Contemporary Art

from the Arab World

Curated by Lina Lazaar

Magazzini del Sale, No. 262 – Dorsoduro,

Fondamenta, Delle Zattere. Actv Boat Line 1 , Salute
Sponsors Production Catalogue
 Contents
Vallaresso
San Marco
Accademia

Giglio 2 Support
Salute

3 Introduction
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6 Artists

8 Artwork
Palanca Redentore

68 Partners
Salute
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72 Acknowledgements
Fondamenta Soranzo delle Fornaci

Calle de l’Abazia

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 Support Introduction 4|5

Sponsors
Presenting important artworks from across
the Arab world, The Future of a Promise
will be the Venice Biennale’s first pan-Arab
exhibition of contemporary art. From
Tunisia all the way to Saudi Arabia, this
landmark exhibition brings together more
than 25 recent works and commissions,
ranging from painting, drawing and
photography, to video, sculpture and
Production Catalogue
installation.

The exhibition is curated by Lina Lazaar,

produced by Edge of Arabia and supported by
Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives
and Abraaj Capital.

Venice Partners Production Partners The Future of a Promise is accompanied

by a fully illustrated catalogue in English,
produced by Ibraaz Publishing.

Gallery Partners

Media Partners

Design: A+B Studio, London

Curatorial Statement 6|7

What is a promise? mind and the future (if not legacy) of that
creative promise and the viewer. Whilst the
What does it mean to make a promise? In artists included here are not representative of
an age where the ‘promise of the future’ has a movement as such, they do seek to engage
become something of a cliché, what is meant with a singular issue in the Middle East
by The Future of a Promise? today: who gets to represent the present-day
realities and promise of the region and the
In its most basic sense, a promise is the horizons to which they aspire?
manifestation of an intention to act or,
indeed, the intention to refrain from acting It is with this in mind that the show will
in a specified way. A commitment is made enquire into the ‘promise’ of visual culture
on behalf of the promisee which suggests in an age that has become increasingly
hope, expectation, and the assurance of a disaffected with politics as a means of social
future deed committed to the best interests engagement. Can visual culture, in sum,
of all. respond to both recent events and the future
promise implied in those events? And if so,
A promise, in sum, opens up a horizon what forms do those responses take?
of future possibilities, be they aesthetic,
political, historical, social or indeed, critical.
The Future of a Promise aims to explore the
nature of the promise as a form of aesthetic
and socio-political transaction and how it
is made manifest in contemporary visual
culture in the Arab world today.

In a basic sense, there is a degree of promise

in the way in which an idea is made
manifest in a formal, visual context - the
‘promise’, that is, of potential meaning
emerging in an artwork and its opening
up to interpretation. There is also the
‘transaction’ between what the artist had in
Artists 8|9

Ziad Abillama
Manal Al-Dowayan
Jananne Al-Ani
Ahmed Alsoudani
Ziad Antar
Kader Attia
Ayman Baalbaki
Lara Baladi
Fayçal Baghriche
Yto Barrada
Taysir Batniji
Abdelkader Benchamma
Ayman Yossri Daydban
Mounir Fatmi
Abdulnasser Gharem
Mona Hatoum
Raafat Ishak
Emily Jacir
Nadia Kaabi-Linke
Yazan Khalili
Ahmed Mater
Driss Ouadahi
 10 | 11

Ziad Abillama Lebanon, 1969

–
Untitled (Arabes)
–
Untitled (Arabes) (2011) stages the collapse of
the dialectic between Self and Other, at the
latest stage of Western imperialism. It is not a
historical moment, but a crisis in philosophy,
beyond the political.

The piece certainly witnesses the appearance

of a nasty ‘other’, but it has less to do with ‘real
Arabs’ per se as sovereign subjects, than with an
ongoing meditation on the anxiety of Western
science when dealing with the Arab world as an
object of study.

