Nadia Radwan | HEAD-Geneva (Geneva University of Art and Design) (original) (raw)

Articles by Nadia Radwan

Samia Halaby is an artist, theorist, writer and activist whose practice is nurtured by her contin... more Samia Halaby is an artist, theorist, writer and activist whose practice is nurtured by her continual experimentation with abstraction. Her reflections about art, history, heritage, nature, science and politics are always in deep connection to the world that surrounds her. Looking back at her career of over half a century, one is struck by her rigorous yet intensely creative and continuously eager approach to making art.

in Thomas Gartmann, Cristina Urchueguía, and Hannah Ambühl-Baur (eds.), Studies in the Arts II. Künste, Design und Wissenschaft im Austausch. Bielefeld: transcript, 2023.

Although the term “nostalgia” is becoming ever more present in art and architectural practices an... more Although the term “nostalgia” is becoming ever more present in art and architectural practices and their discourses, it has not yet been comprehensively defined, situated, and explicated in relation to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s cultural production. This lacuna encourages Laura Hindelang and Nadia Radwan to reflect on the relationship between nostalgia and long-established themes in this area of study, such as colonialism, nationalism, and orientalism, as well as more recent debates around movements such as Gulf Futurism. We investigate the ways in which nostalgia can challenge canons, theories, and methods, and how these in turn can be expanded and decolonized to adequately incorporate cultural productions from the MENA region, and in so doing we consider current discourses on global art histories and the decentering of Western art history.

This chapter resulted from the research seminar “Nostalgia and Belonging in Art and Architecture from the MENA Region,” spring 2021. The project was published on the academic blog: www.manazir.art

https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/entretien-avec-anila-quayyum-agha-lornement-est-politique/

This interview took place in the framework of the exhibition Re-Orientations: Europe and Islamic ... more This interview took place in the framework of the exhibition Re-Orientations: Europe and Islamic Art, from 1851 to Today held at the Kunsthaus Zürich from 24 March to 16 July 2023, which focused on the impact which the heritage of Islamic arts has had on Western fine and applied arts and cultural interactions between Europe and the Middle East.1 For this show, the artist Anila Quayyum Agha created a site-specific large-scale immersive installation featuring an interplay between pattern, ornament, colour, and light. Born in Lahore and based in the United States, she expresses her deep concerns regarding craft, gender, and environmental issues, as well as her vision of the relationship between East and West.

Hirmer; Kunsthaus Zurich, 2023

On the occasion of the exhibition Re-Orientations. Europe and Islamic Art from 1851 to Today (Kun... more On the occasion of the exhibition Re-Orientations. Europe and Islamic Art from 1851 to Today (Kunsthaus Zurich, 24 March - 16 July 2023), interviews with the contemporary artists featured in the exhibition were conducted by Nadia Radwan and are published in the catalogue: Anila Qayyum Agha, Nevin Aladag, Gülsün Karamustafa, Baltensperger + Siepert, Bouchra Khalili and Marwan Bassiouni.

World Art, 2023

This article examines collections of nineteenth-century European art located in the Middle East a... more This article examines collections of nineteenth-century European art
located in the Middle East and their potential to reconfigure and
expand the definition of Orientalism. It investigates how the
migration of Orientalist artworks produced in Europe to the spaces
they allegedly represent may generate new art-historical narratives
that challenge the canonic Saidian postcolonial discourse. First, by
addressing the notions of taste and knowledge, it explores the ways
representations of racial and gender stereotypes are renegotiated as
they enter the collection. Second, it uncovers some aspects of the
understudied local histories of Orientalism through artworks
produced by artists from the region, so as to broaden its narrative
and emphasize its multiple dimensions. Finally, this article reflects
on the notion of nostalgia as a possible framework to critically
reflect on the apparent ambiguity of the increasing acquisitions of
European Orientalist art by Middle Eastern collectors.

Yale University Press, 2021

Bononia University Press, 2021

This paper aims to bring to the fore the issues of translatability, transposition, and anachronis... more This paper aims to bring to the fore the issues of translatability, transposition, and anachronism in the field of art criticism in the Middle East by focusing on the case of the permanent collection of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art of the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates. 1 By demonstrating how new narratives come into play in art spaces and institutions that are conceived and run locally in the Arab world, it questions the effects of the shifting place of enunciation of art criticism in the region. More importantly perhaps, it discusses the way the so-called global institutions conceal other stories-stories that are marked by antagonisms and differences. It suggests looking closely at these stories by taking into account art and exhibition practices that offer a third path by disrupting both Western and Middle Eastern narratives.

