FotoFest 2014 recap
Contemporary Arab programs met with acclaim
Attended by over 275,000 visitors
FotoFest
2000 Edwards Street
Building C, Suite 2
Houston, Texas
USA
T +1 713 223 5522
The FotoFest 2014 Biennial, the much acclaimed 15th International Biennial of Photography in Houston, Texas, closed on April 27. The 2014 Biennial exhibition, View From Inside, was an unprecedented presentation of 49 leading Arab artists from 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab program has been received enthusiastically locally and abroad, referred to as “perhaps the largest exhibition to date of contemporary Arab photography and mixed media” art by Al Jazeera America, and was covered significantly by international media outlets.
Alongside FotoFest’s own Arab exhibition, FotoFest organized 36 varied and dynamic programs featuring Arab art and artists, including a day-long conference on Contemporary Arab Visual Art; a forum on Arabophobia; the Meeting Place Portfolio Review for artists; a multi-week film program with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the International Fine Print Auction; a Collectors Weekend; Arab music concerts; poetry events; an educational curriculum; and tours for adults and students.
The six-week Biennial, and its 125 participating exhibitions and associated programs at museums, commercial art galleries, non-profit arts organizations, and commercial and corporate spaces, attracted over 275,000 visitors from across the region, the country and abroad, asserting itself again as the United States’ largest and longest-running international photography event.
The FotoFest 2014 Biennial has been lauded for both the Arab exhibition, and its work to foster cultural exchange and advance the recognition of the region as a rising cultural center. FotoFest brought prominent Arab scholars, publishers, gallerists, including Biennial Lead Curator Karin Adrian von Roques and 17 of the 49 featured Arab artists, to Houston for the opening festivities and conferences in March. FotoFest worked with a number of prominent galleries and cultural centers in the Middle East and around the world including Athr Gallery (Jeddah); Ayyam Gallery (Dubai/London); Berloni Gallery (London); Cuadro Gallery (Dubai); Edge of Arabia (London); Edwynn Houk Gallery (New York); Empty Quarter Gallery (Dubai); Gallerie Atelier 21 (Casablanca); Sfeir-Semler Gallery (Hamburg); The Third Line (Dubai); Rose Issa Projects (London); and Taymour Grahne Gallery (New York). FotoFest Arab Programming Partners were Arab Cultural and Community Center of Houston; Arab-American Educational Foundation (Houston); Athr Gallery (Jeddah); ArteEast (New York); Edge of Arabia (London); Inprint (Houston); Menil Collection (Houston); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Rice University (Houston); Rothko Chapel (Houston); and Aperio, Music of the Americas (Houston).
Accompanying the exhibitions, FotoFest and Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam, published a 340-page, full-color book on Arab art, View From Inside, featuring work by all of the featured artists, along with essays by acclaimed Arab art scholars and curators: Karin Adrian von Roques (2014 Biennial Lead Curator); Dr. Claude Sui (Chief Curator of Photography, Reiss-Engelhorn Museum); Samer Modad (2014 Biennial Exhibiting Artist and co-Founder of the Fondation Arabe pour L’Image, Beirut); and Mona Khazindar (Director General, Institute du Monde Arabe). The essays examine the history of photography in the Middle East and North Africa, the evolution of the medium’s usage in the region and the current state of contemporary art in the Arab world. FotoFest Co-Founder and Artistic Director Wendy Watriss has written the introduction. The book is seen as the first serious reference on Contemporary Arab photography and video, and is being welcomed by researchers, scholars and curators. The View From Inside book is distributed by Ingram in North America, and Thames & Hudson overseas.
FotoFest is keen to extend the impact of these exhibitions and programs both internationally and domestically. FotoFest will make recordings of both the day-long conference and the forum on Arabophobia, available through its website in May. FotoFest’s Literacy Through Photography Education program’s Biennial Curriculum is available free of charge online and will continue to be made available to interested educators. This curriculum uses the artists and artwork from the exhibitions to teach students grades 3–12 about art, writing, and the Arab World and its cultures.
Upcoming FotoFest programs
After the Biennial, FotoFest, led by new Executive Director and Curator Steven Evans, will continue its full-time exhibition programming in Houston as well as its international programs. FotoFest is planning five to six exhibitions for its Inter-Biennial season beginning in the fall. In November 2014, FotoFest will again co-organize a portfolio review in Paris. The annual Lens Culture FotoFest Paris, a collaboration with online photography magazine Lens Culture and Spéos Paris Photographic Institute. Information on these and other programs will be available on the FotoFest website in the coming months at www.fotofest.org.
The FotoFest 2016 Biennial, the 16th International Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art, will open in Houston in spring 2016. Announcements on the dates and theme of the 2016 Biennial will be made through the FotoFest website later in the year.
For more information on FotoFest or the View From Inside exhibition, please contact Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press, T +1 713 223 5522 ext 26 or press [at] fotofest.org.