Untitled (Arabes), 2011

–
Painted aluminium. Courtesy
of Agial Art Gallery, Beirut.
Artwork

Manal Al-Dowayan Saudi Arabia, 1973

–
Suspended Together
–
Suspended Together is an installation that
gives the impression of movement and freedom.
However, a closer look at the 200 doves brings
the realisation that the doves are actually frozen
and suspended, with no hope of flight. An even
closer look shows that each dove carries on its
body the permission document that allows a
Saudi woman to travel. All Saudi women are
required to have this document, issued by their
appointed male guardian.

The artist reached out to a large group of leading

female figures from Saudi Arabia to donate
their permission documents for inclusion
in this artwork. Suspended Together carries
the documents of award-winning scientists,
educators, journalists, engineers, artists and
leaders with groundbreaking achievements that
contributed to society. The youngest contributor
is six months old and the oldest is 60 years
old. In the artist’s words, ‘regardless of age and
achievement, when it comes to travel, all these
women are treated like a flock of suspended doves’.

Suspended Together, 2011

–
Fibreglass with laminate
coating. Courtesy of the
artist and Cuadro Fine Art
Gallery, Dubai.
Artwork 14 | 15

Shadow Sites II, 2011

–
Jananne Al-Ani Iraq, 1966
Single channel digital video. –
Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2011.
Courtesy of the artist.
Shadow Sites II
–
Shadow Sites II is a film that takes the form
of an aerial journey. It is made up of images
of a landscape bearing traces of natural and
man-made activity as well as ancient and
contemporary structures. Seen from above,
the landscape appears abstracted, its buildings
flattened and its inhabitants invisible to the
human eye. Only when the sun is at its lowest,
do the features on the ground, the archaeological
sites and settlements come to light. Such ‘shadow
sites’ when seen from the air, map the latent
images held by the landscape’s surface. Much
like a photographic plate, the landscape itself
holds the potential to be exposed, thereby
revealing the memory of its past.

Historically, representations of the Middle

Eastern landscape, from William Holman Hunt’s
1854 painting The Scapegoat to media images
from the 1991 Desert Storm campaign have
depicted the region as uninhabited and without
sign of civilisation. Shadow Sites II recreates
the aerial vantage point of such missions while
taking an altogether different viewpoint of
the land it surveys. The film burrows into the
landscape as one image slowly dissolves into
another, like a mineshaft tunnelling deep into a
substrate of memories preserved over time.
Statement by Sharmini Pereira in collaboration with the artist
Artwork

Ahmed Alsoudani Iraq, 1975

–
These turbulent paintings depict a disfigured
tableau of war and atrocity. Although the content
of the paintings draw on my own experiences of
recent wars in Iraq, the imagery of devastation
and violence – occasionally laced with a
morbid and barbed humour – evoke a universal
experience of conflict and human suffering.
Deformed figures, some almost indistinguishable
and verging on the bestial, intertwine and distort
in vivid, surreal landscapes. Figures are often
depicted at a moment of transition – through fear
or agony – from human to grotesque.

Untitled, 2010 Untitled, 2010 (overleaf)

– –
Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy
of the artist and Haunch of of the artist and Haunch of
Venison, New York & London. Venison, New York & London.
 20 | 21

Ziad Antar Lebanon, 1978

–
Burj Khalifa
UAE Coast 3
Cairo
–
In the year 2000, I purchased ten roles of expired
black and white film from Studio Al Madani
in Saida, South Lebanon. These films not only
expired in 1976, but they were also poorly
preserved, subjected to floods, humidity and
fire damage.

It is the ruinous condition of the films that

interested me as a medium for my work. As a
result, the images are sometimes void of pigment,
often damaged, blackened or blurred. To add to
the experiment, I was also using an old camera
– a 1948 Kodak Reflex II – and I had to work
through the constraints of these expired films,
trying to play with light in order to create an image.

