Universes in Universe / Caravan / 50th Venice Biennial / Contemporary Arab Representations
URL: http://universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien50/arab/e-press.htm


La Biennale di Venezia, 50th International Art Exhibition, 15th June - 2nd November 2003
- Press information -

Contemporary Arab Representations
Curated by Catherine David
Arsenale

Contemporary Arab Representations is a long-term project which includes meetings, publications, productions, and presentations of visuals, texts, and discourses by various authors in many different cultural venues and other places. The aim of the project is to stimulate locally based critical platforms and exchanges in the Middle East, as well as between the different centers of the Arab world and the rest of the world.

The consolidation and promotion of contemporary Arab critical culture has become even more urgent with the worsening situation after the violent and cynically premeditated dismantling of Iraq and the emergence of another colonial occupation in the region.

The temporary presentation of Contemporary Arab Representations in Venice has been conceived as an information platform and possible meeting place in order to develop further steps. The presentation is not a re-staging of previous moments of the project, and nor is it an exhibition; it is more a project of projects, where a certain number of authors have contributed various "works in progress" and documentation on their research (for detailed information, see below). Other images and proposals might be added to the screens during the course of the Venice Biennial, and other events (meetings and discussions) might be held in places other than Venice.

Not all the authors contributing Contemporary Arab Representations at this stage have been able or willing to be present in the context of the Venice Biennial and confront a situation of paradoxical visibility in a global event where dissymmetric situations are not yet openly proclaimed (in terms of budgets, structures of production and presentation, and political and cultural agendas).

Contemporary Arab Representations is produced by Witte de With, Rotterdam and Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona.

For more information about the project go to www.wdw.nl

 

Contemporary Arab Representations / Publications

Review: Tamáss
Tamáss 1, the first issue in a series, is dedicated to Beirut and Lebanon, and highlights the concern of many Lebanese intellectuals with the development and promotion of an experimental and critical contemporary Arab culture.
It includes essays and projects by Walid Sadek, Jalal Toufic, Saree Makdisi, Tony Chakar, Bilal Khbeiz, Elias Khoury and Rabih Mroué, The Atlas Group Project/Walid Raad, Marwan Rechmaoui, and Paola Yacoub Michel Lasserre.
Tamáss 1. Beirut/Lebanon ISBN 84-88786-61-1 Price: € 25.00
Tamáss 2, with a special dossier focusing on Cairo, is set for release in October 2003.

Other publications:
Paola Yacoub Michel Lasserre Beirut is a magnificent city. Synoptic pictures
Forthcoming, 2003

Randa Shaath Under the Same Sky
Forthcoming, September 2003

 

Contributions to 'Contemporary Arab Representations' at the'50th International Art Exhibition' in La Biennale di Venezia

The Atlas Group / Walid Raad
(b. 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon. Lives and works in Beirut and New York)

My Neck Is Thinner Than A Hair: A History of Car Bombs in the Lebanese Wars
1975-1991 (Volumes 1-245) _ Engines
2003
DVD: 5’58’’


Taysir Batniji
(b. 1966 in Gaza. Lives and works in Marseille)

Untitled, 2001
Photographic fragments taken in the streets, from the walls,
and in the doorways of Gaza in 2001
DVD: 4’58’’


Tony Chakar
(b. 1968 in Beirut. Lives and works in Beirut)

Beirut: The Impossible Portrait
And Now, Will You Let us Play with You?
2003
DVD: 7’33’’
Text: excerpts from The Eyeless Map by Tony Chakar, 2003 (forthcoming)


Bilal Khbeiz
(b. 1963 in Kufur Shooba, Lebanon. Lives and works in Beirut)

Self-portrait
Knowledge does not precede effort
2003
DVD: 3’59’’
Thanks to: Rabih Mroué and Walid Sadek


Randa Shaath
(b. 1963 in Philadelphia. Lives and works in Cairo)

Under the Same Sky - Rooftops of Cairo
2002 - 2003
DVD: 1’58’’
Selection from a series


Paola Yacoub / Michel Lasserre
(b. 1966 in Beirut / b. 1947 in Auch, France. Both live and work in Beirut and Paris)

O.V. Original Version
March 18, 2003 / number 1
2003
DVD: 5’58’’

O.V. Original Version
March 25, 2003 / number 2
2003
DVD: 5’37’’

 

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