This workshop brings together eighteen researchers from a wide variety of positions related to the study of modern and contemporary art and architecture in the Middle East and beyond. Two intensive laboratory sessions will allow for the sharing of research agendas, discussions addressing terminologies, existing narratives, institutional frameworks and the evolving interests in artistic practice from the region. These sessions are bookended by two events mapping the field of current research for a broader audience.
This workshop intends to inaugurate a series of conversations that will foster collective, critical, and sustained reflection on the state of the field and the place of the researchers within it.
The workshop is convened by Clare Davies (Irmgard Conix Prize Fellow 2014/15) and Mohamed Elshahed (Art Histories Fellow 2014/15), and organised by the research programs “Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices” and “Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME)” of the Forum Transregionale Studien, in cooperation with the Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz and the Department of Art and Visual History (IKB), Humboldt University of Berlin.
Schedule
Monday, 6 July, 15:30 - 20:00
Venue: Forum Transregionale Studien, Wallotstraße 14
Modern and Contemporary Middle East Art and Architecture:
Mapping the Field
Welcoming remarks:
Hannah Baader and Georges Khalil Clare Davies and Mohamed Elshahed
Between Lands? Some reflections on the Mediterranean as an open discourse-scape for modern and contemporary aesthetic practices in the Middle East.
Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
17:00
Mapping the Field
Presentations by Sabih Ahmed, Michael Allan, Amin Alsaden, Saleem El Bahloly, Omar Berrada, Ralph Bodenstein, Clare Davies, Chad Elias, Mohamed Elshahed, Layal Ftouni, Atreyee Gupta, Laura Hindelang, Kristine Khouri, Morad Montazami, Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, Combiz Mousavi-Aghdam, Hanan Toukan
Tuesday, 7 July 9:30 - 20:00
Location: Department of Art and Visual History (IKB), Humboldt University, Georgenstrasse 47, Room 3.16
9:30-9:45
Welcoming remarks,
Charlotte Klonk, Department of Art and Visual History (IKB), Humboldt University
10:00-12:30
Session 1: The Field
(RSVP required for attendance by non-participants)
Chairs: Mohamed Elshahed and Atreyee Gupta
In this session we will discuss methodological shifts in current scholarship, terminologies, sources and disciplinary limits.
14:00-16:30
Session 2: Market, Museum and Conflict
(RSVP required for attendance by non-participants)
Chairs: Clare Davies and Chad Elias
In this session we will discuss the backdrop against which emerging scholarship is being written: the volatile political context of the Middle East, institutional developments such as new museum departments for modern and contemporary “Arab” art, and the fast evolving art market.
18:00–20:00
Writing Histories of Now, Modern and Contemporary Middle East Art and Architecture: A Conversation.
Venue: Department of Art and Visual History (IKB), Humboldt University, Georgenstr. 47, Room 0.12
Welcoming remarks
Hannah Baader and Georges Khalil
Why now? Writing art history in the Middle East today.
Clare Davies and Mohamed Elshahed
Mapping the Field.
Main questions and themes raised in the laboratory sessions
Michael Allan, University of Oregon
Collecting practices and museum infrastructure in the Middle East
Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
Discussion
