Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Naima Morelli
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Art as a force for Libyan women’s empowerment: interview with Shatha Sbeta
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 — out to the world through commerce,” she tells me. Sbeta is the founder of De-Orientalizing Art, the online gallery...
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The brighter side of Arab cinema: interview with Palestinian American director Suha Araj
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 keep on proposing it in different forms. This is definitely the case with Palestinian American film director Suha Araj. “For...
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Najlaa Elageli and expanding the perception of contemporary Libyan art
MEMO speaks to London-based Libyan gallerist and curator Najlaa Elageli...
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Palestinian-American director Hind Shoufani tells MEMO about her new documentary
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 we triumph or not, whether I carry some piece of identification paper with blue colours on it, or green colours...
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Samandal: Lebanese graphic novelists rise from the ashes
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 at this time. Samandal — the Arabic word for salamander – is thus the name that a group of Lebanese...
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Nadia Khiari’s satirical cats recount the contradictions of today’s Tunisia
“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 protests and immediately before he fled the country. She transformed the rage and indignation of the moment into sharp irony...
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‘Spring will come, but it is the grieving process that will dictate when,’ says Lebanese artist Zena El-Khalil
“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 of discomfort for us. The trepidation of the unknown can bring about anxiety and frustration. However, this phase is absolutely...
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‘The era of essence, imagination and hard work’: interview with Palestinian artist Steve Sabella
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 reflecting the hardships of the Palestinians become universal metaphors for global rebirth. “We are in the era of something new,”...
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Palestine’s recent history through political landscape posters
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 public opinion, propagating a biased portrayal of the events unfolding in occupied Palestine. He decided to engage in efforts to...
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The past, present and future of Ethiopia by artist Aïda Muluneh
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 “The three ages of Woman” by Gustav Klimt. The photo contains pop-culture elements, calling to mind the comic book character...
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Defusing violence through humour is one aspect of artist Massinissa Selmani’s work
’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’...
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Inaugural Rabat Biennale show rewrites the rules of the contemporary art game
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 al aqsa – the far west of the Arab world — look like? These were the questions that French-Algerian curator,...
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Libya. Back Home uses theatre to tackle collective memory
In the spirit of the Festival – born as a multimedia platform – Libya. Back Home brings multimedia art to the stage...
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Igniting Casablanca’s art scene: interview with Yasmine Laraqui
Born in 1989 in Casablanca, Yasmine's strength is the open-mindedness and determination typical of her generation...
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Artists get political at the 2019 Venice Biennale
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 getting the Mediterranean closer together in the process. In the current period of massive migration across the Mediterranean, the role...
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While Europe looks at Moroccan art, Moroccan art looks at Africa
Art institutions all around the world are paying increasing attention to emerging Moroccan artists...
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Non-aggressive socio-political art at the 2019 Sharjah Biennial
The contemporary art world has flocked for the Sharjah Biennial in the past month ...
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The life and work of Palestinian Islamo-Pop artist Laila Shawa
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. Of course, they can’t, because their mouths are covered by cloth. This painted image is a powerful statement not only...
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Arts festival challenges Italy’s policies on migration
In previous years, the festival welcomed a variety of proposals with different content but one focus; the promotion of non-violence. ...
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Intimacy in condensed spaces: interview with Palestinian artist Rana Samara
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 overlooked when talking about the Palestinian experience: intimacy. For this artist, intimacy is not just about love and sex, but...
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Palestine’s first female-run cookery school is ‘a labour of love’
“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 live project to project, so we grow disconnected from reality.” The artist is one of the founders — the other...
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Playing with sand in a sandstorm: Palestinians on Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel
Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, Palestine, opened in March 2017 ...
