Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Naima Morelli
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This artist explores light and perception between French Impressionism and UAE culture
Emirati curator Alia Zaal says her work has been inspired by her father's weak eyesight as 'he was forced to approach art a bit differently, paying a lot of attention to detail'...
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The Visual Arts Forum nurtures Palestinian youth into the world of art
It all started with a simple conversation among Palestinian artists some twenty years ago. It was right after the outbreak of the Second Intifada that some of the most recognised Palestinian artists on the scene, including Muhammad Saleh Khalil and Hani Zurob, started discussing how to use art as...
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Establishing a Palestinian presence at the 2022 Venice Biennale
At the very centre of Palazzo Mora, an old Venetian building, I stepped across the front yard and then through rooms where workers were still setting up artworks from parallel shows, in preparation for the 2022 Venice Art Biennale running from 23 April to 27 November 2022. Finally, I...
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The body as an archive: interview with Farah Saleh
Where does a refugee find her homeland? Perhaps in unexpected places; a memory of the country might emerge through the most mundane gestures, or even from a simple interaction with certain objects. Memories of the homeland are always buried in the refugee’s mind and movements, but in order to...
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Long road to ruin in a burning world: the work of Syrian American artist Diana Al-Hadid
We inhabit a burning world, where everything is constantly dying while also being alive, brightly so. From our emotions to our thoughts and feelings, from our bodies to the plant and animal kingdoms, everything is decaying from the moment it comes into being. This is the concept of the...
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Floating in tar: interview with Palestinian artist Hani Zurob
When we think of political art from Palestine or elsewhere, very rarely do abstract paintings come to mind. We would rather think of militant canvases in a realistic style, photographs depicting injustice, installations criticising power ever so subtly. Abstraction, on the other hand, is like music without words; it...
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Painting in Arabic: the life and work of the late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan
The late Lebanese artist Etel Adnan once said that, “We are used to living in a world of ‘either, or’, but we are complex beings, multiple beings, diverse beings.” Her entire life demonstrated that maxim. Etel Adnan passed away last month, and is being remembered by the Guggenheim Museum with...
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'I am Libya': 24-year-old artist Shefa Salem re-imagines Libyan history
What does it mean to be Libyan? How to reconstruct a sense of belonging for the country and its people, starting from the deepest roots of Libyan culture, while preserving diversity? These are the questions that artist, Shefa Salem, is grappling with for her first solo show I am Libya,...
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Power does not defeat memory: interview with Palestinian artist Hazem Harb
Palestinian artist Hazem Harb doesn’t try to define the idea of Palestine in his work. “For me, Palestine just is,” he tells me. “I’m interested in its history and nationalism, but I don’t dwell on them by making straightforward political art. In my work, I’m trying to represent the...
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The unseen and the un-thought: Hunna/ هُنَّ gallery represents powerful women artists from the Gulf
Many of us have misconceptions and preconceived ideas about the art scene in the Gulf countries. Hence, when we see the work of a gallery like Hunna/ هُنَّ — founded this year and representing eight women artists from the Gulf — we open our eyes in disbelief. How can...
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Magical realism and the uncovering of pre-Islamic mythology: interview with Emirati artist Moza Almatrooshi
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 Emirati artist Moza Almatrooshi, this blending of imagination and everyday life is something that has always been under the skin...
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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 and...
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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 me,...
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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,” says...
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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, philosopher,...
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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...