The outcome was always unpredictable and

uncertain. The whole experiment lies in the idea
that even I did not know the result before the
images were printed. And when the images were
printed, a blurry limit was created
in what the spectator sees and what
Burj Khalifa, 2010
–
he believes.
Black and white silver print.
Commissioned by the Sharjah
Art Foundation. Courtesy of
the artist and Selma Feriani
Gallery, London.
 Artwork 22 | 23

UAE Coast 3, 2010 Cairo, 2005

– –
Black and white silver print. Black and white silver print.
Courtesy of the artist and Courtesy of the artist and
Selma Feriani Gallery, Selma Feriani Gallery,
London. London.
Artwork

Kader Attia France, 1970

–
La Colonne Sans Fin
–
Kader Attia spent his childhood between France
and Algeria, between the Christian Occident
and the Islamic Maghreb. The more he grew
up, the more he felt that being ‘in between’ was
at the root of his identities. Awarded the 2010
Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Attia’s work continues
to explore the impact of Western cultural and
political capitalism on the Middle East and
North Africa, as well as how this residual strain
of struggle and resistance to colonisation impacts
Arab youth, particularly in the banlieues
(suburbs) of France where Attia lived. While each
new series employs different materials, symbols
and scale, Attia’s practice continually returns
to a sustained look at the poetic dimensions and
complexities of contemporary life.

La Colonne Sans Fin, 2010

–
Stacked megaphones.
Courtesy of Galerie Anne
de Villepoix, Paris.
 26 | 27

Ayman Baalbaki Lebanon, 1975

–
Al Maw3oud
Kalam Faregh (Empty Words)
–
Kalam Faregh (Empty Words) is a project that
combines images and texts: patterned images as
represented by the ‘cretonne’ fabric, widely spread
in the Levant area, perforated with embroidered,
cut-out texts borrowed from flirtatious frivolous
poems messages sent by lovers through SMS
on Arabic satellite televisions – the new forums
of exchange and free expression for the young
generations, filling screens from Morocco to
Iraq. The dichotomy lies in the shorthand
superficiality of those shallow, insignificant texts
devoid of meaning, as compared to the historical
value of language in the Arab consciousness as
the ultimate purveyor of culture, identity and pride.

Al Maw3oud, 2011
–
Oil on canvas and printed
fabric. Courtesy of Agial Art
Gallery, Beirut.
Artwork

Kalam Faregh is an installation shedding light

on the decadence facing actual discourse in the
Arab world, and the necessity to stimulate
critical thought in order to bring back to words
the worth and respect they had in a civilisation
which urgently needs to revisit itself, its identity
and its values.

Kalam Faregh (Empty Words)

2011
–
Embroidered cut-outs on
printed fabric. Courtesy of
Agial Art Gallery, Beirut.
Artwork 30 | 31

Rose, 2010
– Lara Baladi Lebanon, 1969
Digital collage and archival
–
print on gesso. Courtesy
of the artist and Gallery Rose
Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai.
–
Ritual is a tender anchor. Through repetition we
find comfort in an otherwise uncertain reality. It
is this essence of ritual that is explored in Diary
of the Future, an ensemble work, which emerged
from the time preceding the death of my father.

The Arab tradition of reading the future from the

residue left after drinking Turkish coffee was a
perfect vehicle to record this period. My father’s
visitors unwittingly became part of an elaborate
ceremony. I documented and archived this
process chronologically. This inventory graces
Rose, the large scale digital montage, central to
Diary of the Future; a diary of individual lives
running parallel yet interlaced, crossing each
other and echoed in the deltas and rivulets fixed
within the cups.

Our past, present and future are entwined.

Just as the formations in the cups would differ
from one day to the next, so our futures are
defined by a constantly shifting present.

Diary of the Future points to an intangible

yearning we feel in the face of mortality.
The cups, ex-votos (out of a promise), hint at a
desire for something eternal. But change is our
only certainty.
 Fayçal Baghriche Algeria, 1972

–
Souvenir
–
The works Souvenir and Épuration élective
employ different materials, but echo one another
in a number of ways. The former is a luminous
terrestrial globe, which turns so fast that it is
impossible to distinguish continents or the
demarcations that separate them from the oceans.
For the latter work, I have vastly enlarged a page
from a dictionary representing all the flags of the
world and erased everything except the stars.

The installation evokes a simple, childlike

decor: the Earth and the sky, or the universe and
our planet. However, both works involve the
deliberate blurring or erasing of specific elements
which disrupts our perception of familiar images
and national symbols. The terrestrial globe
spins at such high speed that it blurs continental
outlines and the geographical space of individual
countries. The starry canvas is the result of a
diligent exercise of erasure. National identities
are done away with by distorting one of the
most significant symbols of statehood – the
national flag. The works invite us to look beyond
superficial appearances and re-apprehend the
reality they conceal.

