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September

Art Calendar

KUWAIT

THE SULTAN GALLERY -- October 4th - 20th , 2012


With a nod to its deep roots in the region and the wider Levant, and inspired by the wave of social and political developments sweeping the Arab world, the Sultan Gallery In Kuwait will show work by ‘Bokja Design’ from 4th - 20th October, 2011.
The exhibition, entitled “Arab_Fall” will feature a series of altered world globes and two installations reflecting on the current state of the Gulf.
‘Bokja Design’ conceit is to take solely Arab countries and then stretch them to cover the entire globe  - challenging our perception of an instantly recognizable icon.
By presenting the map of the Arab world in different colorfully upholstered designs, the series of globes draw attention to the region in the midst of fundamental flux. Yet in drawing out the region and covering the globe, the artists’ intent is to point out the idiosyncratic nature of each country and illustrate the essential point -- sometimes lost on the West -- that there is great sweep and many levels of diversity to the geo-political, cultural and religious changes afoot.
The globes are complemented by two installations; one shows the Arab world as-is. Another parallel and facing wall-hanging is Bokja’s interpretation of what the “as is” map could come to look like  in the future.
Bokja Design have in the past, used their art and design to comment on the Lebanese social and political situation, and in the current show that scope has been extended to great effect.
Following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and in the wake of the demonstrations that ensued, ‘Bokja Design’ created a series of furniture commemorating those events.
And, similarly, in the wake of the Israeli invasion of 2006, a special salute was given to displaced citizens, by upholstering pieces in the colorful fabrics that were seen piled up on cars fleeing the south.
About Bokja
Bokja was established in the year 2000 by Lebanese designers Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri who brought a similar passion for detail and history to the furniture, which they create under the same name. Combining ancient culture with repurposed modern design, Bokja creates one-of-a-kind pieces that offer an explosion of color, pattern and a richly textured sense of history.
The Sotheby’s Material Worlds Exhibition in 2011 brought together cutting-edge, unique pieces and limited edition design works by eleven artists and desginers. In that forum Bokja’ s Baroudi and Hibri presented  giant Queen Bees made from recycled metal and vintage fabric and designed to highlight the rapid depletion of the world’s bee population. The juxtaposition of the 21st century works in the medieval setting of Sudeley Castle in the English countryside created a dramatic impact.

AROUND THE GULF IN SEPTEMBER:
SELECTED ART SHOWS by Laura Stewart

JORDAN

Don’t Miss: Out of Place -- Through September 29, 2012, at:

Darat al Funun Foundation in Amman, Jordan. Produced in Collaboration with the Tate Modern in London.


Out of Place, an exhibition resulting from a collaboration between the Tate Modern and Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan, will feature four artists whose diverse political and social circumstances have prompted them to consider their environment.

The artists in Out of Place each explore the relationship between dominant political forces and personal and collective histories by looking at urban space, architectural structures and the condition of displacement.

Hrair Sarkissian’s In Between 2007 is a series of large-scale photographs of austere Soviet-style buildings left abandoned in the dramatic hills and valleys of rural Armenia. They register the paradox experienced by this Syrian artist of Armenian origin of ‘returning’ to a land which he had only known from family stories and finding a reality of the region in sharp contrast to his mental images.. Ahlam Shibli ‘s In The Valley 2007-8 explore conditions in the village Arab al-Shibli, where Palestinians living under Israeli jurisdiction face imminent relocation. And her previous series: In Goter 2002-3, chronicles the lives of Palestinians of Bedouin descent from al-Naqab (Negev).


In the 1970s, Ion Grigorescu began recording everyday scenes in his home city of Bucharest with an 8 mm camera. In his films and photographs he focuses on the scenes of daily life taking place amidst the city’s rapidly changing urban landscape. His reels of children playing, haphazardly discarded work-a-day objects, contrast with the uniformity of the surrounding Brutalist architecture from Romania’s Communist past. And finally, Cevdet Erek’s Shading Monument for the Artist 2009 reflects more generally on the efficacy versus potential impotence of political art.

The shadow-sculpture casts text on the gallery wall with varying intensity made up of phrases taken from several memorials to veterans and the fallen in the Spanish Civil War. Appropriating these words for his artist’s monument, Erek explores the positive and negative dynamics created created by mixing political activism with art.

BEIRUT:
“My 50% of your 100%” Gabriel Kuri AT Sfeir Semler Gallery, from August 2-November 21, 2012.

Organisers at Sfeir Semler gallery literally knocked  down walls to create the best possible backdrop for the playful work of Gabriel Kuri.  The Mexican-born artist’s latest installation “My 50% of your 100%” will run at the gallery -   the Lebanese equivalent to the Tate Modern’s turbine hall, but closer to a Soviet-era factory in design,  from August 2nd through November 21st.
Kuri, who has become well known as a conceptual artist usually creating large-scale installations relating to the themes of consumerism and economic inequality likes to exhibit in large open spaces, and his work is often influenced by the space for which it is designed.
Of the current show in downtown Lebanon,  Kuri says, “I liked the feeling that Beirut is like a huge open building and rebuilding site. I guess this is what is influencing the show most.’ Of Lebanese ancestry, Kuri had heard much about Lebanon, and expected something like Acapulco for its ‘urbanistic anarchy and architectural cacophony’ - what he found was ‘much more than that’. ‘The parts that remain from the early and mid-20th century are just magnificent. I could really feel the air of depth and sophistication, “ He continued,
“I can also relate to the more recent parts, which are actually atrocious, because they remind me of recent urbanism in Mexico City... this has resulted in a very interesting, functioning chaos.’
Kuri divides his time between Mexico City and Brussels using urban landscapes as his creative playgrounds and uses unconventional found or industrial materials, such as plastic bags, vouchers and newspapers, making artwork intended to demonstrate how “all materials (…) are socially branded and coded,”
“We will be presenting new steel sculptures produced in Beirut for the show.. It will include a series of three metal circles, each one dripping, though statically, down the wall. The show will also feature a series of multipart marble pieces and construction material combined with everyday objects, emphasizing Kuri’s composition of rough urbanism with the details of daily life.
Influenced by Arte Povera and minimalist art since the beginnings of the 1990s, Gabriel Kuri’s work has moved increasingly towards a formalist aesthetic as evidenced in his recent marble pieces.  Yet even in these formalist pieces, Kuri’s main concern remains uncovering the beauty contained in ordinary daily life