Manazir: https://www.manazir.art/blog/interview-shafic-abboud-radwan/, 2021

Inheriting an artist's collection and archive is an extraordinary adventure, which reshapes one's... more Inheriting an artist's collection and archive is an extraordinary adventure, which reshapes one's own history. But how should one manage, (re-)organize and archive works and documents, when one is neither an art historian nor an archivist?" It is in these words that Christine Abboud, daughter of the painter Shafic Abboud (1926-2004), describes the challenges of archival work and the desire not to betray the work and life of her father.

"Hériter du fonds d’un artiste est une étrange aventure, qui redessine les contours de votre propre histoire. Mais comment gérer et organiser des oeuvres et surtout des documents, alors que l’on est n’est ni historien.ne de l’art ni archiviste… ?" Ce sont par ces mots que Christine Abboud, fille du peintre Shafic Abboud, décrit les défis que pose le travail d’archive et la volonté de ne pas « trahir » l’oeuvre et la vie du peintre.

Manazir , 2021

The essays in this publication result from the research seminar “Nostalgia and Belonging: Art and... more The essays in this publication result from the research seminar “Nostalgia and Belonging: Art and Architecture in the Middle East and North Africa, 19th–21st Century”, which we taught together at the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern in spring 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all classes were held via Zoom. Merging our respective fields of research and interests in visual arts, architecture, and heritage, we designed the seminar in a transdisciplinary perspective to investigate the current buzz words “nostalgia” and “belonging”, which have increasingly informed the discourse on cultural production in the countries of the MENA region without being comprehensively situated and examined. Our goal was to close this gap by bringing the study of modern and contemporary art and architecture of the MENA region into a fruitful and open dialogue with the conceptualization of nostalgia and belonging in academic writing.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Casa Árabe, Córdoba, Spain, May 27-Sept. 7, 2021 about Hassa... more Catalog of an exhibition held at the Casa Árabe, Córdoba, Spain, May 27-Sept. 7, 2021 about Hassan Fathy (1900-1989), Egyptian architect. Texts in Spanish and Arabic

Journal 18, 2019

Review of the exhibition "Le modèle noir. De Géricault à Matisse", Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 26 March... more Review of the exhibition "Le modèle noir. De Géricault à Matisse", Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 26 March – 21 July 2019.

Mercedes Volait and Emmanuelle (dirs.), Paris: InVisu (CNRS-INHA): 1-18 , 2017

The rise of modern art at the turn of the 20th-century in Egypt reveals the complex dynamic of mu... more The rise of modern art at the turn of the 20th-century in Egypt reveals the complex
dynamic of multiple cross-cultural interactions in tandem with the formulation of the
nahda renaissance project. In this paper, it will be argued that the neo-pharaonic
production of a generation of Egyptian artists referred to as the “pioneers,” illustrates
the result of an intricate synthesis of reinventing historical past while claiming a
universal culture through the continuous interplay between modernity and the national
discourse. More importantly perhaps, it will show how these interactions led to the
construct of new visual identities.

The Journal Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques (De Gruyter) 70(4): 1093-1114, 2016

Cross-cultural interactions between Egypt and Italy have had a significant impact on Egyptian mod... more Cross-cultural interactions between Egypt and Italy have had a significant impact on Egyptian modern art. By the end of the nineteenth century many Italian painters had established their studios in Cairo and Alexandria and worked as professors in art schools. They were committed to the institutionalization of the artistic practice, in particular, in the conception of the School of Fine Arts in Cairo established by Prince Youssef Kamal in 1908. Additionally, a number of young Egyptians belonging to the generation of the so-called “pioneers” received grants to study art in Italy, in particular in Rome and Florence. These ties were strengthened by the political climate and the diplomatic relationships between the Egyptian monarchy and the Italian government. This article proposes to examine the impact on visual culture created by the mobility of artists and circulation of images between Egypt and Italy. In this context, it aims to shed light on transnational exchanges and networks generated by spaces of cultural encounters or “contact zones” during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Qantara (Institut du Monde Arabe) 96: 43-45, 2015

