subtle and embracing at the same time.''

In a recent interview Emily mentioned that so many foreigner "experts" feel they can speak on behalf of Palestinians. Who better to explain what she sees, hears and feels in her own words.

Congratulations Emily!

Khosrow Hassanzadeh - Ya Ali Madad

2008-11-13T20:06:00.014-05:00

Blending images of the past with contemporary aesthetics, the recent work of Khosrow Hazzanzadeh honors traditions while pushing forward.

This series concentrates on the Pahlavan wrestlers, heros from the turn of the century Qajar period (1794- 1925) . These men would pray to Ali using the words Ya Ali Madad. Calling on Ali, the first Imam in the Shi'a tradition is considered to bring strength and luck because he is a protector of the poor or the underdog. People continue to call on Ali, Ya Ali Madad.

In order to highlight the importance of the prayer, the letters that spell out Ya Ali Madad cover the canvas. The movement of the letters creates pattern and texture. The repetition of script in turn echos the words until they become seemingly uttered without pauses for breath.

The imagery repeats itself multiple times becoming a continuous investigation into form and color. The technique remains the same, silkscreen and acrylic on canvas. The colors are vivid, deep and sumptuous. Azur blue, oranges, Gold, turqoise and deep reds all vie for the eye's attention. Placing images from the series Ya Ali Madad next to Persian illuminated manuscripts there is a familiar blending of script, pattern and form.

The Pahlavan are the central figures in the series. The two men hold hands as a court intellectual, a dervish, a General and a mullah are seated on either side of them. These individuals came together to pray before the wrestlers would begin. For Khosrow the Pahlavan represent a past that is he fears is disappearing from contemporary Iran's cultural memory.
By returning to the imagery and lore of the Pahlavan, the artist aims to remind the viewer of the strength, beauty and honor that these men possessed. He is interested in recalling the memory of a period in time. The figures haunt this series as their images become reduced as in one canvas to simply gold outlines on black canvas.

Pieces of this series are currently on view at B21 Gallery in Dubai. This is his second solo exhibition in Dubai.

Concurrently, pieces are also included in the exhibition Living Traditions: Contemporary Art from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Jean Marc Nahas - Douces Violences 2005-2008

2008-11-10T17:47:00.016-05:00

The work of Jean Marc Nahas is striking and perhaps somewhat abrasive. In his brush strokes there is determination. His signature strong, thick lines can be mistaken for rapid, even reckless haphazardness. Yet upon a further inspection his images feel as if they have been part of an on going visual improvisational piece. There is constant feeling of movement and evolution. He is able to capture a moment, a pause, a break in the daily routine before the subject continues to the next.

Nahas captures the briefness of a moment, the quickness of a single movement. The strength of his work lies in his ability to analysis the overall form of the body and what can be expressed through the simple brush stroke. Strong line is able to convey emotion and form. Of that, Jean Marc Nahas is master.

In his stroke there is an element of sadness, melancholy or solitude. We feel pain in his figures. Their inner struggles are made evident through the artist's brush. His use of color is equally as direct as his use of line. Bold reds, blues and yellows serve as a strong contrast to his use of blacks and grays. Nahas speaks with minimal line and equally minimal color.

Catastrophe, a alrge scale installation, was originally set to take place at the UMAM in Beirut but due to the destruction of some of the roof of the building, the installation was actually exhibited at Zico House in the winter of 2006.

His most recent exhibition Douces Violences 2005-2008 is currently on view at the Gefinor Center in Beirut from October 17th to the 29th of November.

His work can also be seen from November 17th to the 21st at Artparis - AbuDhabi in the Young Talents exhibition curtesy of the Epreuve d'Artiste Gallery.

T

Sabhan Adam - Red October

2008-11-05T13:02:00.024-05:00

Autodidact artist Sabhan Adam (1972) has emerged as one of the more internationally known young painters in Syrian contemporary art. His work is confrontational, haunting, fanciful, humorus and intensly curious. In an interview between Diala Jumail and the artist, he states "Behind every beautiful thing lies ugliness: that thought pleased me and scared me at the same time. I don’t think like everyone else.”

