FotoFest In the Middle East

HOUSTON, TEXAS - MARCH 2, 2015 - The internationally acclaimed FotoFest International makes its first appearance in the Middle East. At the invitation of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), FotoFest will present VIEW FROM INSIDE: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art as a special commission and visual arts centerpiece of the Abu Dhabi Festival 2015, the twelfth edition of the festival.

With more than 35 leading Arab artists and over 140 works from 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, VIEW FROM INSIDE, will take place at the Emirates Palace Gallery in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It opens with a private preview March 20, 2015 and continues through April 20, 2015.

As a special commission for ADMAF, founder and organizer of the Abu Dhabi Festival, VIEW FROM INSIDE, is based on FotoFest’s highly acclaimed presentation of leading Arab photo and media artists originally created for FotoFest’s 15th international Biennial in Houston, Texas. With the exhibition, there will be a series of public programs, curator tours and artist workshops. A special colloquium will be done with New York University Abu Dhabi on April 15, 2015 featuring eight artists exhibiting in VIEW FROM INSIDE. A limited edition commemorative book on the Abu Dhabi exhibition will be produced by ADMAF.

For Immediate Release:

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 1FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

FOTOFEST PRESENTS SPECIAL EXHIBITIONAT THE ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015, UAEMARCH 21 - APRIL 20, 2015

FOTOFEST INTERNATIONAL | www.fotofest.orgFor Information and Visuals: Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press Coordinator, +1 713.223.5522 ext 26, vhopson@fotofest.org

March - April

21 - 20Emirates Palace Gallery

The internationally acclaimed FotoFest leaves its U.S. home to come to the Middle East for the first time with a specially curated exhibition for the Abu Dhabi Festival based on the highly praised 2014 FotoFest Biennale. The exhibition showcases a diverse and stimulating selection of leading contemporary Arab artists. From photojournalistic images of important public events to poetic reflections on Arab culture, these artworks show the complexity and beauty of life in the Middle East and North Africa today. The inter-connections between tradition and change, both global and regional, are central to these works and the way these artists engage with the world around them.

Accompanied by guided tours, workshops and a limited edition publication.

INSIGHTFUL, INQUIRING, PROVOCATIVE

VIEW FROM INSIDE CONTEMPORARY ARAB PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO AND MIXED MEDIA ART

Private Preview: 7:00pm, Friday 20 March

Open: Saturday 21 March - Monday 20 AprilSunday - Thursday: 12:00pm - 8:00pm Friday - Saturday: 10:00am - 10:00pmFree admission

Tarek Al-Ghoussein (Palestine/Kuwait): Untitled 4, 2009, From the D series, Inkjet Print© F

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Arab World Premiere

مارس - أبريل

غاليري قصر اإلمارات

للمرّة األوىل يف تاريخه، يرتك مهرجان فوتوفست للصور املشهود له عاملياً إىل العامل العريب، للمشاركة خصيصاً مبعرض ضمن فعاليات مهرجان أبوظبي امتداداً

ملعرض بينايل فوتوفست الشهري الذي أقيم عام 2014.

تتناول األعامل الفنية املتعددة الوسائط، والتي تشمل صوراً وفيديوهات ألفضل الفنانني العرب، قضايا حول هوياتها املتنوعة بني العاملية واملحلية.

ياُلَحظ يف هذه األعامل أيضاً تأثري التغريات الجذرية الهائلة يف القرن املايض إىل جانب النمو الرسيع لتكنولوجيا االتصاالت يف املفهوم التقليدي لعالقة املرء

بـ “الوطن” و”العائلة”، والتي بدورها خلقت تجربة واسعة النطاق مع موضوعي الشتات والنزوح.

يرافق هذا املعرض جوالت تعريفية وورش عمل إضافة إىل كتاب املعرض املحدود اإلصدار.