Inspiré à Fouad Ier, alors souverain d'un tout jeune Royaume en quête d'ancrages, par le musée d'... more Inspiré à Fouad Ier, alors souverain d'un tout jeune Royaume en quête d'ancrages, par le musée d'Agriculture de Budapest, le Musée agricole du Caire ouvre ses portes en 1938. On y met en scène, en droite ligne de l'ethnographie coloniale et dans une scénographie fidèle au modèle européen du XIXe siècle, un monde rural traditionnel dont le héros est le fellah, garant d'une Égypte éternelle. Né à l'aube de l'indépendance de l'Égypte, le Musée agricole du Caire s'inscrit dans le contexte de la genèse d'un projet national accordant une place centrale au domaine agraire. Depuis le XIXe siècle en effet, l'agriculture constitue l'épine dorsale économique, politique et sociale de la vie égyptienne. Dès le règne du khédive Abbas Hilmi II (1892-1914), d'importantes institutions ont vu le jour afin de défendre les intérêts des propriétaires terriens. La Société khédiviale d'agriculture, fondée en 1898, ne cesse de prendre de l'envergure jusqu'au règne du roi Fouad Ier. Elle devient alors la Société royale d'Agriculture et organise de vastes expositions centrées sur la culture du coton. Les années 1920 et 1930, marquées par l'affirmation des nationalismes, amènent d'importantes réflexions sur la réforme du système agraire et la redistribution des terres. Ces questions se doublent d'une préoccupation grandissante pour la condition du fellah, théorisée, entre autres, par le jésuite et sociologue Henry Habib Ayrout dans Moeurs et coutumes du fellah, publié en 1938.

Cairo Review of Global Affairs 14, 81-87, 2014

Qantara (Institut du Monde Arabe) 87, 30-34, 2013

Moyen Orient 11, 86-91, 2012

Les révoltes en Tunisie, en Égypte, en Syrie et en Libye ont défini le droit d'expression comme l... more Les révoltes en Tunisie, en Égypte, en Syrie et en Libye ont défini le droit d'expression comme la première victoire des luttes menées par les populations. Les artistes, qu'ils soient acteurs ou témoins de ces révolutions, réitèrent la question du rapport entre l'art et les mouvements contestataires, offrant un regard nouveau sur la création arabe contemporaine.

in Thomas Gartmann, Cristina Urchueguía, and Hannah Ambühl-Baur (eds.), Studies in the Arts II. Künste, Design und Wissenschaft im Austausch. Bielefeld: transcript, 2023.

https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/entretien-avec-anila-quayyum-agha-lornement-est-politique/

Hirmer; Kunsthaus Zurich, 2023

World Art, 2023

Yale University Press, 2021

Bononia University Press, 2021

Manazir: https://www.manazir.art/blog/interview-shafic-abboud-radwan/, 2021

Manazir , 2021

Journal 18, 2019

Mercedes Volait and Emmanuelle (dirs.), Paris: InVisu (CNRS-INHA): 1-18 , 2017

The Journal Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques (De Gruyter) 70(4): 1093-1114, 2016

Qantara (Institut du Monde Arabe) 96: 43-45, 2015

Cairo Review of Global Affairs 14, 81-87, 2014

Qantara (Institut du Monde Arabe) 87, 30-34, 2013

Moyen Orient 11, 86-91, 2012

NO Rhetoric(s) examines a subject intensely debated during the last three decades but rarely a to... more NO Rhetoric(s) examines a subject intensely debated during the last three decades but rarely a topic of its own: art as an agent of resistance, whether as a rhetorical stance or critical strategy. In the face of today’s discourse on revolt and insurrection, it is necessary to ask whether the gesture of “negation” still has an emancipatory potential. NO Rhetoric(s) contributes a deeper understanding of the different logics of resistance at play between art and politics. Showcasing a diverse array of voices, this volume presents contributions on topics as varied as sexual dissidence, ecology, and geopolitics in the digital age. Through this interdisciplinary show of force, the collected authors, artists, and scholars shed light on how art approaches the most urgent issues facing today’s society.

