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Platform 010 Editorial

What are the urgent questions affecting cultural production in Turkey? I am writing from the perspective of Turkey, rather than the perspective of the Middle East and North Africa in general...

The varying political, cultural and economic circumstances of the participants of Art Dubai 2016, Design Days and the March Meeting, merit further consideration, as it is the differences among them that highlight the current constraints and opportunities for cultural production in the region.

As a historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Middle Eastern art, I am concerned with the urgent questions facing cultural production as well as those facing histories of cultural production. My response below reflects that concern.

Nav Haq in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Leung Chi Wo in conversation with Robin Peckham

A Report from Home Works 7 and Athens Biennale 5 to 6

1971-1979 The Short Seventies (World)

Mega-museums and modern artists from the Middle East

Walking Cabbages and Watermelons

Ibraaz 5th Year Anniversary Editorial

An Introduction to Platform 010

Of course, I do not wish to be misunderstood as arguing for nativism or closure. But the specific history of the region matters deeply, as factual evidence, but even more so in terms of identifying resources that can be transformed and activated in new ways today.

To answer this question I propose an excerpt from a text in progress called 'Art and Garbage'. This piece is intended to look into the relation between urgent social problems – in this case the ongoing garbage crisis in Lebanon – and contemporary art.

There is never a neutral position for critique, but there certainly ought to be the practice of critique. And that is precisely the element that is missing in top-down formation of the art scene in West Asia and North Africa, and perhaps in the rest of the non-western art scene.

The development of a healthy regional Arab art scene, like anywhere else in the world, requires the collaborative efforts of the different components that constitute it.

Six Short Stories on Arabic Voice Acting

Bruno Boudjelal's Documentary of Affect

Interventions as Performative Gestures For Political Engagement in Jordan

Notes on a Giant Implosion

Five Stages of an Artist Residency

On Bouchra Khalili’s Cartographies

On Nikolaj Larsen's End of Dreams

Nikos Papastergiadis and Gerardo Mosquera

Pan-Kaffirism in Iraq, South Africa, and Sri Lanka

Aid and the Politics of Art in Processes of Contemporary Cultural Production

It stipulates in my working contract as a professor in Middle East history at Leiden University that I must participate in 'media outreach'. This means that I must either seek out media outlets and contribute to a particular conversation about the Middle East, or, if contacted by a media representative,...

Firstly, and most immediately, I object to the characterisation of the context in which this question is situated. There is, of course, a marketplace for what we call cultural goods, including artworks, but there's no reason to situate all artworks immediately in an economy. Things that are made solely for...

The excited chatter about unrest and uprisings in the western world has focused particularly on a number of countries in North Africa and in what we here refer to as the Middle East (meaning anything between eighteen to thirty-eight countries according to Wikipedia). In the UK, we have received a...

Demonstrations by Palestinian villagers against Israeli colonisation has been described by non-local media sources as 'theatrics' and 'spectacle.' Such categorisation positions Palestinian acts of protest in the realm of 'acting'- a visual 'show' for the cameras, complete with homemade props, a soundtrack of chants performed to the rhythm of Israeli...

A few Middle Eastern and North African countries having a strong control over means of expression are now present in some major artistic international events such as the Venice Biennale. The concept of national pavilions provides a vivid example demonstrating how international relations and diplomatic issues can influence artistic productions...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the word 'demand' seems to be the key word of the poll. In relation to a 'globalised cultural economy' it refers to the core term of economics that is used to rationalise the development of prices. Talking about 'demands of news media, journalism, cultural...

Basim Magdy, 13 Essential Rules for Understanding the World , 2011, super 8 film transferred to HD video, 5 min. 16 sec. Courtesy the artist and Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York.

The globalisation of the modern art world is a fact. The rise of new economic powers has led to a shift in the balance of power in the art world as well. No longer is there one centre. Instead, we are faced with a mosaic of centres spread around the...

This is a big question with a lot of big words so I can either try and break down the question and resolve some of the semantic issues with it or simplify the question and try and answer that. Either way my response could be an essay, which I don't...

In the 1990s, it would have been difficult to find an artist in Egypt who thought that any of their contemporaries would sell their work at international auction and for thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars at that. Artists were busy negotiating other, more immediately local, elements of a...

