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Contemporary Arab art production from the Middle East, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.
By Pat Binder & Gerhard Haupt | May 2003The DisORIENTation program in the House of World Cultures in Berlin met with unexpected interest; this was largely due to current political events. Indeed, the war in Iraq began on 20 March 2003, the same day as the opening. In consequence, the perception of the project was subjected to a context that had evidently played no role whatsoever in the planning and rather impeded a differentiated view of the exhibited works. The intention of both the artists and curator – Jack Persekian, who currently lives in East Jerusalem – was to confront the "desires and prejudices of political voyeurism" with a radicalism that renders "all conventional categories obsolete".
Our tour gives you an idea of how this statement is articulated in the exhibition. We are unfortunately not able to document all the works; anyway, single photographs of videos and installations can only give an inkling of what the piece is about.
Pat Binder & Gerhard Haupt
Publishers of Universes in Universe - Worlds of Art. Based in Berlin, Germany.
Curator: Jack Persekian
Curator, performance section: Tarek Abou El Fetouh
Artists:
Jumana Emil Abboud
Jananne Al-Ani
Lara Baladi
Roza El-Hassan
Susan Hefuna
Ali Jabri
Lamia Joreige
Moataz Nasr
Khalil Rabah
Walid Raad
Salah Saouli
Ahlam Shibli
Akram Zaatari
20 March - 11 May 2003