Tunis, May 2012, photograph. © Lina Lazaar/Ibraaz Publishing.

We are pleased to announce that Ibraaz platform 003 was by far our most successful to date, attracting readers from across the world and almost doubling our readership since our launch. Whilst this was testament to the quality of our contributors and the overwhelming response to our platform 003 question, it was also testament to the power of social media. For the first time since our launch in June 2011, Ibraaz focused resources on social media networking, which in turn saw our presence on Facebook (13,150 likes as of the 29th of May, 2012) and Twitter grow exponentially. However, the success or otherwise of Ibraaz relies upon its contributors and we would like to thank the following for their contributions: Larissa Sansour, William Wells, Tessa Jackson, Aaron Cezar, Christine Tohme, Shuruq Harb, Franz Thalmair, Slavs and Tatars, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Nat Muller, Basak Senova, Jack Persekian, Sheyma Buali, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Angela Harutyunyan, Beral Madra, Ergin Cavusoglu, Brian Kuan Wood, Laura U. Marks, Saba Innab, Michket Krifa, Wafa Gabsi, Omar Kholeif, Caecilia Pieri, Isak Berbic, Marwa Arsanios, Barrak Alzaid, Amira Gad, Shumon Basar, Hanan Toukan, Khaled Alhamzah, Houcine Tlili, Sinisa Vlajkovic, Sandra Teitge, Charlotte Bank, Alice Planel, Hatem Imam and Rana Issa, and Daniella Rose King, among many others.

INTERVIEWS

L-R: Driss Ouadahi, Toutes directions, 2011; Driss Ouadahi, Pleasant Place, 2011; Driss Ouadahi, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 2011. All images courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.

In a wide-ranging interview that takes in science fiction and Sufi mysticism, Ala Ebtekar discusses the re-mixing of histories and the anticipation of future narratives that permeates his work. Developing a multi-faceted project that melds Persian mythology, science fiction, propositional philosophy and pop culture, Ebtekar draws attention here to the way in which revisiting the past can also be a way of envisioning the future. In our other interview for May, Ibraaz’s Contributing Editor Rachida Triki talks to Algerian artist Driss Ouadahi about the treatment of urban architecture and the failed legacies of Modernism in his work. More specifically, Ouadahi discusses a recent body of work dealing with suburban architecture and recent paintings depicting chain-link fencing and tiled passageways that alert us to an aesthetics of restriction and control.

NEWS

L-R: Amina Menia, Undated, 2012, installation view in the gardens of the National Museum of Carthage, Tunis, 2012, steel, variable size; a panel discussion for CHKOUN AHNA (L-R: Amina Menia, Khadija Hamdi, Ismail Ben Yedder, Zineb Sedira, and Anthony Downey); and a work by Nida Sinnokrot in the gardens of the National Museum of Carthage, 2012. Photographs © ATP/Ibraaz Publishing, 2012.

In our News section, Ibraaz’s Editor Anthony Downey discusses CHKOUN AHNA, an international exhibition curated by Timo Kaabi-Linke and Khadija Hamdi at the National Museum of Carthage, Tunis. The show runs from the 12th of May to the 15th of June 2012 and focuses on what it is to be situated in both history and post-revolutionary, conflicting identities. CHKOUN AHNA, a term that can mean ‘about us’ or ‘who are we’, includes recent and new works by Amina Menia, Ziad Antar, Ayşe Erkmen, Yousef Moscatello, Nicène Kossentini, Timo Nasseri, Nida Sinnokrot, Mouna Karray, Pascal Hachem, and Nadia Kaabi-Linke, amongst others.

Elsewhere, Nour K. Sacranie reports from the London Palestine Film Festival 2012, held from the 20th of April to the 3rd of May, discussing some of the highlights of the 40-odd films that were screened there, as well as the LPFF’s first video art exhibition, held in conjunction with the event at the Barbican Centre, and including work by artists Taysir Batniji, Sharif Waked and Larissa Sansour.

L-R: Sameh Zoabi, Man Without A Cell Phone, 2011, film still; Saaheb Collective, Eid, 2011, film still; Ihab Jadallah, Flower Seller, 2011, film still. All images courtesy of the artists and London Palestine Film Festival. 

FUTURE PROJECTS 

We are also pleased to announce that we are currently in discussion with a number of organisations regarding the future publication of Ibraaz's online content in Arabic and English and a twice-yearly print publication of Ibraaz’s online essays, artists’ projects and interviews. More details will follow in June, 2012.

Over the coming months, Ibraaz will publish interviews with Fayçal Baghriche and Taysir Batniji, alongside artists’ projects by Anahita Razmi and others. Details of Platform 004, to be published in November 2012, will be released in the next newsletter.

ABOUT

Ibraaz is an online publishing forum initiated by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation. It publishes essays, interviews and artists’ projects on visual culture within and beyond the Middle East and North Africa.

Ibraaz Platform 004 will be launched in November 2012.