A new book has surfaced on the shelves of Lebanese and possibly Arab bookstores. The title reads: Pure Nostalgia . As in Exclusive Nostalgia, as in free from this contaminated present . The emergence of this publication is perhaps symptomatic of something larger than a trivial nostalgia quenched by the...

In the globalised world we live in, I feel that creating the image of an enemy becomes a difficult task. It becomes difficult to name and make symbols for an enemy – an abstract 'evil' – since things are never abstract, but always and at any time connected and related.

In certain respects, the demands on contemporary artists issued forth by a (purportedly novel) globalised cultural economy are starkly obvious in the Arab world. The concurrent fascination with contemporary art and the region has resulted in the now well-documented - and equally well-debated - critical and curatorial investment in contemporary...

Cultural institutions in Turkey are divided into those run by the state, local governments and private sectors; each have different culture policies and no significant collaborative policies. Contemporary art productions and practices are based in Istanbul and are dependent on private sector investments, rather than official funds. Compared to the...

Critical reflections on Ibraaz publications

Humans from Palestine, The Karimeh Abbud Award Exhibition: Bethlehem

Sites of Return: Ramallah

Cities Exhibition 5, 'Gaza – Reconstruction': Ramallah

Pattern Recognition: Ramallah

RE/viewing Jerusalem #2 – REturn: Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Show VIII 'Before and After Origins': Jerusalem

Moments for Possibilities 'Air, Land and Sea': London

Biographies

Partner institutions

Encounters Programme

Contextual Notes: Rawan Sharaf Reema Salha Fadda Stephanie Bailey

Foreword: Anthony Downey

Curator's Essay: Aaron Cezar

Foreword: Anthony Downey

Shirin Neshat

Ismaïl Bahri in conversation with Silke Schmickl

Jack Persekian in conversation with Basak Senova

Christine Tohme in conversation with Anthony Downey

Hassan Khan in conversation with Omar Kholeif

Jasmina Metwaly in conversation with Angela Harutyunyan

Heiko Lange in conversation with Amira Gad

Zeina Arida in conversation with Laura Allsop

Pascal Hachem in conversation with Nour K Sacranie

Michael Rakowitz in conversation with Anthony Downey

Yuko Hasegawa in conversation with Walter D. Mignolo and Stephanie Bailey

Visualizing Palestine in conversation with Haig Aivazian

Nadia Ayari in conversation with Haig Aivazian

Seth Anziska in conversation with Daniella Rose King

Fulya Erdemci in conversation with Basak Senova

Chapter 5: Lines

Chapter 2: Details

Editor's Foreword: Anthony Downey

Curator's Introduction

Foreword: Anthony Downey

Sulayman Al Bassam in conversation with Ala Younis

Rasha Salti and Kristine Khouri in conversation with Samah Hijawi

Rasha Salti in conversation with Sheyma Buali

Speaker Biographies + Synopses

Curatorial Narrative

Meriem Bennani in conversation with Myriam Ben Salah

Mahmoud Khaled in conversation with Omar Kholeif

Koyo Kouoh in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Reem Fadda in conversation with Fawz Kabra

UBIK in conversation with Isabella Ellaheh Hughes

Taysir Batniji in conversation with Silke Schmickl

Haig Aivazian in conversation with Rayya Badran

Adham Hafez in conversation with Suzy Halajian

Lara Khaldi in conversation with Ghalya Saadawi

Morehshin Allahyari in conversation with Hannah Gregory

Adelita Husni-Bey in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Mario Rizzi in conversation with Cristiana Perrella

Oreet Ashery in conversation with Amal Khalaf

Urok Shirhan in Conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Lawrence Abu Hamdan in conversation with Anthony Downey

Seth Ayyaz in conversation with Sheyma Buali

Farah Saleh in conversation with Marianna Liosi

Maya Zbib in conversation with Amal Khalaf

Mohssin Harraki in conversation with Karima Boudou

Hrair Sarkissian in conversation with Raed Yassin

Mohanad Yaqubi in conversation with Sheyma Buali

Raed Yassin in conversation with Nat Muller

Stefano Rabolli Pansera in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Eric Van Hove in conversation with Natasha Hoare

