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Since the 1990s, contemporary art in the Arab world has experienced exponential growth and numerous changes. With the appearance of artists from the region in international exhibitions, the dynamics within the art scenes changed significantly. Museums & art foundations began to collect, biennials were launched, contemporary art galleries, fairs, residencies and schools emerged in many countries, and the governments of the Gulf states launched megaprojects. This reader serves as a guide for anyone interested in the foundations, structures and growth of these art scenes. It also functions as an anthology of what is now considered established in the Arab world, with contributions covering all aspects of the subject-both from across the region and from a Western perspective.
List of contents
CoverHalftitleTitlepageContentsPreface - Andrée Sfeir-SemlerTarek Abou El Fetouh and Lawrence Abu Hamdan in conversationEchoes of Algiers: Art, Memory, and Belonging - Bilal AkkoucheBuilding on Shifting Sands - Zeina AridaGuggenheim Abu Dhabi: Early Days - Richard Armstrong, Valerie HillingsFrom OAS to OASIS - Kader AttiaBecoming an Artist in Saudi Arabia - Dana AwartaniBIDOUN - Negar AzimiTransmodernism: A Renewed Outlook on Modernism in the Arab World - Sam BardaouilA Nomad's Map - Yto BarradaNotes on Tunis - Myriam Ben SalahAn Assemblage of Artists and Events, 1985-2025 - Antonia CarverEnfolded Worlds: Exhibiting Art from the Arab World 2000-2016 - Carolyn Christov-BakargievArab Art at Auctions - Mai EldibFrom Palestine to Abu Dhabi - Reem FaddaThe Art Dubai Story - Ben FloydThe Phoenix / Beirut Forever - Massimiliano GioniArt in Morocco From 1950 Until Today: A Historical Reader - Abdellah KarroumThe Age of Mirror-Museums in the Persian Gulf - Alexandre KazerouniA Brief History of Canvas Magazine - Ali Y. KhadraParis-Riyadh - Mona KhazindarOn Representing Syrian Art: A Partial History of Exhibition and Imagination - Anneka Lenssen2004-2024: From the Louvre to AlUla: Emerging Arab Contemporary Art - Sophie MakariouOn Pleasure: How to Be Non-Professional - Rabih MrouéCreating and Exhibiting Modern Iraqi Art, in Baghdad or Elsewhere: Between Individual Initiatives and State Support - Silvia NaefHans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Andrée Sfeir-SemlerBeirut, Twenty Years - Jean-Marc PrévostSharjah Art Foundation and Sharjah Biennial - Hoor Al QasimiBeirut Art Biome 1990-2025 - Jim QuiltyScratching on things I could disavow: A photograhic record _ Appendix I 2003 - present - Walid RaadRiwaq Biennale: Art, Heritage, and Speculative Institutions in Palestine - Khalil RabahRiwaq Biennale: A Living Institution of Art, Heritage, and Resistance - Khalil RabahOn Being Held: Artworks as a History of Institutions - Sarah A. RifkyOn the Cusp Looking Back: Beirut in the 1990s - Sarah RogersSyrian Art: Bearing Witness, Building Hope - Kareem SakkaPatronage in the Arab World - Alia Al-SenussiSfeir-Semler Gallery: Beirut - Andrée Sfeir-SemlerThe Uncertainty of Times: Reflecting on a Field in the Making - Nada ShaboutI've always known that I'm an artist - Wael ShawkyDarat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation: A Home for the Arts and Artists from the Arab World - Suha ShomanThe Sultan Gallery: A Brief Overview of the First Permanent Art Gallery in Kuwait - Farida Sultan and Abdullah Al-MutairiThree Accidental Encounters - Rayyane TabetQatar's Commitment to Art and Culture - Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al ThaniI Will Always Like How it Began - Christine TohméOn the Legacy of Townhouse Gallery, Cairo - William WellsThe Arab Image Foundation: A Dialogue on the Possibilities and Limits of an Institution - Akram Zaatari interviewed by Chad EliasA Chronology of Art Infrastructure in the Arab WorldArab Artists IndexImage CreditsAcknowledgmentsImprint
About the author
RABIH MROUÉ (*1967, Beirut) ist Schauspieler, Regisseur, Dramatiker, bildender Künstler und Mitbegründer des Beirut Art Center. Derzeit ist er stellvertretender Direktor der Münchner Kammerspiele. Seine international ausgezeichneten Arbeiten wurden in Einzelausstellungen im MoMA New York (2015), SALT, Istanbul (2014), der documenta 13, und in Gruppenausstellungen im Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2018) oder im Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017) gezeigt. Mroué lebt und arbeitet in Berlin.
Summary
Since the 1990s, contemporary art in the Arab world has experienced exponential growth and numerous changes. With the appearance of artists from the region in international exhibitions, the dynamics within the art scenes changed significantly. Museums & art foundations began to collect, biennials were launched, contemporary art galleries, fairs, residencies and schools emerged in many countries, and the governments of the Gulf states launched megaprojects. This reader serves as a guide for anyone interested in the foundations, structures and growth of these art scenes. It also functions as an anthology of what is now considered established in the Arab world, with contributions covering all aspects of the subject—both from across the region and from a Western perspective.