Manazir Journal, 1st issue, Autumn 2019. Full issue can be found on: https://bop.unibe.ch/index.php/manazir, 2019

The starting point of this special issue was the exhibition dedicated to the Lebanese-American ar... more The starting point of this special issue was the exhibition dedicated to the Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer Etel Adnan held at the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern from June to September 2018. On this occasion, the University of Bern and the Zentrum Paul Klee, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, jointly organized a symposium entitled “The Arab Apocalypse: Art, Abstraction & Activism in the Middle East”.2 The symposium was not about Etel Adnan per se but rather, we considered her work and career as a basis to engage in a discussion about the political and historical genealogies of modernism and the relationship between abstraction and activism in the Arab world. The event brought together scholars, artists and curators focusing on these themes and revealed the substantial research undertaken on modern and contemporary art in the so called global margins.

Bern: Peter Lang, 2017

Full Book here: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/63142 Cet ouvrage explore un moment clef du... more Full Book here: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/63142

Cet ouvrage explore un moment clef du développement de l'art moderne égyptien, lorsque sont définis les fondements d'une nouvelle pratique artistique au début du 20 ème siècle. Basé sur un important travail de terrain mené en Egypte et sur des documents d'archives jusqu'ici inexplorés, il se centre sur une génération de peintres et de sculpteurs appelés les pionniers (al-ruwwad). Formés dans des institutions telles que l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts du Caire, leur production s'inscrit dans un mouvement de renaissance artistique et reflète les multiples interactions transculturelles entre l'Egypte et l'Europe. Cette étude offre ainsi un regard nouveau sur ces artistes qui ont posé les jalons du modernisme égyptien et met en lumière une production jusqu'ici peu étudiée. Tandis que l'on aborde aujourd'hui l'histoire de l'art dans une perspective globale à la lumière de circulations, d'échanges et de réseaux, elle offre un point d'ancrage permettant de mieux appréhender les dynamiques et les enjeux actuels de l'art contemporain au Moyen-Orient.

In this book, Nadia Radwan explores a key moment of the development of modern Egyptian art, when the foundations of a new artistic practice are defined in the early 20th century. Based on field work and unexplored archival material, this work focuses on a generation of painters and sculptors commonly referred to as the pioneers (al-ruwwad). Trained in institutions, such as the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, their production is inscribed in a project of artistic renaissance and reflects multiple transcultural interactions between Egypt and Europe. This publication thus re-evaluates these artists that opened the path to Egyptian modernism and sheds light their yet understudied production. While art history is now approached in the perspective of circulations, exchange and networks, this book offers a background to a better comprehend the dynamics and stakes of contemporary art in the Middle East.

Cairo: National Center for Translation, Social Science Researches Series, 2019

I am thrilled that the translation of my PhD into Arabic has finally been published. This came as... more I am thrilled that the translation of my PhD into Arabic has finally been published. This came as a surprise after many years of uncertainty, during which I had completely lost hope regarding this project. But as an old friend told recently told me: “In Egypt, you can’t take anything for granted but you also can’t ever exclude anything” and this couldn’t be more true. Since the translation and publication contract was signed beginning 2012, in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings, the project has outlived a dozen Ministers of Culture and, consequently, the repeated restructuring of the National Centre for Translation. As the author of the book, and as incredible as it may seem, I was never informed about its publication and I was made aware of it by someone who lives in Cairo and happened to hear about it. I had always wished for my PhD to be translated into Arabic and made accessible to Egyptian students and, even if it was not the most strategic nor restful choice, – a publication by AUC Press or another editor in the Academic Lingua Franca would have granted my research a much larger diffusion -, I hope this book will be useful to young scholars and teachers in art schools and universities in Egypt and other countries of the Arab World.

Culture & Musées, 2018

Il y a vingt ans, Publics & Musées consacrait un numéro aux dioramas. Ce dispositif, qui s’est en... more Il y a vingt ans, Publics & Musées consacrait un numéro aux dioramas. Ce dispositif, qui s’est entre temps réactualisé sous diverses formes, notamment dans l’art contemporain, fait l’objet d’une nouvelle livraison, qui problématise leur puissance narrative, ainsi que la tentation hyperréaliste et l’instauration d’un rapport spécifique à la réalité et aux savoirs qui les caractérisent. Il s’agit de remettre le diorama au centre d’une étude des institutions muséales, de la production à la réception, avec un accent mis sur la matérialité de ces dispositifs et certaines de leur formes-limites.

