| Summary, etc. |
Exhibition catalog. The exhibition and accompanying book highlight the contemporary art of the Middle East. The works selected which come largely from the collection of the British Museum are published here for the first time. They reflect issues of identity and politics and the rich artistic heritage of the region. One of the underlying themes is various artists' engagement with Arabic as script and language. For some this resonates with the sacred tradition of Islam and Qur'an. For others the Arabic script, whatever their language, is an inalienable part of their inheritance, influencing their identity as artists and intellectuals. The exhibition will demonstrate the variety and power of the ways in which artists of the Middle East have sought to express subjective and political truths through a medium that they themselves have transformed. In doing so they have created new genres owing much to international artistic schools of the 20th and 21st centuries but unmistakably informed by views of their own artistic traditions. The book, like the exhibition, will look at these works under the following Sacred Script; Art Calligraphy; Artists and Poets; Deconstructing the Word; and Politics and Identity. It will explain the context of the works and provide translations of texts where appropriate. Artists: Shafic Abboud (Bikfaya, Lebanon), Youssef Abdelke (Qamechli, Syria), Jamal Abdulrahim (Muharraq, Bahrain), Mohammad Abla (Belqas Mansoura, Egypt), Etel Adnan (Beirut), Maliheh Afnan (Haifa, Palestine), Yusef Ahmed (Doha), Erol Akyavas (Ankara), Ghani Alani (Baghdad), Massoud Arabshahi (Tehran), Siah Armajani (Tehran), Sina Ata (Jordan; Iraq; Dubai), Suad Al Attar (Baghdad), Chant Avedissian (Cairo), Dia Al Azzawi (Baghdad), Farid Belkahia (Marrakesh), Abdallah Benanteur (Mostaganem, Algeria), Kamal boullata (Jerusalem, Palestine), Ebrahim busaad (Muharraq, Bahrain), Wasma'a Chorbachi (Cairo), Mohammad Ehsai (Tehran), Ali Omar Ermes (Tripoli, Libya), Maysaloun Faraj (Iraq-USA), Said Farhan (Baghdad), Golnaz Fathi (Tehran), Shadi Ghadirian (Tehran), Hakim Ghazali (Casablanca, Morocco), Ghassan Gha'ib (Baghdad), Mahmoud Hamadani (Rasht, Iran), Mahmoud Hammad (Damascus), Jacob El Hanani (Casablanca, Morocco), Satta Hashem (Diale, Bohrez, Iraq), Ali Hassan (Doha), Khosrow Hassanzadeh (Tehran), Susan Hefuna (Egypt-Germany), Kouichi Fou'ad Honda (Tokyo), Shirazeh Houshiary (Shiraz), Mustafa Jafar (Nasariya, Iraq), Bahman Jalali (Tehran), Muhammad Omar Khalil (Burni, Sudan), Salam Khedher (Amara, Iraq), Rachid Koraichi (Ain Beida, Algeria), Hussein Madi (Cheba'a, Lebanon), Nja Mahdaoui (Tunis), Hana Malallah (Theeqar, Iraq), Nassar Mansour (Amman), Hassan Massoudy (Najaf), Ahmed Mater Al-Ziad (Tabouk), Mohammad Melehi (Asilah, Morocco), Lassad Metoui (Gabes, Tunisia), Farhad Moshiri (Shiraz), Fateh Al Moudarres (Halab, Syria), Ahmed Moustafa (Alexandria), Mohammed Muhriddin ( Basra), Youssef Nabil (Cairo), Sabah Naim (Cairo), Rafa Al Nasiri (Tikrit), Malekeh Nayini (Tehran), Shirin Neshat (Qazvin, Iran), Haji Noor Deen Mi Guanjiang (Shandong, China), Jila Peacock (Tehran), Mehdi Qotbi (Rabat), Walid Raad (Chbanieh, Lebanon), Khalil Rabah (Jerusalem, Palestine), Abdulqader Al Raes (Dubai), Zakaria Ramhani (Tangiers, Morocco), Mohammed Rawas (Beirut), Kareem Risan (Baghdad), Michal Rovner (Occupied Palestine), Khaled Al Saai (Homs, Syria), Shakir Hassan Al Said (Samawa, Iraq), Faisal Samra (Bahrain), Samir Al Sayegh (Joun, Lebanon), Rashad Selim (Khartoum, Sudan), Mouneer Al Shaarani (Syria), Mohammed Al Shammarey (Baghdad), Farkhondeh Shahroudi (Tehran), Laila Shawa (Gaza), Adel El Siwi (Beheira, Egypt), Walid Siti (Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan), Khalid Ben Slimane (Sousse, Tunisia), Parviz Tanavoli (Tehran), Aneh Mohammed Tatari (Gonbad Kavos, Iran), Hamid Tibouchi (Tibane/Bejaia, Algeria), Osman Waqialla (Rufa'a, Sudan), Wijdan (Amman), Kamel Yahiaoui (Algiers), Nazar Yahya (Baghdad), Abbas Youssif (Bahrain), Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi (Tehran). <br/><br/> |