Visual Culture in an Age of Global Conflict
The Kamel Lazaar Foundation is pleased to announce that it will stage a two-day conference at the National Museum of Bardo from 28–29 May, 2015. This will be the third iteration of the JAOU initiative to be held there and the first international conference at the Museum since the terrorist attacks on Wednesday, 18 March 2015.
Organized in advance of those attacks, the conference has since taken on an additional pertinence in relation to any investigation into the role that culture performs in the personal, social, public, and political discourses that are unfolding across the region. The indiscriminate attacks have further highlighted the susceptibility of culture in an age of global terror, as have the recent destruction of artifacts in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. The questions that remain demand exploration and considered responses if we are to not only condemn these attacks but also ensure that culture and civil society will prevail in the face of extremism, violence and indiscriminate killing.
JAOU 2015 will bring together local and international artists, curators, academics, and cultural practitioners to address these concerns and will include, alongside other events, a condition report on visual culture in the Maghreb, an extended series of round table discussions on, respectively, collaborative geographies in an age of global conflict, the future of art institutions in the Middle East, the role of artistic practices in building international relations and local institutions, the use of archives in contemporary art practices, and the historical genealogies that inform performance art in the Middle East.
Confirmed speakers and performers for the event include Sultan Al Qassemi, Lina Attalah, Mohamed Aziza, Saleh Barakat, Syhème Belkhoja, Moncef Ben Moussa, Antonia Carver, Svetlana Costa, Anthony Downey, Aadel Essaadani, Hela Fattoumi, Wassim Ghozlani, Nadia Kaabi Linke, Hiwa K., Tania El Khoury, Amal Khalaf, Lina Lazaar, Kamel Lazaar, Sofiane Ouissi, Mourad Sakli, and Slavs and Tatars.
The conference will also include an accelerated session, hosted by Thinkers and Doers, to enable four short-listed cultural entrepreneurs to present projects that promote Arab culture and, in turn, evaluate value its economical, social, educational and environmental footprint.
Alongside the symposium, JOAU will showcase entirely unique, container-based, mobile art exhibition, which will be situated in the heart of Carthage. Curated by Lina Lazaar, this inaugural exhibition will explore the interplay between sacred space, religious ritual, cultural convention, and everyday life. Artists involved in this include Adel Abidin, Rashed Al Shashai, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Mounir Fatmi, and Moataz Nasr.
Further events include a series of organized tours of galleries and museums in Tunis, a film premiere, workshops, and books launches, including volume 02 in the Foundation`s Visual Culture in the Middle East Series: Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East. The Foundation will also launch a series of new initiatives to support the infrastructural development of cultural institutions across the Maghreb and Middle East.
The attack on the National Museum of Bardo was designed to undermine the nascent democratic model of Tunisia, the country`s economy, the voice of its people, and the vibrant culture of the region by targeting innocent people in a museum renowned for its outstanding mosaic collections and exceptional works of art.
This attack will not succeed in achieving those goals.
Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver will conduct interviews with a selection of panelists over the conference for broadcast on arts-music radio station Resonance104.4FM. Daily podcasts will be available to download from the show`s webpage.
Full details of the conference, including panels, round-tables, exhibitions, performances, film premieres, book launches, and other surrounding events, can be found on the Kamel Lazaar Foundation website.
Listen to an interview with JAOU Founder Lina Lazaar here, in which she discusses with Fari Bradley the current North African art scene and the origins behind JAOU.
Sign up to the Kamel Lazaar Foundation newsletter to receive more information on the conference and other surrounding events of JAOU Tunis 2015.
[Photo by Hydar Dewachi, 2011. Via Ibraaz.]
