Tate celebrates Fahrelnissa Zeid, Middle East modernist pioneer
Come this June (2017), Tate Modern celebrates the life and works of Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid, an artist who can rightly be seen as one of the female pioneers, in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, of both modernism and abstraction in a western sense, responsive to western aesthetics and sensibilities. Abstraction, through reinterpretation of Arabic/Farsi/Osmanli/Urdu calligraphic forms, isn’t new to a region...
Let there be Light! Nour Festival offers hope in creativity
London’s annual Nour Festival returns to the multicultural metropolis 20 October-6 November 2016, promising to highlight “the best of contemporary arts and culture from the Middle East and North Africa.” Sadly the festival’s overarching mission is challenged and overshadowed by unprecedented turmoil and fragmentation in the region it celebrates and showcases. As the five-year-old festival’s audiences...
Nour Festival 2014 launched
The annual Nour Festival in London’s cosmopolitan Chelsea and Kensington neighbourhoods launches its fifth cycle this week with an expanded cultural programme focused on contemporary Middle Easter and North Africa (MENA) and its varied British and European connections. Spread across numerous venues in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, home to citizens and residents of great cultural diversity, the six-week festival...
Mogadishu: Lost Moderns
Mogadishu – Lost Moderns is a multimedia exhibition by architect Rashid Ali and photographer Andrew Cross opening 6 March 2014 at the Mosaic Rooms. It is also the first exhibition to explore Mogadishu through its architecture and urban environment, narrating the story of Somalia’s journey from traditional African nation via colonisation and post colonialism to emergent independent state. ...
Delfina Foundation to reopen after major expansion
London’s Delfina Foundation will reopen to the public on 20 January 2014 after a major expansion, making it the largest artist residency provider in London. The Foundation has been supporting the arts of the Middle East and North Africa region since its launch in 2007, but will now also expand its geographical remit.
Sharjah crowned capital of Islamic culture
Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates is fast emerging as a cultural counterpoint to Dubai. It recently celebrated its new status as the Capital of Islamic Culture 2014. In 1998, Sharjah was named the ‘Cultural Capital of the Arab World’ by UNESCO, an honour Sharjah says it “richly deserved.” Sharjah says it has kept the spirit of its history alive by innovatively incorporating tradition into every aspect of contemporary...