Aikaterini Gegisian in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Sheyma Buali in conversation with Turi Munthe and Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi

Leeza Ahmady in conversation with Taus Makhacheva

November Paynter and Didem Pekün in conversation with Basak Senova

Köken Ergun in conversation with Omar Kholeif

Mai Elwakil in conversation with Daniella Rose King

The Arab Digital Expression Foundation in conversation with Laura Cugusi

Tarek Atoui in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Monira Al Qadiri in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Burak Arıkan in conversation with Basak Senova

Eungie Joo in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Discussing arts infrastructure in Tehran

Maryam Jafri in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Ahmed Nagy in conversation with Mai Elwakil

Mona Marzouk in conversation with Aleya Hamza

Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey

Elif Öner in conversation with Derya Yücel

Shumon Basar, Ala Younis and Omar Berrada in conversation with Sheyma Buali

Ayşe Erkmen in conversation with Basak Senova

Nida Sinnokrot in conversation with Natasha Hoare

Suha Shoman in conversation with Amin Alsaden

Adelina von Fürstenberg in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Kamel Lazaar in conversation with Anthony Downey

Jumana Manna in conversation with Sheyma Buali

WHW in conversation with Omar Kholeif

Kim Beamish in conversation with Sam Bowker

Younes Bouadi in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Tarek Abou El Fetouh in conversation with Stephanie Bailey

Louis Henderson in conversation with Amira Gad

Rifat Chadirji and Balkis Sharara in conversation with Amin Alsaden

MADRASSA Collective in conversation with Antonia Alampi

Nora Razian, Nataša Petrešin Bachelez, and Angela Harutyunyan in conversation, with a contribution from Natasha Gasparian

Héla Ammar in conversation with Wafa Gabsi

Fadi Bardawil in conversation with Zeynep Oz

Anthony Downey: Introduction to 'Future Imperfect'

Hussam al-Saray: in conversation with Ala Younis | A Cultural Encyclopaedia of Iraq

Wided Rihana Khadraoui: Digitalizing Social Change through Cultural Institutions in Saudi Arabia

Monira Al Qadiri: The Saudi New Wave | Digital Landscapes and Future Institutions

Lois Stonock: Mapping the Possible: Syrian Organizations, Movements and Platforms

Leila Al-Shami: Emerging from ‘The Kingdom of Silence’ | Beyond Institutions in Revolutionary Syria

Ibraaz

Sharjah Art Foundation, 17-19 March 2012

Art and Culture in the ‘Imagined’ Arab World, Cornerhouse, Manchester, 13 April 2012

Chkoun Ahna at the National Museum of Carthage, Tunis, 2012

Nour K Sacranie

1967 in Art and Its Histories, June 1-2, 2012 American University of Beirut, Lebanon

Nour K Sacranie

The Cairo Seminar in Alexandria, dOCUMENTA (13)

Sheyma Buali

Ibraaz

Notes from a roundtable discussion on the state of the arts in Egypt

Questions to be addressed

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Contemporary Art from the Middle East

Ibraaz in partnership with Winchester Centre for Global Futures in Art

Ibraaz

Regional vis-à-vis Global Discourses: Contemporary Art from the Middle East

The role of the archive in critical and culturally located art histories

The second meeting of Maghreb des Arts

A Report on Future City

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Erriadh is the Home of the ‘Street’

Ibraaz

Edge of Arabia Launches Culturunners

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Tom Snow

Gregory Sholette at Home Workspace Program

William Wells in conversation at Serpentine Galleries

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

The Art for Tomorrow Conference 2016 in Doha

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Ibraaz

Jim Quilty

A Report from Cologne

Ibraaz

Videobrasil

Ibraaz

Sophia Al-Maria: On Automobiles

Hans Ulrich Obrist: in conversation with Omar Kholeif

Okwui Enwezor: in conversation with Anthony Downey

Soviet Orientalism and Political Mobilisation

Crisis The End of Pearling in the Gulf (Qatar)

1972-1982 Spaceship Sheraton and the Making of Doha's Masterplans

The Future Was Underwater

Shirin Neshat

Murtaza Vali: 'Arresting Flows, Stacking Forms'

