L’une des démarches fondamentales de la peinture moderne et contemporaine consiste à se débarrasser de ce qui n’est pas indispensable pour ne garder que ce qui est insubstituable, nécessaire et suffisant pour qu’il y ait œuvre picturale. Dans ce retour à l’essence ultime, la représentation figurative a été délaissée au profit de la matérialité, la […]
The main hall of Darat al-Funun was clad with the beautiful black, a black created by the artist Ali ‘Kaaf’, who presents a particular way of thinking about ‘creative’ artistic work that is far from colorful. Ali studied at the hands of the Syrian artist Marwan Kassab Bashy, who resides in Germany and was affiliated […]
The work of Ali Kaaf visualizes the simultaneous emergence and dissolution of form, depth, and light. In the series Aswad (2002-03), thick lines of black ink bulldoze across white paper. Sometimes only a corner of the surface is left untouched so that the thin paper curls under the weight of the pigment. In the series […]
Between two worlds. One of extreme grit, isolation and heaviness. Another light, glowing, surreal. The subjects of these photographs are suspended somewhere in between, stretched on a torturer’s rack, neither wholeness nor disintegration their clear fate. Suspended in potential energy searching for release. There is always a straining, contained and vibrating at the edges and […]
The artist’s desire to understand his world and to represent it, to offer it as a living place, a place that is at once nowhere and completely unique, is a fundamental part of the artist’s project, of his way of being in the world. Hamdi Attia is a careful observer of media and representation, seeing […]
Hamdi Attia’s latest work can be read as a detailed study of the social and political implications inherent in the act of translation. In four of his latest works, Attia inscribes his presence – as artist, as commentator– on already existing texts and discourses. This presence takes the form of an extended marginalia inhabiting […]
With Public Figures, a series of densely political videos manipulated so that the subjects expose themselves and their post 9/11 agendas, Hamdi Attia slyly insinuates himself into their discourse — into the billion-dollar business of TV news and commentary. Born, raised, and art-schooled in Egypt, now living in New York, Attia’s visual intelligence on […]
From the Rif to the Canaries and back again, always within the vast territory of the Tamzgha. (1) But Younès Rahmoun’s work seeks to transcend geographic spaces, through the penetration of these spaces in the form of the procession imposed in “visiting” his works. Younès is a mystical artist, and in this interview the […]
Younès Rahmoun has set up shop. The space is cramped, barely more than a cubic meter. This is his studio, the Ghorfa. (1) It is in this empty space, under the staircase of his family home, that the artist conceives, develops, sketches, and finally designs the installations that will only take shape fully at […]
The place of Jerusalem in the works of Fairouz and the Rahbani Brothers. We Loved Each Other So Much Clip duration: 4 minutes. 53 mgs Directed by Jack Janssen, Produced by Pieter Van Huystee First Run/Icarus Films http://www.frif.com/new2004/much.html Zahrat al-Madaain Clip duration: 1 minute. 8 mgs Jerusalem represents so much to so […]