Twenty years ago, Publics & Musées dedicated an issue to dioramas. This device, which has since been updated in various forms, particularly in contemporary art, is the subject of a new contribution. This reappraisal problematizes characteristic aspects of the dioramas, such as their narrative power, their hyperrealistic lure, as well as their specific relationship to reality and knowledge. The aim is to refocus the diorama on a study of museum institutions, from production to reception, with an emphasis on their materiality and some of their extreme forms.

Oxford University Press , 2020

Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today is set... more Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today is set out to show what is beneath the surface, under the appearances of skin, body, colour and provenance, and not the cultural fixities or partial views detached from the realities of communities, cultures and practices from the area. Through 12 chapters, Under the Skin brings together artistic practices and complex histories informed by feminisms from diverse cultural and geographical contexts: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

Une Suisse exotique ? – Regarder l’ailleurs en Suisse au siècle des Lumières, Noémie Etienne et al. (eds.), 2020

In the framework of the exhibition « Exotic? » held at the Palais Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland... more In the framework of the exhibition « Exotic? » held at the Palais Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland (24.09.2020 – 28.02.2021), artist Susan Hefuna is showing her delicate glass-plate installations pierces by drilled holes forming words, such as “silence”, “truth”, “trace”…She also contributed to the design of the exhibition catalogue, which is structured by works from her “banner” series, that points to the notion of “the exotic” from other perspectives.

Dans le cadre de l'exposition « Exotic ? : Regarder l’ailleurs en suisse au siècle des lumières » qui se tient au Palais Rumine à Lausanne, en Suisse (24.09.2020 - 28.02.2021), l'artiste Susan Hefuna présente ses délicates installations en plaques de verre percées de trous formant des mots, tels que " silence ", " vérité ", " trace "... Elle a également contribué au catalogue de l'exposition, qui est structuré par des œuvres de sa série de " bannières ", et qui met en évidence la notion d'" exotisme " sous un autre angle.

Octavian Esanu (ed.), Art, Awakening, and Modernity in the Middle East: The Arab Nude, Routledge, 2018

This edited scholarly volume offers a perspective on the history of the genre of the nude in the ... more This edited scholarly volume offers a perspective on the history of the genre of the nude in the Middle East and includes contributions written by scholars from several disciplines (art history, history, anthropology). Each chapter provides a distinct perspective on the early days of the fine arts genre of the nude, as its author studies a particular aspect through analysis of artworks and historical documents from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. The volume examines a rich body of reproductions of both primary documents and of works of art made by Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian artists or of anonymous book illustrations from the nineteenth century Ottoman erotic literature.

Peter J. Schneemann (ed.), Localizing the Contemporary. The Kunsthalle Bern as a Model, Zurich: JRP/Ringier, 2018

The centenary of the Kunsthalle Bern in 2018 calls for a reflection upon how its specificity has ... more The centenary of the Kunsthalle Bern in 2018 calls for a reflection upon how its specificity has decisively shaped the notion of contemporaneity. Unlike collecting museums, Kunsthallen are associated with negotiations around the formal and social positioning of contemporary art. The sequence of more than 750 exhibitions held so far at the Kunsthalle Bern constitutes a paradigmatic model of display, which is significant within the institutional history of art. It serves as a case study for ways in which local and international artists examine the conditions of art making and push the formats of exhibition making. Interactions with the architectural structure of the Kunsthalle Bern, such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapping in 1968, have led to a constant and critical exploration of both the building and its rules. Such an artistic strategy has turned the frame for and site of art presentation into a medium itself.

This scholarly publication discusses the historical development of the Kunsthalle Bern and its implications for the “localization” of art. It contributes to current research on institutional histories by looking at the many ways in which the Kunsthalle Bern addresses the question of how exhibitionary practices take place.

A broad range of international authors draw on the archives of the Kunsthalle Bern itself and put it in the context of other paradigms of display, thus offering an insight into how the Kunsthalle Bern acts as a stage for artistic practice, and functions as a model for the performance of contemporaneity. They examine its role as a curatorial field of experimentation, as artistic material, and as a platform for transatlantic exchange.