Mario Rizzi

Jim Quilty

Sama Alshaibi

Performing the Trial: Re-enactment, Ritual, Remediation

London book launch

Hammad Nasar in conversation with Reema Salha Fadda

Toleen Touq in conversation with Reema Salha Fadda

A two-part conversation with Szabolcs KissPál and Mahmoud Khaled

Edited by Anthony Downey (Sternberg Press, 2016)

To close Ibraaz Platform 010, we present new essays by Ibraaz Editor-in-Chief Anthony Downey, Ibraaz Senior Editor Stephanie Bailey, Ibraaz Contributing Editor Ala Younis, and Natasha Hoare; interviews with Szabolcs KissPál and Mahmoud Khaled, Toleen Touq, Cevdet Erek, Hammad Nasar; projects by Shadi Habib Allah, Mahmoud Bakhshi, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi,...

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Ala Younis

Reema Salha Fadda

Notes on Geo-cultural Exhibitions

Stephanie Bailey

Artists Intervening in Lebanese Dailies

Invisible Architecture in Rana ElNemr’s Streams of Synonyms

On Qalandiya International 2016 in Ramallah

The Art of Shirin Neshat

The Sketches of Mahmoud Al Rifai at FADA 317

Rayyane Tabet at Museo Marino Marini

Lara Baladi

Rozemin Keshvani

Socially Engaged Art Practices in Tunisia

On Assumption and Authority

Forests, Freaks and Performativity

Organic Growth and the Rise of Visual Arts Organizations in the UAE

Barrak Alzaid

An Introduction to Body Art and Performance in the Gulf

Choreographing Spaces of Gesticulation

An Alternative Genealogy of Musique Concrète

The Subversive Feminine

Edited Urbanism on Dubai Creek

A Review of the 56th Venice Biennale

A Nomadological Study of Ottoman Arab Photography

A Curatorial Take on the Global South

Contemporary Cinema from North Africa

Natasha Ginwala

Street Art in the Mediterranean Border Zones

Anthony Downey

Instead of focusing on the location of the 'MENA' in the context of the Global South, I will speak from the perspective of how such a location is of relevance to South Asia (which will be excusable, I hope, since 'MENA' is often compounded with 'SA' to form MENASA in...

The Cultural Centre of the Philippines opened to great political fanfare on 10 September 1969, with a ceremony that was graced by none less than California Governor Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy acting on the orders of President Nixon.

Conflicting Narratives and the Invention of Geographies

Burak Delier

Building Institutions Through Practice

A Yemeni Art History

Re-Thinking Cultural Development in Palestine

Re-routing Institutional Critique

Art and Culture Beyond Institutions in Amman

In the Shadow of Nasser

Arts Infrastructures and Institutions in Libya Post-Dictatorship

What Does It Mean to Be Building a Library in Iraq?

Or, Severing History From the Person

'I suggest that we look at the past and present strengths of cultural organizations, which have always served social and informational purposes, regardless of region and time. It is in these two spheres that the future resides.'

Reflections on Ashkal Alwan's Home Workspace Program, 2013-14

Reflections on Ashkal Alwan's Home Workspace Program, 2013-14

Slavs and Tatars at The Third Line

Maryam Jafri at Gasworks

Jananne Al-Ani, Excavations, at the Hayward Gallery Project Space

The Sharjah Art Foundation's 2014 March Meeting

Cevdet Erek at Spike Island, Bristol

A Perspective on Algeria's Cultural Scene

The Politics of Food at Delfina Foundation

Georgia Kotretsos: SPRING CLEANING and KARFI in Rabat

A Review

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Israel's National Photography Archives as a Case Study

Malak Helmy and Sophia Al Maria

Ariel Hassan

Aikaterini Gegisian

Monira Al Qadiri

Iman Issa

A Radio Series on the Poetics and Politics of Language

Raed Yassin

Isak Berbic

Marwa Arsanios

Cecilia Andersson

Mahmoud Bakhshi

Seth Ayyaz

I felt the desire to examine the reverse process: what in art history and, more specifically, in the making of art, can contribute to the development of an archiving process?