From those few words Sabhan Adam summarizes the dichotomy between ugliness and beauty that plays out on his canvases. Perhaps so much so that the viewer is made uncomfortable or even made to feel a slight repulsion. Yet that spark of emotion is what draws one to his work. Because his faces are flawed and imperfect, their ugliness becomes fascinating. The initial shock over, and one becomes intrigued and even enamored with his figures.

This leads to the following philosophical questions: what constitutes ugly? Is beauty its natural opposite? What do we as the viewers learn about the artist as we become familiar with his personal aversions? Perhaps it is through an intimate connection between the viewer and the works themselves that what was initially unapproachable becomes endearing, beautiful. They become more and more aesthetically pleasing the deeper the emotional connection.

The figures that populate Sabhan's canvases are reflections of the artist himself. They share similar facial features, they are filled with the anger and sadness that resides within their creator. These figures are witness to isolation and human suffering. Through them Sabhan is able to render the psyche visible in its most pure state.

Looking at his paintings one can see parallels in his work and that of other painters before him. He captures a childlike brilliance like that of Jean Michel Basquiat. He also achieves a monstrous raw honesty like that of Francis Bacon. Yet Sabhan's characters are rarely grounded in a fix space. Instead figures occupy a nondescript isolated and often monochromatic environment. By doing so Sabhan leaves no other option for the viewer but to confront his figures. There is no escape.

Red October is currently at Art Lounge from the 17th of October until the 9th of November.

T

Laleh Khorramian : Zenith and Nadir

2008-11-04T03:47:00.007-05:00

Relationships. Love affairs. sexual encounters. The emotional spectrum that they embody at times can make one feel as if they have reached the Heavens while at other times, its opposite. The highest of heights vs. the lowest of lows. The Zenith by definition is a vertical direction that points away from the force of gravity. Its opposite, Nadir, goes with the force of gravity. Given the meanings of these two words the significance of this opposition gives way to a better understanding of the most recent work of Iranian artist Laleh Khorramian.

Exhibited in New York at Salon 94 Freemans and currently at Third Line Gallery in Dubai I Without End (6:20) is a time lapse animation featuring figures carved from orange peels. As these two figures intertwine, they become life-like. As the piece continues, the figures begin to loose their suppleness, freshness, only to slowly being to dry out and rot. These organic forms undergo a natural cycle of decay.

It is a visual metaphor for the human life cycle. What comes from the earth returns to earth. However, life itself is filled with moments of ecstasy and sublime interaction with man, god, and one's inner self. During the course of the piece, these personifications act out a passionate encounter. As they move through a variety of positions their forms eventually begin to curl inward. With the evolution of time, the once verile bodies become impotent and frigid. The initial intimate ecstasy of their sexual encounter gives way to lost love and pain.

The setting for this romance is rendered sacred. Windows of various sizes and shapes let light into their intimate space.
The light is soft, and dramatic reminiscent of that of renaissance masters. The figures are lit in such way that the details of their skin becomes tantalizing. The shine of the skin becomes visually appealing,sensual and perhaps even erotic. The orange color of the peels and the softness of the the yellowish white blend beautifully, the skin and its inner layer. We are voyeurs to the absurd; sexual tension and arousal between two peels.

I Without End is one in a series of animation pieces that represent the elements; earth, water, space, air and fire. This being fire, the burning desire of human passions.

Images are stills from I Without End. 2008 time lapse animation. 6.20 min.

T

Abraaj Captial Prize Winners

2008-11-03T14:18:00.009-05:00

The winners of the 2009 Abraaj Captial Art Prize have been announced by the selection commity. After reviewing close to 100 applications from international curators and artists from the MENASA region 3 Curator/Artist teams were selected.

The Abraaj Capital Art Prize is designed to raise awareness of innovative and experimental work being created by artists working in the MENASA Region.“The spectacular reception that this inaugural Abraaj Capital Art Prize received within the art community exceeded our most ambitious expectations,” said Savita Apte, Chair of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. “The 97 applications received from artists from the MENASA region in collaboration with curators from such diverse locations as Santa Barbara and Japan and almost every country in between, reflected a truly global world of innovation, inspiration and creativity. . We are thrilled that the main aim of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize – offering a platform which reinforces creative collaboration – has been so wholeheartedly embraced by the artistic community and it is with enormous anticipation that we await the unveiling of the works in March of next year."

