Installation View of the New Middle East
The wave of popular uprisings throughout the Arab world have revealed a new Middle East – young, dynamic, secular, pragmatic and creative – which few people in the West knew about. It did not however come out of nowhere: as this exhibition shows, contemporary Middle Eastern culture has been developing very quickly over these last few years. Continue reading
I was surprised to discover the existence of this cabinet-museum dedicated entirely to contemporary art from Saudi Arabia – apparently the only one in the world. It is in the centre of Amsterdam. See Green Box Museum. Continue reading
Review of the Exhibition: « Palestine, la création dans tous ses états ».
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, June 23 to November 22, 2009
A Palestinian woman in a cute white spacesuit plants a Palestinian flag on the moon. The image used for the poster and other communications for this exhibition is drawn from Larissa Sansour’s video ‘A Space Exodus’(2008). The artist remarks ‘One small step for Palestinians is a giant leap for mankind’ and waves the blue earth goodbye. A homeland, finally? No, because the film ends on the astronaut hurtling through space on an outbound journey from the earth. The exodus is not over. Continue reading