ArteEast Quarterly: fall 2015
ArteEast is pleased to announce the release of the fall 2015 edition of ArteEast Quarterly, an online publication that offers readers a critical forum for contemporary artistic practices in the Middle East, North Africa and their diaspora.
Fall 2015, ArteZine: “Freedom is a State of Mind”
Guest editor: Didem Yazıcı
In “Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz),” Etel Adnan writes: “Under the most oppressive regimes, a man, a woman, can keep and experience their freedom: freedom is a state of mind. It is born (and often dies) in the mind. It’s often called dignity, refusal, rebellion.” Guest editor Didem Yazıcı, curatorial collaborator of Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg, invites contributors to respond to the concept of freedom and its various forms in relation to today’s social, cultural and political context.
Presenting new images he created for this fall’s ArteZine, artist Khaled Barakeh expands on his “Untitled Images” series from last year, and continues his exploration into the “refugee crisis” and the visual politics surrounding it in “Act of Excision.” As he manipulates images—sources unknown—by cutting out the bodies of people who drowned in the sea escaping “home” for their freedom, Barakeh draws attention to an issue to which some turn a blind eye.
Artist and writer Şener Özmen responds to the selected theme by making his video How to tell of peace to a living dove? (2015), recently shown in Istanbul, “public” once more, making the work permanently accessible online. Narrated by the artist’s son Robin, Özmen’s conversation with the bird is sincere and subtly cynical of the white dove figure tirelessly used as a global symbol for peace. It invites us to imagine different ways of talking about peace even in the most difficult times.
Artists Simone Fattal and Etel Adnan collaboratively weave together collages and poetry in “Freedom is a State of Mind,” which lends its name to the issue. Fattal’s collages, presented online for the first time, bring different fragments together: quotes from interview by filmmaker Simone Bitton, various shapes of the moon, apples and portraits. Adnan’s poems dance with the collages, echoing their textuality. Together, they translate a particular state of mind: the experience of freedom.
Misal Adnan Yıldız, director of Artspace, Auckland, articulates the tension between two acts of human nature, preserving and destroying, in a refreshing analysis of Walid Raad’s practice with a focus on several projects—most recently, his installation currently on view at the 14th Istanbul Biennial. Yıldız contextualizes Raad’s long-term interests and recent work in relation to politics of museology and heritage in an essay titled “Walid Raad’s Practice: The Capital of Preserving and The Freedom of Destroying.”
For this issue of ArteZine, and to learn more about the contributors, click here.
Fall 2015, Gallery: “George Awde: Where light falls”
Guest curator: Laura Barlow
In this Gallery, curator Laura Barlow carefully traces George Awde’s powerful yet delicate construction around the body, identity and context through strategies of slowness and repetition. With a particular focus on works from Beirut, Cairo and Syria that span across almost a decade, Barlow studies the artist’s practice and exploration into complex national and regional belongings along with gender relations.
For this issue of Gallery, click here.
For more information about the publications contact L. İpek Ulusoy Akgül, Managing Editor, ArteEast Quarterly.
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