Three curator/ artist teams have been chosen to exhibit the winning projects during Art Dubai in March 19th to 21st 2009.
The works will then be included in the Abraaj Capital corporate collection.

*Cristiana Perrella & Kutlug Ataman
Cristiana Perrella (Rome) is curator of the Contemporary Arts Programme at the British School in Rome where she has developed a series of events focused on the dialogue between the British and Italian art scenes. She curated several one-man shows and published a number of monographs.

Kutluğ Ataman ( Istanbul), who studied at UCLA in Los Angeles and has pursued successful careers in both feature film-making and contemporary art. His works primarily document the lives of the marginalized individual, examining the way in which people create and recreate their identities. In 2003 the London Observer named him ‘artist of the year’ and in 2004 he was short-listed for the prestigious Turner prize.

Carol Solomon & Zoulikha Bouabdellah
Carol Solomon (Pennsylvania) is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Art History at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania. She was Curator of European Art at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College in Massachusetts, worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has taught at several prestigious universities in the US and Canada.

Zoulikha Bouabdellah (Moscow) who was raised in Algeria and who studied in Paris is a video and installation arist. Since finishing her studies in 2002, Zoulikha has been widely exhibited and major shows include L’art au fémin (2008) in Algiers and Airs de Paris (2007) in Paris. In 2007 her work was featured in the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

Leyla Fakhr & Nzagol Ansarinia
Leyla Fakhr (Isfahan) studied in London and Tehran and is assistant curator at Tate Britain and independent curator in Tehran. In 2006 she curated Untitled (do not give your opinion), an exhibition of works by Nazgol Ansarinia.

Nazgol Ansarinia (Tehran) studied graphic design in London, followed by an MFA in San Francisco. After having worked in the US and Europe, she returned to Tehran where her work focuses on everyday objects and their relationship to a larger social context. Dissecting the daily and piecing it back together to make other structures and patterns apparent often forms the core of her work.

Congratulations to the winners... one more reason to look forward to spring 2009...

Toys, Packaging and the Household Product

2008-11-02T19:22:00.016-05:00

Farhad Moshiri and Shirin Aliabadi, Jackie Salloum, Liza Lou
Beyond the Brillo Box
Making a product sexy sells, the strategy of desire. Marketing 101. But things are not what they seem. The work of artists Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Aliabadi, Jackie Salloum, and Liza Lou, each alter how products are perceived forcing the viewer to look beyond face value. These artists manipulate products that can be immediately identified by the packaging and the shape of the containers to question our socio-politco-economical relationships with these products. These are brands that have become over time international symbols of consumerism, social status, or in some cases even oppression. These artists have gone beyond the Brillo box and the simple questioning mass production and its affect on the homogenization of the consumer, instead they are looking at the politics of consumption, advertising, and how we relate to what we consume.

Image seduction
Farhad Moshiriand Shirin Aliabadi in their series Operation Supermarket currently at on view at the Singapore Biennale alters the labels of well known, identifiable products available in local grocery stores. Popular brands are given new life as the labels are transformed into poetic and often ironic slogans. The products are then placed in advertisement settings as if they were being marketed to the viewer, a potential buyer. The luxury image of a Toblerone is placed in another context as the image suggests, "Tolerate Intolerance".These images alter the myth of the product itself by re-contextualizing the viewer’s association of the packaging. Thus the series questions how products are sold, who they are marketed to and implicitly challenging ideas of politics and consumption.

Get’em hooked young
Toy size versions of actual products allow for pretending, acting out real life scenarios. By putting miniature versions of cars, planes and trucks in young hands so they become familiarized with the brand. However children are not always aware of the ramifications of what the real versions are capable of doing. Children simulate war, destruction and create their own battles. Caterrorpillar by Jackie Salloum currently at White Box Gallery gives packaging that informs the buyer of the damage a Catepillar bulldozer or an Apache helicopter cause when used against civilians. She blurs the line between reality and simulation, the world of make believe and the reality of warfare.

Reclaiming the craft
Liza Lou reclaims products traditionally associated with the domestic sphere, products used for cleaning by recreating them using glass beads. Through beads, in her piece Windex, Liza Lou readopts a mass produced package and makes it her own. The product becomes hand made, crafted with skill and technique. It is no longer a mass produced plastic bottle, but an object that evokes wonder and awe. A simple household product such as Windex becomes precious through the process of human toil.

