Art Practice and Research in North Africa and the Middle East Resources and Translations
12 & 13 December 2012
Dar al-Ma’mûn, Marrakech
In collaboration with the National Institute of Art History (INHA, Paris), the residency center for artists and translators Dar al-Ma’mûn will host a symposium in Marrakech under the title Artistic Practice and Research in the Maghreb and the Middle East: Resources and Translations.
The symposium is convened by Omar Berrada (Dar al-Ma’mûn) and Zahia Rahmani (INHA) with contributions from Sam Bardaouil, Omezine Benchikha, Ali Benmakhlouf, Hassan Darsi, Amine El Gotaibi, Ayoub El Mouzaine, Simohammed Fettaka, Ahmad Hosni, Lara Khaldi, Mustapha Laarissa, Esmail Nashif, Jacques Rancière, Youssef Wahboun, and Farid Zahi.
In recent years, North African and Middle Eastern artists have achieved unprecedented visibility on the international scene, even as structures for art production, education, and dissemination remain insufficient or lacking. Critical efforts to come to terms with this situation are still few and far between, notably in the Arabic language.
Via its library and translation programs, Dar al-Ma’mûn is endeavoring to make resources available, in Morocco, for studying visual culture in the Maghreb and the Middle-East.
Via its “Arts and globalization” program, the INHA contributes to international initiatives encouraging the dissemination of non-western critical and editorial practices.
INHA and Dar al-Ma’mûn are starting a collaboration whose first step will be a symposium held in Marrakech on December 12 and 13, under the title “Art Practice and Reseach in North Africa and the Middle-East: Resources and Translations.”
Artists, curators, art historians, and philosophers from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and France will tackle the articulation of aesthetics and politics in the Arab World, as well as the material and intellectual conditions in which creative work and research on the visual are carried out in the MENA region.
The keynote speaker is Jacques Rancière, whose two books Le spectateur émancipé and Le partage du sensible are currently being translated into Arabic at Dar al-Ma’mûn.
Entrance is free.
For information, please contact the Dar al-Ma’mûn library:
- library@dam-arts.org
- www.dam-arts.org
- +212.(0)6.19.69.96.75
Program
Talks will be in Arabic (Ar), English (Eng) or French (Fr)
Wednesday 12 December
7pm Emancipation, between Aesthetics and Politics
Jacques Rancière in conversation with Ali Benmakhlouf and Omar Berrada (Fr)
Thursday 13 December
9am Morning welcome in the library
9:30am – 11am Art Histories: Arab Sources and Resources,
- Zahia Rahmani: Art/Middle-East – Reading a Digital Bibliogaphy (Fr)
- Sam Bardaouil: Dirty Dark Loud and Hysteric – The Art and Liberty Group and the Disentangling of Art from Nationalism (Eng)
- Lara Khaldi: Contemporary Art Term Glossary Project (Ar/Eng)
- Moderated by Omar Berrada
11:15am – 1pm Translating Aesthetics
- Open workshop on the Arabic translation of key concepts of aesthetics, with texts by Jacques Rancière as a starting point.
- Workshop led by Ayoub El Mouzaine and Farid Zahi (Ar/Fr/Eng)
2:30pm – 4pm Resource-less Art? On Being an Artist in Morocco
- Roundtable with Hassan Darsi, Simohammed Fettaka and Amine El Gotaibi
- Moderated by Zahia Rahmani and Omar Berrada (Fr/Ar)
4:30pm – 6:30pm Politics of Art in North Africa and the Middle East
- Esmail Nashif: The Art of Disappearance – Palestinian Variations (Ar)
- Ahmad Hosni: Language Politics on the Egyptian Art Scene (Ar/Eng)
- Youssef Wahboun: Aesthetics of Disaster in Morocco – Bouchta El Hayani and André Elbaz (Fr)
- Omezine Ben Chikha: What Does it Mean to Share the Sensible? On Art and Democracy (Ar)
- Moderated by Mustapha Laarissa
7pm – 8:30pm Screening of the DVD Project – Moroccan selection
- Videos by Mohamed Arejdal, Younes & Zouheir Atbane, Salma Cheddadi, Amine El Gotaibi, Simohammed Fettaka, Mohssin Harraki, Rehab Kinda, Mehdi Georges Lahlou, Omar Mahfoudi, Said Rais.
- Screening introduced by Simohammed Fettaka, with Amine El Gotaibi.
Speakers
- Sam Bardaouil art historian and curator, artistic director of Art Reoriented
- Omezine Ben Chikha Meskini professor of philosophy at the University of Tunis
- Ali Benmakhlouf professeur of philosophy at Paris 12 University
- Omar Berrada critic, translator, director of the Dar al-Ma’mûn library
- Hassan Darsi artist, co-founder of ‘La Source du lion’, Casablanca
- Amine El Gotaibi artist, Tetuan
- Ayoub El Mouzaine librarian at Dar al-Ma’mûn, translator of Jacques Rancière’s Le Partage du sensible
- Simohammed Fettaka artist, Tangier
- Ahmad Hosni artist, Barcelona/Cairo
- Lara Khaldi curator, director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah
- Mustapha Laarissa professeur of philosophy at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech
- Esmail Nashif anthropolist, writer, and art critic, Palestine
- Zahia Rahmani writer and art historian, director of the « Arts and Globalization » program at l’INHA, Paris
- Jacques Rancière Emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Paris 8
- Youssef Wahboun professor of art history at Mohamed V University, Rabat
- Farid Zahi researcher at the IURS (Rabat), translator of Jacques Rancière’s Le Spectateur émancipé
Sponsors
This event would not have been possible without the sponsorship of the Institut Français du Maroc, and of the Fellah Hotel.