Contributors: Olivia Baeriswyl, Laura Valentina Bohnenblust, Nicolas Brulhart, Kari Conte, Thierry Dufrêne, Roland Früh, Ueli Kaufmann, Valérie Knoll, Maija Koskinen, Damian Lentini, Diego Mantoan, Susanne Neubauer, Bernd Nicolai, Glenn Phillips, Nadia Radwan, Hans Rudolf Reust, Peter J. Schneemann, Yvonne Schweizer, Terry Smith, Geraldine Tedder, Beatrice von Bismarck, Sandra Zalman, and Sara Zeller

Nadia von Maltzahn and Monique Bellan (eds.), The Art Salon in the Arab Region: Politics of Taste Making, Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien – Orient-Institut, 2018

This chapter explores the contribution made by artists, intellectuals and patrons, in particular ... more This chapter explores the contribution made by artists, intellectuals and patrons, in particular women, to subverting the space of the Egyptian art salon. The official Cairo Art Salon led to the formation of independent societies. Other counter-voices within the space of the salon arose in parallel to the debate around arts and crafts, which was linked to the growing interest in decorative and applied arts that was promoted by industrial exhibitions and the establishment of new schools. These subtle signs of resistance were significant because they embodied a major questioning of the hierarchical notion of “high” and “low” arts as defined by the politics of culture in Egypt and, accordingly, by the official Salon. The negotiation between these official and marginal spaces, and the transition from the institutional model of the French art salon to the creation of autonomous spaces, provided the conditions for the formation of Egyptian avant-garde movements that would develop at the end of the 1930s, such as the Egyptian surrealist group Art et Liberté.

Leïla el-Wakil (ed.), Hassan Fathy: An Architectural Life, Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 104-123, 2018

Journal für Kunstgeschichte 1/2022, 2022

Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2020

Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today brings... more Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today brings together a collection of essays focusing on art practices informed by feminisms and decolonisation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from the 1950s to the present.

Institut Giacometti, Paris, 2022

The symposium aims to decenter present-day debates on art and colonialism. While European colonia... more The symposium aims to decenter present-day debates on art and colonialism. While European colonialism and imperialism have become important themes in contemporary museum, academic discourse and exhibition practice, artistic perspectives on non-European colonialism and experiences of domination remain relatively understudied. This is so despite the complex creations and legacies these experiences have and continue to generate. Moreover, little comparative analysis has been done in this regard, especially as pertaining to art. The symposium therefore aims to shed light on the multiplicity of colonialism spanning from North Africa to East Asia and their roles in the constitution of the modern world. In particular, it seeks to explore art-and artist-focused case studies that examine undisciplined histories, memory building and the conflicting, multivalent narratives these have generated. The pressures of postwar and post-independence reconstructions and nation-building have long concealed the complex and contested relationships between artistic connections or exchanges, and the workings of domination and inequality. The symposium will thus question whether the formation of avant-garde artistic networks connected at an international level can be separated from the hierarchical conditions under which colonial connections were formed. Second, it will assess how the reevaluation of colonialism raises a challenge as much to Eurocentric art histories as to nationalist ones, which have arguably contributed in drawing new separatist and exclusionary lines. The outbreak of the new coronavirus has further exposed the socioeconomic inequalities that are felt along various aspects around the world. By engaging critically with the histories of colonialism, which have undoubtedly impacted the current development, we hope that this symposium will lead us to a better understanding of the challenges we collectively face today.

There is talk of an unprecedented culture of protest emerging on a global scale, of new forms of ... more There is talk of an unprecedented culture of protest emerging on a global scale, of new forms of disobedience and indignation. This new culture of protest frequently resorts to strategies coming from the field of art (performance, happenings, etc.), which has resulted in a growing interest of political theory in contemporary artistic strategies. At the same time, a surprising re-politicization of debates in art discourses can be observed, especially as more and more explicitly political functions are assigned to current artistic practice. Beyond a politicization of art and an aesthetization of politics, this event seeks to focus attention and problematize a neuralgic concept highly discussed and addressed in recent decades, but which has rarely become the subject of its own resistance. “Resistance” is first and foremost a term that comes from physics, by designating a property of disposition. To its original meaning, a moral category has always been added: what actively resists opposes a natural course of things and develops an opposing force that is normatively occupied. Therefore, its Latin root, resistentia, not only refers to something that remains constant (sistere), but increases this consistency in perseverance (the prefix re- means the intensification of action). Already in modern times we experience the assimilation and instrumentalization of the concept of resistance through the various revolutions in the 18th century, along the successive anti-colonial struggles since the beginning of 19th century, as well as in the discussion of a “right to resistance”, inaugurated by Henry David Thoreau. Facing a general discourse of resistance so fashionable today, resulting from the logics of late Capitalism, capable of neutralizing all kind of counter-force by their integration within the system, it is necessary to ask ourselves: how does the critical potential to say ‘no’ participates on the questioning rather than in the consolidation of an official discourse of resistance in which art is also responsible? Struggling between a rhetoric of ‘no’ and one of a ‘no’ to rhetoric, both the artistic and the political fields are equally spaces for debate. Nonetheless, it remains important to specify more precisely what their respective critical forces and agonality consist of. In this sense, the event aims to contribute to a better understanding of the different logics of resistance and to a critical look at the complex relationship between aesthetics and politics today.