Questioning the myth of product
Mass production has made goods manufactured for consumption by families the world over. Trademark brand names such as Kleenex, Windex, Hoover, Bic are all products that have become integrated into the vernacular. Produced in a factory and shipped directly to our grocery stores, malls and bodegas, the larger implications these products have on our daily life are often forgotten. By re-appropriating the household object, these artists are able to question its social, political and economic implication in contemporary society.

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Let's Talk - The Jam Jar

2008-10-28T16:07:00.005-04:00

Engaging in a conversation requires that as a participant either we become active by responding, questioning, and sharing or on the flip side we become passively involved and simply listen. We ignore, we remain silent or indifferent. A conversation may spark emotion in an exchange of ideas or it may leave one feeling empty, like our time was wasted. At its best a conversation is a series of connections taking off from one topic and flowing into the next that invites the participants to push ideas further and learn from each other.

Let's Talk is an exhibition that invites the spectator to join in a conversation between five Pakistani artists as they respond to each other using interweaving sound and image. Let's Talk is a collaboration project between Grey Noise Gallery in Lahore and The Jam Jar in Dubai.

The central axis of Let's Talk is a small catalogue comprised of actual email exchanges between the artists during the planning phase of the exhibition. It serves as a point of entry into the origins of the conversation so that viewer may jump in and continue where the artists left off. Instead of eavesdropping on a private conversation, like a voyeur to the works exhibited, the emails offer a more complete picture of the tangents, the hanging ideas that have yet to be resolved by the artists themselves.

Each of the artists included in Let's Talk have utilized a diverse range of mediums in order to carry out their conversation. Ranging from miniature painting to new media and installation the communication or lack there of bounces from one artist to the next. Fahd Burki's subtle pieces speak through their silence. Ayesha Jatoi builds tension using text that evoques the sounds of ticking bomb down the length of a corridor resulting with a silent explosion using the word "Boom" and a Siya Kalam miniature painting. Ayaz Jokhio questions the life and death of text using a cluster of six small white graves each with a different book encased within. Mehreen Murtaza's red cube and multi-media prints explore the links between religion and science. Lala Rukh creates an interesting sound piece by incorporating sounds of nature, bird songs, political protest pertinent to the current situation in Pakistan and traditional music.

Ayman Baalbaki @ Agial Gallery

2008-10-27T14:35:00.010-04:00

Face masks, cagoules, kaffiyehs and gas masks are all symbolic images in themselves. They have been given meaning and/or significance by those that wear them, as well as those who see them. They may evoke fear , pride, humiliation depending on the individual. Associations of prisoners, militants, and Arab male identity all come to mind. Together they create a significant collective of the masculine veil.

Being a refugee and having to flee with little possessions. Momentoes left behind, taking only the essentials for a building a new life in a different place. All tightly wrapped together in a bundle.

The Arab man wrapped in a Kaffiyeh. It is an image of masculinity, an image of resistance, and of tradition. In this instance it is an image that has been given full reverence to the material covering the face. Yet he looks up. Possibly to Ursa Major, to the seven stars above. Icon worthy of veneration, the secular figure has been placed in a golden niche similar to that of a cult image. This is an Arab Man rendered sacred.

Skeletons of buildings abandoned by force. The spectator is transported to a place of massive destruction. Yet these buildings tell the tale of resistance. They remain standing, they bear the visual scars and they speak loudly of their ordeal. Hallowed out, disfigured buildings missing windows, exterior walls and those families that once called them home testify to the disproportion of the violence.They remain as monuments of struggle and resistance.

These are a selection of the different ways in which the most recent body of work by Ayman Baalbaki currently at Agial Art Gallery discusses issues of place and the singular experience of being. The collections of works reflects a personal investigation into issues of identity, gender and community.

Adult Comics - Samandal style

2008-10-27T00:01:00.017-04:00

The Salamander is an amphibian that exists on land and water. It is the only animal among vertebrates that is capable of regenerating lost limbs. Like its namesake Samandal Comic Magazine aims to create a space where illustrators, artists, musicians, writers and performers are encouraged to experiment with language and image. The contents of the magazine are adaptable, fluid and flexible to match the individual styles of its contributers.