Souvenir, 2009
-
Terrestrial globe and motor.
Courtesy of the artist.
 34 | 35

Yto Barrada France, 1971

–
The Magician
–
‘The hands of the magician are faster
than the eyes of the spectator.’
Abdelouahid El Hamri, aka Sinbad of the Straits.

In The Magician (2003), a private display of

illusions is presented in the courtyard of Mr
El Hamri’s house in Tangier, including the
apparition of ping-pong balls and white doves,
swallowing razor blades, and an attempt to
reproduce his difficult trick ‘How to Make a
Chicken Go to Sleep (El sueno de un gallo)’.

The Magician, 2003

-
Video, sound, 18’. Directed and filmed by
Yto Barrada with Abdelouahid El Hamri,
aka Sinbad of the Straits. Edited by
Benoît Rossel. Produced by Yto Barrada
with the support of Galerie Polaris.
Courtesy of the artist and Studio Yto.
 Artwork 36 | 37

Taysir Batniji Gaza, 1966

–
GH0809
–
The title of GH0809 is an abbreviation of
‘Gaza Houses 2008-2009’; its letters and numbers
resembling an illusory real estate company. The
project was conceived after the army of the
Israeli occupation launched a war on Gaza in
2008-09. This war claimed the lives of many
Palestinian civilians, most of them children,
caused by the widespread destruction of houses
and facilities.

What concerns me here is the treatment of the

topic, as is always the case in my works
that take on the situation in Palestine. I use a
visual frame derived from daily life by evoking
commercial advertising, but with altered
content. In this contradiction between form and
content is an invitation to contemplate a reality
far from the familiar, and beyond the scope of
a journalistic report.

My works are perhaps less concerned with a

specific topic or situation, and moreover an
inquiry into representation itself, testing new
forms and techniques, or re-appropriating
existing forms, in an attempt to
challenge familiarity, whether the
GH0809, 2010 image in question is journalistic,
–
(1 of 20 panels shown) 20
documentary or ‘artistic’.
digital colour prints on A4
paper, with Plexiglas and
retro lighting. Courtesy
of Galerie Sfeir-Semler,
Hamburg & Beirut.
 Artwork 38 | 39

Sculpture #9, 2011

– Abdelkader Benchamma France, 1975
Black ink on paper. –
Courtesy of Galerie du Jour
Agnès B, Paris.
Sculpture #9
Sculpture #5
Sculpture #4
–
My current practice links drawing, writing and
installation. In the group show Draw at the
Galerie du Jour in 2004, and in my solo show at
the same gallery in 2007, a multifarious form
of drawing started to emerge, which references
landscape painting, fresco and minimalist drawing.

The drawing One and One, was realised in situ,

drawn directly onto the ceiling of an art centre. It
is conceived as an installation.
One and One gathers two ideas regarding the
origin of the universe, conjuring up a vision
borrowed from religious iconographic codes
alongside an enormous explosion of transforming
matter – a primary big bang. These two
representations of the world could look at first
dramatically different, but they are linked by
their shared uncertainty, their mysterious signs
and their ability to provoke contemplation and
wonder. Questions of transformations, flux and
dynamism are at the heart of the my concerns.

The Sculpture series, started in 2009,

investigates other possibilities. The drawing is
more minimalist, formed by a specific technique
which brings to mind the aesthetic of a scanner
or of an unlikely sort of modelling.
 Artwork 40 | 41

Sculpture #5, 2010 Sculpture #4, 2010

– –
Felt pen and ink on paper. Felt pen and ink on paper.
Courtesy of ADN Gallery, Barcelona. Courtesy of ADN Gallery, Barcelona.
Artwork 42 | 43

Ayman Yossri Daydban Palestine, 1966

–
Ra’I
–
Ihramat is a concept born of a defining tradition
and custom adopted during the holy Hajj
pilgrimage. This series uses authentic ihramat,
the customary white cloth worn by pilgrims
to Makkah, stretched onto wooden frames and
presented in multiple variations. Every man is
required to wear the white cloth; it erases any
distinguishing features, presenting all as one,
stripped down to their purest form, equal and
united under the same faithful brotherhood.