عميق، معّبر، وغامض نظرة من الداخل

معرض الفن اإلعالمي العربي المعاصر )صور، فيديو، ووسائط متعددة(

طارق الغصني، بال عنوان 4، من مجموعة دي 2، 2009

جولة خاصة: الجمعة، 20 مارس، الساعة 7 مساًء

21 مارس - 20 أبريل

األحد إىل الخميس: 12 ظهراً - 8 مساًء

الجمعة والسبت: 10 صباحاً - 10 مساًء

20 - 21

العرض األّول يف العامل العريب

46 47

March - April

21 - 20Emirates Palace Gallery

The internationally acclaimed FotoFest leaves its U.S. home to come to the Middle East for the first time with a specially curated exhibition for the Abu Dhabi Festival based on the highly praised 2014 FotoFest Biennale. The exhibition showcases a diverse and stimulating selection of leading contemporary Arab artists. From photojournalistic images of important public events to poetic reflections on Arab culture, these artworks show the complexity and beauty of life in the Middle East and North Africa today. The inter-connections between tradition and change, both global and regional, are central to these works and the way these artists engage with the world around them.

Accompanied by guided tours, workshops and a limited edition publication.

INSIGHTFUL, INQUIRING, PROVOCATIVE

VIEW FROM INSIDE CONTEMPORARY ARAB PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO AND MIXED MEDIA ART

Private Preview: 7:00pm, Friday 20 March

Open: Saturday 21 March - Monday 20 AprilSunday - Thursday: 12:00pm - 8:00pm Friday - Saturday: 10:00am - 10:00pmFree admission

Tarek Al-Ghoussein (Palestine/Kuwait): Untitled 4, 2009, From the D series, Inkjet Print© F

otoF

est

Inte

rnat

iona

l – C

ourt

esy

of t

he A

rtis

t, T

he T

hird

Lin

e, D

ubai

, UA

E an

d Ta

ymou

r G

rahn

e G

alle

ry, N

ew Y

ork

Arab World Premiere

مارس - أبريل

غاليري قصر اإلمارات

للمرّة األوىل يف تاريخه، يرتك مهرجان فوتوفست للصور املشهود له عاملياً إىل العامل العريب، للمشاركة خصيصاً مبعرض ضمن فعاليات مهرجان أبوظبي امتداداً

ملعرض بينايل فوتوفست الشهري الذي أقيم عام 2014.

تتناول األعامل الفنية املتعددة الوسائط، والتي تشمل صوراً وفيديوهات ألفضل الفنانني العرب، قضايا حول هوياتها املتنوعة بني العاملية واملحلية.

ياُلَحظ يف هذه األعامل أيضاً تأثري التغريات الجذرية الهائلة يف القرن املايض إىل جانب النمو الرسيع لتكنولوجيا االتصاالت يف املفهوم التقليدي لعالقة املرء

بـ “الوطن” و”العائلة”، والتي بدورها خلقت تجربة واسعة النطاق مع موضوعي الشتات والنزوح.

يرافق هذا املعرض جوالت تعريفية وورش عمل إضافة إىل كتاب املعرض املحدود اإلصدار.

عميق، معّبر، وغامض نظرة من الداخل

معرض الفن اإلعالمي العربي المعاصر )صور، فيديو، ووسائط متعددة(

طارق الغصني، بال عنوان 4، من مجموعة دي 2، 2009

جولة خاصة: الجمعة، 20 مارس، الساعة 7 مساًء

21 مارس - 20 أبريل

األحد إىل الخميس: 12 ظهراً - 8 مساًء

الجمعة والسبت: 10 صباحاً - 10 مساًء

20 - 21

العرض األّول يف العامل العريب

46 47

Tarek Al-Ghoussein (Palestine/Kuwait), Untiled 4, 2009. From the D series. Courtesy of the artist, The Third Line, Dubai and Taymour Grahne Gallery, NY

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 2FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

VIEW FROM INSIDE is joined by an exhibition of twelve Emirati artists curated by ADMAF, Emirati Insights, as well as three 2015 Festival Commissions sponsored by ADMAF. VIEW FROM INSIDE, the Abu Dhabi 2015 Festival Commissions and Emirati Insights will be open to the public from March 21 to April 20, 2015 at the Emirates Palace Gallery (Sunday - Thursday: 12pm - 8pm; Friday - Saturday: 10am - 10pm). Admission is free.