The brain child of 5 talented illustrators, artists, and writers The FDZ, Hatem Imam, Omar Khouri, Lena Merhej, Tarek Nabaa all based in Lebanon, Samandal is a tri-lingual quarterly comic magazine that highlights not only local but international talent as well. The fruit of their work remains underground, but continues to gain support from readers and critics a like.

Officially launched last March, the Samandal team takes an innovative approach to adult comics and picture stories produced in the Arab world. About to launch its 3rd issue, Samandal is gaining ever more popularity. It offers its readers a variety of different genres of comics in French, English and Arabic.

Contributing to Issue 0 of Samandal are Elyse Tabet, Omar Khouri, The FDZ, Hatem Imam, Mazen Kerbaj, Fouad Mezher, Lena Merhej, Farah Nehme, Barrack Rima, Isabelle Boinot and Andy Warner.

Currently Samandal is available for purchase in Lebanon, London, Berlin, Paris Dubai, Cairo and New York City at Forbidden Planet . Previous issues may also be downloaded from the website allowing for a wider readership.

Lena Merhej

Hatem Imam (below)

We look forward to seeing more from Samandal.

Tine

Zena el Khalil - "Maybe One Day Beirut Will Love Me Back"

2008-10-07T22:45:00.005-04:00

Binge Drinking, Mixed Media 69 x 180 cm (2008)

It is the absence of glue that binds

Beyond the glitter, the vibrant colors, the political propaganda, the Arabic pop cultural references and the knickknacks bought from Arout in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Zena el Khalil’s latest body of work takes her study of place one step further to include questions of structure and stability. She confronts an important issue concerning the physical production of art in a city as contradictory as Beirut. How can an artist work with materials of permanency when local forms political and socio-economic stability are non-existent?

Having long established her visual iconographic language, the pieces included in “Maybe one day Beirut will Love me Back” are ever more reflective of her artistic response to her environment. This current exhibition sees Zena creating smaller, personal sized, wall-mounted versions of pervious large-scale installations. When the question of adhesives arose, she persisted in a manner reflective of her environment: work with what is available. The practical solution to the structural issues Zena was looking to resolve came in the form of an ordinary household object used for arts and crafts: the pushpin.

The pushpin enables the pieces to transform, mutate and alter; mimicking the adaptability needed in order to inhabit a city where inconsistency is permanent. The inability to plan from month to month, week to week and even day to day is symbolized in her use of a moveable, more easily adjustable medium. The glue gun that has long been a staple in the construction of her previous work no longer carries the same significance. The choice of a precarious yet sturdy adhesive is in direct response to an existential need for more flexibility.

Delicate yet sharp, the pointed end of the pushpin pierces through the object, creating tiny holes. Several are used at a time in order to better hold objects in place. However, with the slightest disturbance, any force that removes the pins from their positions causes everything to fall creating a metaphor for the current cultural climate from which these pieces were born. As long as no one removes the pushpins, life goes on. Once the pushpins are removed, things immediately fall until one by one the pins are replaced in order for the rebuilding and reconstruction to start again.

- Christine O'Heron for the Exhibition Catalogue "Maybe One Day Beirut Will Love Me Back" currently in London at the Flawless Gallery from the 4th of October to the 19th of October

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8.8.8 event- xanadu*

2008-08-12T10:43:00.018-04:00

xanadu* is no stranger to organizing music performances accompaning visual arts exhibitions. This time, however, it was the music that was given the spotlight during their most recent event, 8.8.8. Held Friday night the 8th of August the evening was a festival dedicated to Lebanese experimental music and visual arts. Co-organized by Ramzi Hibri and Zena el -Khalil, the evening brought together a long list of innovative and emerging experimental musicians, poets and artists giving performances "al fresco" in the warm Beirut summer night.The garden of an abandoned house near the Goethe Institute provided a unique performance space, where contemporary sounds harmonized with an illustrious past.

Included in the evening's program were performances by Tarek Atoui, Fadi Bitar, Critically Acclaimed Monkeys, Marc Ernst, The Incompetents, Lana Maclver, Walid Mohanna, The Troglodytes, Youmna Saba, and the Passive Standouts.

