Contemporary Art in the Arab World – PSIA 2016

Ahmed Mater: Evolution of Man, silkscreen prints, 2010

Following are the links to the pdf versions of the powerpoint courses. Unfortunately, video and other hyperlinks were not copied into the pdfs.

Introduction to the course: basic considerations

Seminar 1: Overview of artistic practices and art institutions in the Arab World

Seminar 2: Art and politics

Seminar 3: Modernism and post-modernity in the Arab art world

Seminar 4: the a-historical development of the Arabian peninsula

Seminar 5: Palestine: the art of Homo Sacer

Seminar 6: Art and memory in Lebanon

Seminar 7-8: Artists and the disintegration of Iraq and Syria

Seminar 9: The subversive potential of cultural heritage

Seminar 10: Art and politics in the Gulf

Seminar 11: Crisis of History

The last three seminars are reflections of my other curatorial activities. The subversive potential of cultural heritage was the result of a fellowship I received from NYU Abu Dhabi to explore pre-Islamic cultural heritage in the Gulf countries with local artists; art and politics in the Gulf is a summary of some sections of my book ‘Introduction to Contemporary Art in the Gulf’ and ‘Crisis of History’ shows extracts from a triptych of exhibitions with the same name that I organised in Amsterdam, 2014 and 2015.