Ra’I, from the Arabic language meaning

guardian, is made up of six panels, each stretched
with the authentic white cotton ihram and
presented as an inverted pyramid. This piece
represents the ultimate promise of a social ideal.
This is a challenge to the conventional idea of a
hierarchy; the most powerful dominate and rule
at the top, over the masses at the bottom. By
inverting this pyramid, the work highlights a
ruler’s duty and responsibility to serve the people.

At a distance, the ihram seem identical, but as

you approach distinct patterns begin to appear.
Parallels can be drawn with social ideals; each
Ra’I, 2011 panel represents a building block in society.
–
Stretched Ihramat fabric.
Various groups share differences and similarities
Courtesy of Athr Gallery, in their patterning, yet work together under a
Jeddah.
greater umbrella to flow in peace and harmony.
 Artwork

Mounir Fatmi Morocco, 1970

–
The Lost Springs
–
The Lost Springs displays the 22 flags of the Arab
League states at half mast. Two brooms refer to
the upheavals that led to the fall of President Ben
Ali in Tunisia and President Mubarak in Egypt.
This evocative, subtle and trenchant work of art
has been inspired by the current protests against
neo-patriarchal powers in the Maghreb, the
Mashriq and the Arabian Peninsula.

The flag is a symbol rich in identity and

attribution. Through the aesthetics of sweeping,
the artist testifies to some timeless spring. A
standard bearer of the pan-Arabic revolutionary
revivalism and its enchanting utopia, he
breaks away from the prevailing monotony of
always disenchanted tomorrows, irreverently
using the devices of complicity... Giving his
work an essential and symbolic function, he
dematerialises it, as if to repeat over and over
again that symbols are food for thought.
Extracts from Spring Cleaning! by Franck Hermann Ekra

The Lost Springs, 2011

–
22 flags of the Arab League.
Courtesy of the artist and
Galerie Hussenot, Paris.
 46 | 47

Abnulnasser Gharem Saudi Arabia, 1973

–
The Stamp (Amen)
–
Have a Bit of Commitment is part of the Arabic
and English text set over the business-end of
this wooden stamp. It is a scaled-up version of
the one used every day across Saudi Arabia by
bureaucrats, officials, policemen and soldiers –
including the artist, a Lieutenant-Colonel in
the Saudi Army – as they articulate an official
reaction. This is both a reinforcement of their
authority and the final stage in a transaction.
Each stamp authorises or prohibits certain
behaviours.

In 2008 the artist applied the first version of this

stamp to the wall of an exhibition from which he
had had several works removed. By doing so he
proposed a separate authority, that of the author,
or the artist.

Empowered by the stamp and all of its ersatz

authority, the artist demands more rigour and
more commitment, before finishing with a word
that is in itself a stamp of approval: ‘Amen’.
Statement by Henry Hemming

The Stamp (Amen)

2011
–
Rubber on wooden stamp
Courtesy of the Artist
and the Farook Collection.
Artwork

Mona Hatoum Lebanon, 1952

Drowning Sorrows
(Gran Centenario) (detail)
– 2002
–
Drowning Sorrows (Gran Centenario) Glass. Courtesy of the artist.
Artwork 50 | 51

Raafat Ishak Egypt, 1967

–
Responses to an immigration request from
one hundred and ninety four governments
–
A formal request to immigrate was sent to 194
governments, 97 of whom provided a response,
varying from congratulatory notes to outright
suspicious interrogations of motive. What
was evident, was that inherent laws and
regulations, particular to each state, were in fact
a conglomeration of sameness: race, language and
religion, as well as economic and professional
qualifications were key criteria. Unsurprisingly,
97 states chose not to respond at all.

Responses to an immigration request from one

hundred and ninety four governments (2006–09)
constitutes 194 painted panels, depicting the
faded flag of each state superimposed with a
summary of each response, or no response, in
stylised and phonetic Arabic text.