Readings wre done by Ritta Baddoura and Mazen Zahreddine,

and visuals by glitterpill, Rachel Tabet, Rami Sabbagh, and Samandal magazine artists.

xanadu* continues to organize events to promote emerging artists from all backgrounds so that they may continue to grow, evolve and experiment in order to continue perfecting their talents.

Les incompetents

Tarek Atoui

Rita Baddoura

Mazen Zahreddine

and a stop motion piece by William Choukeir, Elias Mbarak& Davic Habchy

Nahed Awwad - Five Minutes from Home and Lions

2008-08-03T14:53:00.012-04:00

Two Palestinian women were included in this year's edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Annemarie Jacir's film Salt of this Sea was selected for the Un Certain Regard category. The documentary film Five Minutes from Home (52 min.) by Nahed Awwad was included in the Pavillon les Cinemas du Sud.

Synopsis:
The Jerusalem Airport lies at the side of the road that runs from Jerusalem to Ramallah. Occupied by the Israeli army since 1967, 5 km from Ramallah and 10 km from Jerusalem, The airport has been occupied by the Israeli Army since 1967. Nahed Awwad has seen one of the largest access checkpoints to the West Bank grow up at the eastern end of the dusty runway to become a large checkpoint for access into the West Bank.

However, she discovers that this has not always been the case and that this desolate setting, like many other international stopovers in the fifties and sixties, once knew the lavish and free life of travel. Merry images and bright accounts of the past contrast bitterly with those of the present in which the airfield is off limits, abandoned behind the barbed wire and, soon, behind the Israeli wall of separation.

"The airport's history is told through interviews with passersby at the Qalandiya checkpoint, from where the overgrown runway can be seen. Many of those questioned among the younger generation were unaware that the airport was visible.
"People remember people," Ms. Awwad said. "People's stories, their personalities and their habits are what sticks in the mind. And I realised from getting to know these characters that there was a whole history there that I, as part of the generation that has grown up under occupation, knew nothing about." (excerpt from an article by Omar Karmai, the National)

Five Minutes from Home can be seen at the International Academy of Art Palestine from July 25th to August 5th.Curated by Reem Fadda (director of the Palestinian Association of Contemporary Art),

Here is a short documentary also by Ms. Awwad entitled Lions (10 min. 2002). The documentary is a collection of images of daily life as a survival mechanism - filmed in Ramallah during the invasion of Israeli troops in April of that year. They are images that Nahed Awwad saw, heard and experienced in her neighborhood.

Minute 22 ---- August 22nd

2008-08-02T16:41:00.008-04:00

With 20 more days to go until Minute 22...

The concept is simple, on the 22nd of August document through photography what people are doing at a designated moment. Everyone with a camera(cell phone, compact, point & shoot,DSLR,etc.) in the Arab world is invited to participate by simply taking a picture at the exact same moment 2:22 pm Lebanon local time.

Why the number 22? Well, the number is symbolic because there are 22 countries in the League of Arab States. If you live in any of these 22 countries, you can be a part of this project at the following local times:

Egypt - 2:22pm
Iraq - 2:22pm
Jordan - 2:22pm
Lebanon - 2:22pm
Saudi Arabia - 2:22pm
Syria - 2:22pm
Yemen - 2:22pm
Libya - 1:22pm
Sudan - 2:22pm
Morocco - 12:22pm
Tunisia - 1:22pm
Kuwait - 2:22pm
Algeria - 12:22pm
UAE - 3:22pm
Bahrain - 2:22pm
Qatar - 2:22pm
Oman - 3:22pm
Mauritania - 11:22am
Somalia - 2:22pm
Palestine - 2:22pm
Djibouti - 2:22pm
Comoros - 2:22pm

The pictures will be published in a special edition of Sowar Magazine, a journalistic and documentary photography magazine based in Lebanon. The pictures will also be posted online.

For more information there is a facebook group called Minute 22... join and check it out!

Walid Siti "Land on Fire" @ Leighton House

2008-08-01T12:16:00.018-04:00

Currently at the Leighton House is Land on Fire, an exhibition featuring two recent bodies of work Family Ties and Precious Stones by the Iraqi - Kurdish painter and printmaker Walid Siti. The exhibition is one of four in the 'Here We Are' series of exhibitions curated by Rose Issa, independent curator and specialist in visual arts from the Middle East and North Africa.

