It is heartening to see the FotoFocus Biennial continue to gain ground as it endeavors to present a wider range of visions.
Akram Zaatari
Posted inBooks
How Artists Strive to Make Sense of the Archive in the “Middle East”
The ambitious volume Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East in many ways responds to the post-1990s archive fever, but from a specific geographic locale.
Posted inArt
Beyond Stereotypes: Art and the New Arab Reality
Arab Express: The Latest Art from the Arab World was a unique and timely exhibition at the Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum. The show was curated by the museum’s Nanjo Fumio and Kondo Kenichi, who also wrote essays for the catalogue, along with excellent contributions from Arab art historians Nada Shabout and Salwa Mikdadi. The exhibition featured 34 Arab artists (including one collective), 11 of them female, and covered ten Arab countries. It included 18 photographers, five video artists, nine artists that use new-media performance and installation, and only three painters.