Thursday 28 May
10:00–10:15
Opening Remarks
– Kamel Lazaar, Chairman, Kamel Lazaar Foundation
– Moncef Ben Moussa, Director, National Museum of Bardo
10:15–11:45
Roundtable I
Culture in an Age of Global Conflict
Chair: Ghazi Gherairi, Jurist and Academic, Tunisia
– Alexandre Kazerouni, Research Fellow, Sciences-Po, Paris
– Sultan Al Qassemi, President, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
– Mohamed Aziza, Chancellor of the World Poetry Academy of Verona (Italy)
Respondents: Anthony Downey, Editor-in-Chief, Ibraaz, and Lina Lazaar, founder of JAOU
11:45
Break
12:00
Keynote I
– Aadel Essaadani, Culture Speciailst and Founder of Abbatoirs de Casablanca
General States of Culture in Morocco
Responses and questions
12:30
Lunch
13:45
Roundtable II
Maghreb Condition Report I: The Choreographed Body in Tunisian Culture
Chair: Hela Fattoumi, Director of the National Choreographic Centre of Caen, Basse-Normandie
– Oumaima Manaï, dancer and choreographer, Tunis
– Wael Maghni, dancer, Tunis
– Marwen Errouine, choreographer, Tunis
Respondent: Syhème Belkhodja, Founder of Ness el Fenn and Kalimat, Tunis
15:00
Lecture-Performance I
– Hiwa K., artist, Berlin
Starting from the Middle
Responses and questions
15:30
Break
15:45
Roundtable III
Performing Archives/Archiving Performance: Contemporary Art Practices across the Middle East
Chair: Anthony Downey, Editor-in-Chief, Ibraaz
– Nadia Kaabi-Linke, artist, Berlin
– Tania El Khoury, artist, Beirut
– Héla Ammar, artist
– Slavs and Tatars, artists, Berlin
Respondent: Amal Khalaf, Commissioning Editor, Ibraaz, and Hiwa K., artist, Berlin.
17:00
End
Friday 29 May
10:00–11:00
Thinkers and Doers: Accelerated Session
Moderator: Amandine LePoutre, Founder, Thinkers and Doers
Five minute presentations by:
– Lilia Ben-Gacem, Blue Fish
– Anne Hélèn Decaux and Valérie Konde, Pavilion33
– Amine Chouaieb, Chifco
– Alizée Doumerc and Camille Caubriere, GUESTVIEWS
– Bobby Demri, GOV
Respondent: Mourad Sakli, Musicologist and Former Tunisian Minister of Culture, Tunisia
11:00–11:45
Keynote II
– Lecture-Performance by Slavs and Tatars
Al Isnad or Chains We Can Believe In
Responses and questions
11:45
Break
12:00–13:00
Roundtable IV
Maghreb Condition Report II: Visual Culture in the Maghreb
Chair: Svetlana Costa, Curator and Artistic Director, Arts Cabinet, London
– Anabelle Boissier, Research Associate, LAMES, Paris
– Mourad Sakli, Musicologist and Former Minister of Culture, Tunisia
– Wassim Ghozlani, Co-Founder, Maison De L`Image
– Moncef Dhouib, filmmaker, Tunis
– Hind Meddeb, Filmmaker, Journalist, Director, Tunisia Clash
– Rita Alaoui, Founder and Artist, The Ultra Laboratory, Morocco
Respondents: Evangeline Kim, art consultant, and Riccarda Mandrini, journalist, Italy
13:00–14:00
Lunch
14:00–15:30
Roundtable V: Future Imperfect: Art Institutions in the Arab World
Chair: Sultan Al Qassemi, President, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
– Saleh Barakat, Director, Agial Gallery, Beirut
– George Arbid, Architect and Founder of Arab Centre for Architecture, Beirut
– Sofiane Ouissi, Co-Founder, Dream City, Tunis
– Lina Attallah, Editor, Mada Masr, Cairo
– Antonia Carver, Fair Director, Art Dubai
Respondent: Chair: Svetlana Costa, Curator and Artistic Director, Arts Cabinet, London
15:30–16:15
KLF: Condition Report and Perspectives
– Local initiatives supported by KLF, Elsa Despiney
– Launch of Ibraaz Platform 009, and Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East by Anthony Downey
– Launch of the Maghreb Directory, and launch of Kamel Lazaar Foundation website Version 2.0, Nour Sacranie and Hydar Dewachi
– Development of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Tunis, Soumaya Gharsallah-Hizem
16:30
Closing Remarks
Lina Lazaar, Founder, JAOU