No.9 Precious Stones series, crayon & acrylic on paper, 1998

Based in Britain, Siti no longer resides Iraq. However, he remains emotionally tied to his native land. Duhok, where he spent his childhood, continues to be a source of inspiration. Notions such as the complexity of identity, the seemingly ceaseless wars in Iraq, ethnic cleansing, the cyclical nature of violence, and family are all re-occuring themes in his work.

There is a common cohesive compositional element, an encircled monolith form. The idea of center transforms into what Siti calls "visual poetry"...as the eye moves around the focal entry point, one is able to draw conclusions as to what they feel is at the heart of each piece.

The Precious Stones series (1996-2006) creates an organic symbolic landscape. The palette Siti uses, varying shades of blacks, whites and greys, all echo the natural material that he is paying homage to. There are strong spiritual undertones throughout the series. As movement is generated around the central form, images of Mecca during Hajj come to mind. Think of the awe inspiring sight of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims as they circumambulate the Kaaba en masse. Or a scientific model of the planets circling the sun.

The second series entitled Family Ties (1999-2008) is an exploration into the notion of belonging, within the family and community. to various groups, religious, social, tribal, and of course familial. Within these groups people gain feelings of attachment and belonging that can be at times comforting or nurturing but can also be suffocating.

Through the use of geometric forms such as cones, circles, lines, and spirals, Siti works with abstract symbolism. Simplistic and yet poignant, these sober spaces speak of the continuous nature of human existence. Birth leads to death. Construction leads to destruction which in turn leads to reconstruction. His work stress the concept of universality. In each of his pieces there is a constant circular force that perpetuates the cyclical nature of being.

First was the Stone, acrylic on canvas, 177 x 310 cm 2006

Land on Fire on from the 16th of July to the 4th of August 2008 at the Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road London W14 8LZ tel.020 7602 3316

Heavy Metal Islam and Incognito.com.lb

2008-07-31T14:18:00.009-04:00

Put down the Metallica and the AC/DC. Its time to listen to the Kordz, Oath to Vanquish, Massive Scar Era.

The book Heavy Metal Islam:Rock, Resitance and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Mark LeVine highlights the alternative music scenes active in Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Pakistan. In the Introduction LeVine takes the reader back to the first time he encountered the possibility of Metal in the MENA region. How could Muslims listen to music that is so... western? Then again why not? Most of the countries he visits in the book have all been under foreign rule at some point in the last 50 years, there is diversity in all forms; religious, political, sexual, and social. There is strong angst within the youth movement and thus a growing alternative music scene. These are young people looking for a way to express themselves and music provides that outlet.
LeVine mentions other genres that are also going strong in the region such as punk and hard rock. But Rap and Hip Hop are stronger than ever. MTV Arabia has a show dedicated to the genre called "Hip HopNa" or "Our Hiphop". All in all its a good introduction to the alternative musical trends in the MENA region.

Keeping it on the music side things, the new website for the production and distribution company Incognito, a sister company of La CD-Theque, based in Beirut has officially launched its website. More importantly the shopping cart is now working which means that all the great music available that is coming out of Lebanon just got even easier to access.

Although Mr. LeVine mentions many of the bands that have a working relationship with La CD -Theque (Blend, Soapkills, Scrambled Eggs, The New Government, and Nadine Khoury)he unfortunately failed to mention La CD-Theque and what a valuable institution it has been. Not only are the staff wonderfully music savy (they can't be beat), they continue to bring great music and dvds into the store come what may. More importantly La CD-Theque provides the resources many of the emerging bands on the Lebanese alternative scene have used as a starting point for their musical careers. So click on the link... visit Incognito, listen to the bands, and support alternative music in the Middle East!

some video... A1one Two Dayz in Tehran

2008-07-30T14:16:00.007-04:00

To continue a posting from a few days ago about the group graffiti exhibition Visual Slang 2008 in the LES which includes A1one here is a clip of the artist in action. Two Dayz in Tehran wanders through the streets of Tehran to see some of A1one's street art.

A video tour of the first street art exhibition in Tehran in 2007.