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The second in a series of discussions on art practice and visual culture in the Middle East, this event explores the possibilities of thinking beyond geography, towards multiple and new forms of representation.
Speakers include artist Jumana Manna and artist and art historian Kamal Boullata, chaired by curator Omar Kholeif.
Taking these artists’ work as a starting point, the conversation explores the dynamic between the traditional and the contemporary, and the contrast of representation and abstraction. Given their shared relationship to Jerusalem, the artists also consider how their experiences of the city differ and the generational shifts of being a Middle-Eastern artist in recent decades.
The series accompanies the four chronological displays of work from the Barjeel Art Foundation Collection, which features artists from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere in the region, from the modern to the contemporary period.
Supported by The Barjeel Art Foundation.
Kamal Boullata is a Palestinian artist and art historian. He was born in Jerusalem in 1942. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1993 and 1994 Kamal was awarded Fulbright Senior Scholarships to conduct research on Islamic art in Morocco. Kamal, whose work has been exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East, lived and worked in Menton in Southern France, and now in Berlin, Germany.
Jumana Manna lives and works in Berlin and Jerusalem. Selected exhibitions include Aftercinema, Beirut Art Center; Doubt of the Stage Prompter, Edit-Russ Haus für Medienkunst, Germany (both 2015); Menace of Origins, Sculpture Center, New York (2014); The Goodness Regime, Kunsthall Oslo; and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (both 2013). She participated in Meeting Points 7 (2013-4); the Sharjah Biennale; Performa 13, New York; Norwegian Short film Festival, Grimstad; the London Palestine Film Festival; and the International Film Festival, Rotterdam (all 2013).
In 2012, Manna received the A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Palestinian Artist Award (first prize).