Working with archives is a relatively new development, only recently have artists and institutions had access to archives. In the Middle East in general, the idea of the archive and of history is very vague. Even the idea of archiving, of having an institution that holds an archive, is new.

Ibraaz Platform 006 Editorial

Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh’s 'A photographic conversation from Burj al-Shamali Camp'

Farah Makni Hendaoui

Omar Kholeif

Literary Affects and the New Political by Tarek El-Ariss

Profiles: Collecting Art in Lebanon at AUB Gallery, Lebanon

Gezi Resistance, Public Space and the Counter-monumental

Iraq and Palestine at the 2013 Venice Biennale

Tinkerings on the Instable Present Tense

Gezira Art Center, Cairo

Amy Charlesworth

Is soft power helping or hindering the state of the arts in Jordan?

Ibraaz Platform 005 Editorial

Looking for Palestine in the Jordanian Music Scene

Nadia Mounajjed

An Exhibition between Cairo and London

Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassiabi at Chisenhale Gallery

A Talk and Screening by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa

Introduction

The Story of Bahrain’s Pearl Roundabout

What has Changed in Tunisia since Spring 2011

On the Memory of a Memorial

A New Communal Model

The Net is Not a Tool, It’s an Environment

The Shifting Narrative of Uprising

The Impossibilities of Production in New Media

Theatre As a Tool of Empowerment

A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh

An Introduction

Precarious Images, the Aesthetics of Conflict, and the Future of an Anachronism

One major obstacle for a diverse art scene in a country or region is the lack of artistic infrastructure with institutions that offer support for artistic research and the production of independent, non-market-related work. During the past decade, most countries in the MENA region have seen the establishment of independent,...

'What do we do when as artists we are invited to behave as liberal democratic [beings]? You have your own space, each has their own little house, we can all live together; does this not sound like the idea of a Lebanon of all the different mosaics and cohabitation -...

I am broadly interested in addressing the recontextualisation of cultural heritage in the MENA region by institutions, thus aligning it in the process with current developments in contemporary art at large. Artistic practices are frequently used to measure the economic and cultural growth of geographies. This is often achieved by...

A recent project led by Walid Raad attempted to draw attention to, and improve the treatment of, migrant workers on Saadiyat Island by Guggenheim and its Abu Dhabi partner, the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC). Tactics were initially conducted privately but when it was clear to those involved that...

The Practice of Contemporary Art in Algeria Today

Anthony Downey

Cultural Institutions, Urban Development, and Regional Cinema in the Gulf Today

Perceptions of Occupation and Control in Cyprus

The two-year-old MASS Alexandria, founded by artist Wael Shawky in the working-class neighbourhood of Miami in east Alexandria, Egypt, aims to create a space for the production and dissemination of ideas and debates concerning contemporary visual culture. Apart from displaying and encouraging the consumption of art through exhibitions, it creates...

On-longing: A Project by Saba Innab

Home Workspace: A Conversation Between Christine Tohme and Anthony Downey

A friend recently asked me, what would be my dream cultural/art space in Ramallah? In the midst of rapid urban construction in Ramallah, my impulse is not to build another building but create what is lacking – an open public space. I feel this would be an artistic, political and...

I will limit myself to tackling the situation from the point of view of the ‘common ground’, which is lost or has never been found. There is a wide gap between art practice on one side and the institutions on the other; the first doing the minimum in terms of...

Yazid Anani

Mirene Arsanios

Reflections from a book on South Sinai

The scale of the resistance among the people of the MENA region in the last year will remain an example in contemporary history. This resistance expresses a desire to build new ground and another social entity, which up till now has been latent. The clear desire is to build a...

Initiated by the Kamel Lazaar Foundation in 2011, Ibraaz is the leading critical forum on visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East. We publish an annual online platform – consisting of essays, interviews, artists' projects, and platform responses – that focuses on research questions conceived through a network...

Joe Khalil

Rachida Triki

When we began our research into the current art landscape of the Middle East, we noticed various reasons why the bonds between regional art communities are weakened. Prevailing art discourses are largely externally driven; the way in which art is circulated, marketed and publicised doesn't respond in any significant way...

Mark Westmoreland

Aesthetics, Civil Society, and the Politics of Representation

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