What on the surface seems like an unprecedented

opportunity to reclaim the world by self and
citizen is obstructed by an inherent lack of
freedom, in particular the freedom to cross
borders and migrate from one distinct place Responses to an immigration
request from one hundred and
to another. This work constitutes a polemic ninety four governments
veneration towards otherness whilst engaging 2006–09
–
in a reconsideration of self and citizen as a Oil and gesso on MDF. Courtesy of the
contrivance of nation states mired in economic, artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
and the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.
social, political and historical relevance.
Artwork 52 | 53

Emily Jacir Saudi Arabia, 1970

–
embrace
–
embrace is a circular, motorised sculpture
fabricated to look like an empty luggage conveyor
system found in airports. It remains perfectly
still and quiet, but when a viewer comes near the
sculpture their presence activates the work; it
turns on and starts moving. The work’s diameter
refers to the height of the artist. The work
symbolises, amongst many things, waiting and
the etymology of the word ‘embrace’.

embrace, 2005
–
Rubber, stainless steel,
aluminium, motor and
motion sensors.
Courtesy of Anthony
Reynolds Gallery, London
and Alexander and Bonin,
New York.
Artwork 54 | 55

Nadia Kaabi-Linke Tunisia, 1978

–
Impressions of Cairo
Butcher Bliss
Flying Carpets
–
The flying carpet is a dream of instantaneous
and boundless travel, but in Venice I saw illegal
immigrants using carpets to fly the coop.
They sell counterfeit goods to make some money to
live. If they’re caught by the police they risk expulsion.

There was a butcher in Tunis who wanted to

honour Ben Ali, by calling his shop ‘Butcher
shop of the 7th November’, the day when Ben Ali
assumed the presidency in a ‘medical’ coup d’état
from then President Habib Bourguiba. After he
Impressions of Cairo, 2010
did so, he disappeared without a trace. (detail)
–
Paper and light. Courtesy
In 2010 I visited Cairo, a metropolis of stark of the artist.
contradictions: tradition and modernism, culture
and illiteracy, poverty and wealth, bureaucracy
and spirituality. All voices fade in the noisy
hustle; risk a closer look at the walls and you will
find the people’s whispers carved into stone.

Butcher Bliss, 2010

All three works document the crossing of borders: (overleaf)
traversing the European border as EU-citizen, or –
Porcelain prints of four
not; the wide line between insult and homage ruminant stomachs Flying Carpets, 2011
transgressed through the unspoken proximity (Abomasum, Omasum, (overleaf)
Reticulum, Rumen), chrome- –
of slaughter and the governance of the former plated stainless steel Chrome plated aluminium,
Tunisian regime; and the whispered longing for meat hooks, metallic bar. stainless steel and threads.
Courtesy of the artist. Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2011.
freedom in the police state of Cairo.
 60 | 61

Yazan Khalili Palestine, 1981

–
Colour Correction
–
The Colour Correction series is about losing
lifestyle, mobility, freedom of choice and even
the ability to dream of a brighter tomorrow.
According to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj
Žižek, these losses lead to a permanent state of
emergency, where the possibility of thinking and
living in the present becomes impossible.

This specific image shows Al-Amari Refugee

Camp, located inside/beside/outside Ramallah City.

The form of the camp does not represent its

economic status, but rather its loss and trauma
as a political manifestation that persists due to
the continuous emergence of ephemeral homes,
contradictory ways of living and unbearably
unstable relationships between Palestinians
and their surrounding landscape. Altering the
refugee camp’s colours is a symbolic act. It
aims to fill the loss – in the way a child fills the
blanks in colouring books – and thus reignite
the possibility of hope. Here I am attempting to
appropriate an urban landscape that reminds us
of the tragedy – of their existence and
Colour Correction
(from the Camp series)
our disappearance – in order to subvert
2007–10 memory into a desired future.
–
Digital lambda c-type print.
Courtesy of the artist and
Newertown|Art.
Artwork

Ahmed Mater Saudi Arabia, 1979

–
Antenna
The Cowboy Code
–
Antenna is a symbol and a metaphor for growing
up in Saudi Arabia. As children, we used to climb
up to the roofs of our houses and hold these
television antennas up to the sky.