Organized by FotoFest International, VIEW FROM INSIDE brings together one of the world’s leading curators of contemporary Arab art, Karin Adrian von Roques, with FotoFest’s co-founder and expert in the international photographic arts. Wendy Watriss.

“This exhibition focuses on the works and the voices of artists who are important and pioneering figures in the use of photography and media-related arts in the Arab world,” says lead curator Karin von Roques. “The range and quality of their work vividly reveal the inter-relationships between tradition and change, both regional and global, and how these inter-connections are central to the way contemporary artists engage with the world around them.”

The exhibition features video animations and three dimensional works alongside vivid photojournalistic images of recent news events and personal reflections on contemporary Arab life. The works are conceptual and figurative. Many of the works address issues of the diverse and shifting identities of both people and place in Arab life today. The artists confront societal and environmental changes, the rapidity with which they are occurring and how they are affecting traditional relationships with “homeland,” family, religion, gender, diaspora and displacement. Other works look at questions of religious and historical heritage; the legacies of colonialism; and political upheaval.

“The artworks reveal strong connections between contemporary experiences and the histories of the cultures from which they come - their relationship to Arab society today and the world beyond,” says Wendy Watriss, Co-founder of FotoFest International. “With passion, irony and anxiety, they confront the issues of transformation in their social and physical environment. Reflective, critical and often humorous, the artists show a deep engagement with what is happening in the Arab world today. The exhibition is about their voice.”

At its original showing in the United States, Al Jazeera America described VIEW FROM INSIDE as “one of the largest exhibitions to date of contemporary Arab photography and mixed media.” It was received enthusiastically by thousands of U.S. and international visitors over its six-week presentation. Reviewer Rupert Goldsworthy recently noted in the Arab art journal Contemporary Practices, that VIEW FROM INSIDE illustrates: “a clear view of what the future may hold.”

Sami Al Turki (Saudi Arabia) Constructakons 03, 2011From the series ConstructakonsCourtesy of the artist

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 3FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

It is the third major exhibition on the Middle East that FotoFest has showcased: the first U.S. presentation of NAZAR (2005), a groundbreaking Dutch exhibition of historic and contemporary Arab photography which later traveled to the Aperture Foundation in New York City; and Kurdistan, In the Shadow of History (1996) which FotoFest originated and traveled with its producer-author-photographer Susan Meiselas.

For further questions please contact:Vinod Hopson, FotoFest Press Coordinator at 713.223.5522 ext 26 or vhopson@fotofest.org.

FOTOFEST SPECIAL SPONSORSMajor sponsors for the original presentation of this exhibition are: Art Jameel – Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives; The Houston Endowment Inc.; The Cullen Foundation, Houston; The Brown Foundation Inc., Houston; National Endowment for the Arts, USA; The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Ayyam Gallery, Dubai and London; Middle East Trading Ltd, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; The Levant Foundation, Houston; The Crane Foundation, Houston; Edge of Arabia, London; JP Morgan Chase Foundation; FotoFest Board of Directors; Judith and Gamble Baldwin; Mary Lawrence Porter; Tamer SA’AD Group – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; The Wortham Foundation, Houston; Texas Commission on the Arts; Berloni Gallery, London.

Important support for publications came from The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation, Houston.

FotoFest’s principal media partner in the Middle East is Contemporary Practices Art Journal. In the U.S. and Europe, Art in America, European Photography and Schilt Publishing were media partners. Civic partners are Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Rice University – Humanities Research Center and James Baker III Institute for Public Policy; Rothko Chapel, Houston; Arab American Cultural and Community Center, Houston; and the Arab American Educational Foundation, Houston.

