Middle East Near You

When we think of the genre of magical realism, we often think about South American literature, where spirits of the past, food and social issues blur together. However, for...

Tripoli-born art entrepreneur and educator Shatha Sbeta is very clear about her objective. "I want to bring Libyan female artists and their artworks — as well as their stories...

It has been said that artists always work on exploring a single idea throughout their entire life; an idea connected deeply to the core of their being; and they...

MEMO speaks to London-based Libyan gallerist and curator Najlaa Elageli

Artist, director and poet Hind Shoufani insists that her Palestinian-ness is a political act. "It is a choice to be on this side of history," she tells me, "whether...

In ancient mythology it was believed that salamanders are born from fire. No metaphor would be more fitting for the Lebanese artists who need to rise from the ashes...

"It was one humiliation too many," is how artist Nadia Khiari recalls the speech of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 13 January 2011, following the street...

"Just like the seasons of the Earth, there is a time and place for everything," says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil. "Winter has the tendency to create the most amount...

For multimedia artist Steve Sabella, these hard times require us to access the potential of our imagination in order to conjure up our collective future. His works of art...

Palestinian ambassador Ali Kazak arrived in Australia in 1970, at the peak of the Palestinian revolutionary political and military activity. He found that the Zionist narrative was prevalent in...

Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh's striking photograph titled "The past, the present and the future" depicts three women with blue skin; it is extremely evocative, and reminiscent of the painting...

’Even today it’s really small. In Algeria there is no real cultural strategy, and outside Algiers it is really difficult to do something in the arts. But over the past few years the situation has started to change, thanks to a few private initiatives’

Do we need another biennale when the landscape of such exhibitions worldwide is already saturated? Why do we need one in Morocco? What would such an event in al-maghrib...

In the spirit of the Festival – born as a multimedia platform – Libya. Back Home brings multimedia art to the stage

Born in 1989 in Casablanca, Yasmine's strength is the open-mindedness and determination typical of her generation

Interview with director Dr Adila Laïdi Hanieh

The 2019 Venice Biennale has asked artists to step into the socio-political realm, in the middle of far-right Matteo Salvini's Italy. And they have done it, dismantling Orientalism and...

Art institutions all around the world are paying increasing attention to emerging Moroccan artists

The contemporary art world has flocked for the Sharjah Biennial in the past month

A group of women wearing different-coloured niqabs carry ice creams that are just as colourful. Their eyes are closed as if they are about to savour the different flavours....

In previous years, the festival welcomed a variety of proposals with different content but one focus; the promotion of non-violence.

The reason why Rana Samara is one of the most cutting-edge of Palestinian artists is because she looks at one fundamental aspect of our humanity, one which is generally...

Home Beirut Sounding the Neighbors

"Today we live life in temporary slots," Beatrice Catanzaro tells me. "Even a mother saying that she wants to have a baby thinks about it as a project. We...

Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, Palestine, opened in March 2017

Indeed, the museum is nomadic, a political stance in itself.

In many art colleges today, teachers are dismissive of work that is too personal. They disapprove of students inspired by the expressivity of a Munch or trying to follow...

According to Rafat Asad, as a Palestinian artist, you can't avoid being political. "Every moment you live in this place is political," he tells me. "If you want to...