We were trying to catch a signal from beyond the

nearby border with Yemen or Sudan; searching –
like so many of my generation in Saudi –
for music, for poetry, for a glimpse of a different
kind of life. I think this work can symbolise the
whole Arab world right now… searching for a
different kind of life through other stories and
other voices. This story says a lot about my life
and my art; I catch art from the story of my life,
I don’t know any other way.

Antenna, 2010
–
Neon. Courtesy of the artist
and Prognosis Art.
Artwork 64 | 65

The Cowboy Code, 2011

–
Plastic cap gun discs.
Courtesy of the artist and
Prognosis Art.
Artwork

Driss Ouadahi Morocco, 1959

–
Fences 1
Fences, Hole 2
–
Over the past seven years I have been painting
urban landscapes collaged from elements such as
high-rise housing blocks, streets and parking lots,
playgrounds and small green spaces – all to be
found in metropolitan suburbs worldwide.

The suburban place – ‘Dans Cité’ – bears a direct

relation to and is reflected by the ‘Densité’, the
density of the work. Through my paintings I
express my interest in developing a universally
readable visual language from the light and
atmosphere of the urban landscape. More
recently I have been focusing on two types of
urban elements – one is tiled passageways as
often found in subway systems, conveying the
claustrophic and scary atmosphere of blocked
escape routes. The second type is spatial
demarcations, depictions of chain-linked fences,
such as those in The Future of a Promise, which
are both minimalist abstractions and signifiers
of separation.

Fences 1, 2008
–
Oil on canvas. Courtesy of
Hosfelt Gallery, New York &
San Francisco.
 68 | 69

Fences, Hole 2, 2011

–
Oil on canvas. Courtesy of
Hosfelt Gallery, New York &
San Francisco.
 Sponsors 70 | 71

Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives Abraaj Capital is delighted to initiate its partnership
was established in 2003 as the corporate social with Edge of Arabia through the patronage of The
responsibility programmes provider under the Future of a Promise.
prominent ALJ Group. It has global coverage and
through its many successful initiatives and social In our business, we are committed to sustaining and
programmes provides a multitude of successful spotlighting the unequivocal talent emerging from
globally applicable sustainable projects, solutions, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asian region.
schemes and mechanisms. Abdul Latif Jameel In 2008 we established the Abraaj Capital Art Prize
Community Initiatives have developed and promoted to give artists the opportunity of creating new and
a portfolio of globally applicable sustainable projects innovative artworks that without such support would
and solutions, supported socio-economic development not have been possible.
by providing social programmes for the needs of
communities, and brought about a reduction of We are pleased that two winning works unveiled this
unemployment and poverty through novel and March are on display. Venice has for centuries been
innovative schemes and mechanisms. an inspiration for artists, and like Dubai, a mercantile
centre bridging East and West. Nadia Kaabi-Linke’s
[Link] Flying Carpets eloquently highlights the presence of
foreign pedlars trading on the bridges of Venice. Joined
by Jananne Al-Ani’s powerful film Shadow Sites II,
these two works highlight the diverse ways artists
today can capture the essence of our region.

Frederic Sicre, Partner, Abraaj Capital

[Link]
 Production Catalogue 72 | 73

Edge of Arabia is an independent contemporary arts Ibraaz is a new online publishing forum for writing
platform and travelling exhibition promoting artists on visual culture in the Middle East and North Africa
from the Arab world and with a particular focus on (MENA). Through the publication of essays and
Saudi Arabia. projects by academics, artists, curators, historians,
commentators, writers, and critics, Ibraaz will offer a
Since launching in London in 2008, this grassroots primary research forum for in-depth, peer-reviewed
initiative has travelled to Riyadh, Berlin, Istanbul and texts about the MENA region. The long-term
Dubai, engaging international audiences and shedding ambition of the project is to utilise these essays and
light on the relatively unknown contemporary art ideas to further commission and develop full-length,
and culture of the region. This exhibition builds on illustrated books.
Edge of Arabia’s presentation of eight Saudi artists at
the Palazzo Contarini Polignac on the Grand Canal, It will be launched at the Venice Biennial in June
during the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. 2011 alongside its first publication, the catalogue
Edge of Arabia has taken the opportunity to produce for The Future of a Promise. The catalogue is edited
The Future of a Promise, the 54th Venice Biennale’s by Anthony Downey and Lina Lazaar and includes
first pan-arab contemporary art exhibition. illustrations of all works in the show, artists’
statements, essays by the editors, and essays by Samir
[Link] Kassir and Rachida Triki.