Jowhara AlSaud (Saudi Arabia)New Year, 2010From the series Out of LineCourtesy of the artist

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 4FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

THE ABU DHABI FESTIVALThe Abu Dhabi Festival is the UAE’s leading celebration of arts & culture. Launched in 2004, it continues to attract high-caliber regional and international artists to the UAE capital every year. Coming up to its 12th edition the festival has secured its place as the region’s largest cultural event and in the course of the decade has established working partnerships with some of the world’s most influential cultural institutions including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Opera House, Manchester International Festival and Carnegie Hall. Through a comprehensive series of educational and community programs, the festival brings together artists, students, community groups and cultural organizations from across the UAE and actively supports emerging Emirati talent as well as promoting the artistic and cultural heritage of the UAE in all aspects of life. www.abudhabifestival.ae

ADMAF

مجموعــــة أبوظــــبيللثـقــافــــة والفنــــون

ABU DHABI MUSIC & ARTS FOUNDATION The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation’s programs nurture the arts, education, culture and creativity for the benefit of society and the advancement of Abu Dhabi’s cultural vision. Established in 1996 by Her Excellency Hoda Al Khamis Kanoo, ADMAF Founder, the Foundation is a not-for-profit organization under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth & Community Development, ADMAF Patron and President.

ADMAF’s broad range of initiatives - including the Abu Dhabi Festival, year-round education and community programs, and, The Nationals’ Gallery - brings together audiences of all ages and nationalities. Through them, it nurtures the creative talent of the UAE and beyond, in partnership with leading national and international institutions. www.admaf.org/en

FOTOFEST INTERNATIONALFounded in 1983, FotoFest International was established to promote international awareness of museum-quality photo-based art from around the world. FotoFest is a non-profit photographic arts and education organization based in Houston, Texas. FotoFest does year-round art programming and a classroom-based education program, Literacy Through Photography, which uses photography to strengthen student writing and learning skills.

FotoFest founded the first and longest running photographic arts biennial in the United States. The first FotoFest Biennial was held in 1986. The FotoFest Biennial takes place citywide in Houston with audiences of 275,000 people from 35 countries and participation from the city’s leading art museums, art galleries, non-profit art spaces, universities and civic spaces. The FotoFest Biennial is considered as one of the leading international photography Biennials in the world. With its museum-quality photographic arts exhibitions, FotoFest has become known as a platform for the discovery and presentation of important new work and new talent from around the world. All FotoFest programs are a showcase for art and ideas. www.fotofest.org

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 5FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

VIEW FROM INSIDE - CURATORS

KARIN ADRIAN VON ROQUES, Lead CuratorFor the past twenty years, Karin Adrian von Roques’ professional focus has been modern and contemporary art from the Middle East. After finishing her studies of Islamic Art in Bonn, Germany, she pioneered academic exploration and exposure of outstanding artists in modern and contemporary art from Arab countries. She did a series of strategic museum and gallery exhibitions to bring concepts central to the works of contemporary Arab artists to the attention of a broader public. Aware that contemporary art from Islamic countries takes place within a wider socio-political context and dialogue, Ms. von Roques has organized and participated in seminars, interviews, publications and auctions throughout the world to generate intercultural dialogue on the subject of Arab culture.

Ms. von Roques has been an art advisor and art historian to numerous museums and has worked as a special consultant for Islamic exhibitions such as From Bagdad to Isafahan — Islamic Manuscripts and Miniatures, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1994–95. In 1997 she became the Founding Director of the Hesse Museum in Lugano, Switzerland focusing on programs about ethics and intercultural dialogue. She has curated more than twenty international museum and gallery exhibitions, among them: Written Cosmos — Arabic Calligraphy and Literature throughout the Centuries, Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt, Germany, 2004; Languages of the Desert — Contemporary Arab Art from the Gulf States, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Kunstmuseum) Bonn, Germany, 2005 (traveling to the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, 2006; the Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2007; and Galleria Metropolitana, Barcelona, Spain, 2006); The Present Out of the Past Millennia — Contemporary Art from Egypt, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Kunstmuseum) Bonn, 2007; and The Art of Writing — Contemporary Calligraphy from Three Cultures, Art Forum, Kurhauskolonnaden, Wiesbaden, May 2011.

