Dubai-UAE: 15 October, 2011: The Barjeel Art Foundation today announced the unveiling of its fourth exhibition ‘Caravan’, featuring 19 works from a collection of over 500 artworks by contemporary regional and international Arab artists, as well as a range of painted, mixed-media, photography, sculpture and video productions.
On display at the 475 sq. meter space at the Maraya Art Centre in the Al Qasba cultural district in Sharjah, ‘Caravan’ opened to a public audience on 14 October in the presence of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation. A host of distinguished invitees also graced the inaugural evening.
The exhibition that is open for public viewing until 20 February 2012 features a curated selection of contemporary works from the personal collection of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi. Drawn from historical and contemporary portrayals of caravans, the exhibition explores concepts of representation, fantasy and reality. Artists featured in the exhibition reflect on ideas of travel, dislocation, collective nostalgia and ways of reconstructing the past in a way that highlights the blurry divide between recorded history and myth.
Mandy Merzaban, Collections Manager and Curator of the Barjeel Art Foundation, said: “The works included in ‘Caravan’ comment on the formation of perceptions in the Arab world through history. The idea of a caravan straddles fiction and reality. Whether you are reading travel literature of the 19th century or embarking on a modern-day caravan tour, caravans claim to offer a gateway to a romantic past that is simultaneously real and imaginary. This exhibition explores such ideas.”
‘Caravan’ includes a repertoire of works by several generations of Arab artists who investigate both personal and collective histories that underlie perceptions of heritage, culture and antiquity in the region.
Among those featured in the exhibition are Lebanese painter and interdisciplinary artist Mohammed Said Baalbaki, East Jerusalem-based emerging media artist Shadi Habib Allah, Egyptian mixed-media artist Khaled Hafez, and Syrian sculptor Diana Al Hadid. Prolific Moroccan painter Hassan El Glaoui, and Faisal Laibi, a key figure in modern Iraqi art, are also among the distinguished artists featured in the show.
The Barjeel Art Foundation was founded in March 2010 to extend the privilege of viewing to the community at large. It also aims to cultivate an informed appreciation of Arab art and serve as a public platform for critical dialogue about art in the UAE. Barjeel hosts rotating public exhibitions twice a year each representing different themes of political, social and cultural importance to the Arab world.
In addition to displaying artwork at its public exhibition space, the Barjeel Art Foundation shares its Arab art collection with cultural and educational institutions as part of short-term exhibitions in the Middle East and abroad.
The Foundation currently has 33 pieces on display at the Offset Bureau’s Tawazun offices in Abu Dhabi, the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) in Berlin and Stuttgart, Ibraaz exhibition Future of a Promise, running concurrent to the 54th Venice Biennale and at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
CARAVAN is open Sunday through Thursday from 10am - 8pm, and on Fridays from 4pm - 10pm.