Ibraaz was initiated and made possible by the support

of the Kamel Laazar Foundation.

[Link]
Acknowledgements

Curator Lina Lazaar and Production

Director Stephen Stapleton would like to
thank all the team that have worked to
bring The Future of a Promise to Venice:

Abdullah Al Turki Laura Egerton

Alex Lampe Mara Sartore
Amani Hassan Massimo Levi
Andrew Stramentov Matteo Bartoli
Anne-Sophie Stapleton Meg Bianchini
Aya Mousawi Michela Canessa
Benedetta Ghione-Webb Michele & Giovani
Benji Wiedemann Costagnilo
Coline Milliard Miriam Lloyd-Evans
David McFarline Rania Kfoury
Ibrahim Vaid Samual Adams
Inger Steenstrup Sebastiano Bianchini
James (Rollo) Rawlinson Susannah Worth
James Sevier Sven Knowles
Juan Carlos Farah Tom Carey
Klara Piza Valeria Mariani

B O O T H - C L I B B O R N E D I T I O N S

EDGE OF ARABIA, TO BE PUBLISHED PUBLICATION DATES

INTERNATIONALLY BY BOOTH-CLIBBORN UK FALL 2011
EDITIONS, WILL EXPLORE THE EMERGING GULF JANUARY 2012
CONTEMPORARY ARTS CULTURE OF THE USA SPRING 2012
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA. [Link]
CONTEMPORARY ART
London 4 October 2011 ARAB & IRANIAN
© MOHAMED KANOO

Sama Alshaibi
Vs. Him
September 2011

Al Serkal Avenue, unit 21, Al Quoz

PO Box 123901 Dubai, UAE
T +971 (0)4 346 9906
MOHAMED KANOO, HENNA STOP SIGN ESTIMATE £8,000–12,000
F +971 (0)4 346 9902
PREVIEW EXHIBITION IN LONDON, 9–21 JULY 2011 info@[Link]
(CLOSED 16 & 17) FROM 10AM TO 4PM
ENQUIRIES +44 (0)20 7293 5154 [Link]@[Link] [Link]
[Link]
“In a far away place, surrounded by sand dunes, lies a great
house of treasures, a museum only recently discovered, for all
to explore, in the land of BASMOCA...”
For More Information

Ayman Yussri Daydaban

Braille Flag From the Flag Series, 2010
50.5 x 38.5 x 4 cm
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Framed stainless steal on braille paper
 ABDULNASSER GHAREM
Message/Messenger
sold for $852,500 to benefit
the Education Programme of Edge of Arabia

10 Sales in Dubai
360 World Records
Over $100 Million of Arab and Iranian Art sold
Christie’s continues to dominate the market for Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

We are currently accepting consignments for Christie’s upcoming sale of Modern &
Contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art to be held in Dubai on 25 October 2011.
Please contact Bibi Naz Zavieh on bzavieh@[Link] . Tel: +971 (0)4 425 5647
 Ziad Abillama
Manal Al-Dowayan
Jananne Al-Ani
Ahmed Alsoudani
Ziad Antar
Kader Attia
Ayman Baalbaki
Lara Baladi
Fayçal Baghriche
Yto Barrada
Taysir Batniji
Abdelkader Benchamma
Ayman Yossri Daydban
Mounir Fatmi
Abdulnasser Gharem
Mona Hatoum
Raafat Ishak
Emily Jacir
Nadia Kaabi-Linke
Yazan Khalili
Ahmed Mater
Driss Ouadahi