WENDY WATRISS, FotoFest Senior Curator Ms. Watriss is a Co-founder of FotoFest and served as Artistic Director and Senior Curator from 1991-2014. She has developed over 60 international exhibits for FotoFest, including path-breaking exhibits on Photography from China 1934-2008; AMERICAN VOICES - Latino photographers in the U.S., Photography from Latin America 1865-1994; photography from Central Europe; contemporary Mexican photography; the visual history of Kurdistan with Susan Meiselas; contemporary Korean photography; early 20th century and contemporary Russian photography; multi-media/new technology installations; and subjects such as the Global Water Crisis, The Global Environment, Guantanamo; Artists Responding to Violence; and Contemporary U.S. Photography.

She has been an invited juror and panelist for photographic events around the world and has produced two widely praised books for FotoFest, IMAGE AND MEMORY, Photography from Latin America 1865-1994 (University of Texas Press, 1997) and VIEW FROM INSIDE, Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art (Schilt Publishing, 2014, The Netherlands). In 2009, she was the invited curator for international exhibitions of the Guangzhou 2009 Photo Biennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China.

From 1970-1991, Wendy Watriss worked as an award-winning international photojournalist and independent documentary photographer. She won the World Press Photo Award for Feature Stories and the Oskar Barnack Award - Leica in 1982; Interpress Photo in 1983; and Mid America Arts/National Endowment for the Arts in 1985. The book Looking at the U.S., 1957-1986, published by Mets and Schilt Publishing in 2005, featured her work and that of FotoFest co-founder Frederick Baldwin.

VIEW FROM INSIDE AT ABU DHABI FESTIVAL 2015 - 03/02/2015, PAGE 6FOTOFEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Emirati Exhibitions - The Festival Commissions and Emirati Insights The Abu Dhabi Festival annually commissions new work by Emirati visual artists, with the mission of forming a legacy of artistic expression from and about the culture of the United Arab Emirates. This year’s commissions showcase the work of Fatma Lootah, Noor Al Suwaidi and Sawsan Al Bahar. Fatma Lootah’s work focuses on people from the UAE, real and imagined; Noor Al Suwaidi’s work is a celebration of nature. The installation by Sawsan Al Bahar is a series of 3D sculptural pages inspired by the old printed Arabic calendars (Roznama, or Book of Days) marking key dates over the past 70 years since the Nakba (the al-Nakbah or the “Catastrophe” of 1947-1949, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes).

Emirati Insights is a group exhibition of works by 12 Emirati photographic artists, whose works reflect the creativity of the Emirati contemporary arts community. The exhibition features photography, video and mixed media art by: Sheikha Fatima Bint Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ammar Al Attar, Yousif Al Harmoudi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alia Al Shamsi, Hamdan Buti Al Shamsi, Afra Bin Dhaher, Maitha Demithan, Reem Falaknaz, Saeed Khalifa, Lateefa Bint Maktoum and Shamma Al Amri. Thje exhibit, curated and organized by ADMAF, explores the cultural identity of a nation through the self-perceptions of its artists. A public talk featuring participating Emirati Insights artists, Ammar Al Attar and Reem Falaknaz, and moderated by Noor Al Suwaidi, will take place at The Emirates Palace Gallery on April 1, 2015 at 6:30pm. To register, please contact education@admaf.org

Emirati Insights coincides with the release of Art of the Emirates, a major publication by the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) which presents a snapshot of today’s Emirati visual arts scene with over 40 Emirati artists, galleries, foundations, universities and colleges.

VIEW FROM INSIDE - MAJOR SPONSORS