Que les contours en aient été déterminés par des réformes endogènes, par la colonisation, par les... more Que les contours en aient été déterminés par des réformes
endogènes, par la colonisation, par les conditions de la Guerre froide et/ou celles de la décolonisation, la création artistique sur le pourtour sud et est méditerranéen, et au-delà dans la Péninsule arabique et en Asie centrale, a été le produit à la fois d’interactions supranationales et d’enracinements locaux variés, qui se sont matérialisés dans toutes sortes d’innovations et d’hybridations, d’échappées particulières et de dyschronies. L’étude et la déconstruction de ce champ artistique se sont pourtant principalement occupées jusqu’à présent des stéréotypes
véhiculés par le « centre » sur ses « périphéries ». L’objectif du séminaire est de renverser la focale pour placer
le Maghreb et le Moyen-Orient en tant que territoires de création artistique au coeur de l’enquête. Il est
aussi de transgresser les approches par médium qui segmentent et obscurcissent les problématiques communes aux arts plastiques, aux arts décoratifs
et à l’architecture de cette aire géoculturelle. Dans cette exploration d’une approche plurimédiale, plus interactionniste et multipolaire des oeuvres et des mondes de l’art qui y ont vu le jour, quelle importance accorder aux caractéristiques visuelles, esthétiques et techniques des oeuvres ? Leur prise en compte ne doit-elle pas accompagner, voire enrichir l’analyse sociopolitique, dans
l’optique de contextualiser le regard et ainsi favoriser l’engagement dans les territoires étudiés et vis-à-vis des sociétés qui les composent ?
Ouvert aux masterants et doctorants, le séminaire s’adosse
aux travaux, outils et ressources numériques développés par le laboratoire InVisu dans le cadre de contrats de recherche français et européens et de partenariats diversifiés.

“The Arab Apocalypse”: Art, Abstraction and Activism in the Middle East On the occasion of the Et... more “The Arab Apocalypse”: Art, Abstraction and Activism in the Middle East
On the occasion of the Etel Adnan exhibition (Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, 15.06 - 07.10.2018), the University of Bern and the Zentrum Paul Klee are jointly organizing a symposium focusing on themes that are reflected by the work and career of the American-Lebanese artist and writer Etel Adnan. “The Arab Apocalypse” refers to her series of 59 illustrated poems about the Lebanese Civil War (originally published under the title L’Apocalypse arabe, 1980) and offers a starting point to discuss the issues of Art and activism in the Arab World. This symposium questions the ability of art and the museum to function as mediums for political protest and humanitarian activism. What does the relationship between art and activism tell us about the aesthetization of politics? Additionally, the symposium seeks to address the issue of abstract forms of art and avant-garde in the region by examining its current goals and historical roots. What does it mean to be an abstract artist in the Middle East? How can abstraction inform us about political and social dissent? Other themes will be addressed in relation to Adnan’s works, such as the role of Arab women in the global art scene. This event will bring together scholars, as well as PhD students working on these topics.

Dioramas are at the crossroads of artistic, scientific and cultural practices. They bring togethe... more Dioramas are at the crossroads of artistic, scientific and cultural practices. They bring together painters, sculptors, scientists, and collectors, thus providing an opportunity to reflect on the polyvalence of these actors and the definition of their expertise. In 1822, the painter and scientist Louis Daguerre coined the term “diorama” when describing his theater, the word diorama literally meaning “seeing through.” However, dioramas are not merely images or displays: they are also physical objects made of multiple materials and composite and hybrid things, created through cultural interaction and physical encounter. Multiple hands as well as various visions are involved in the process of their creation. Dioramas therefore allow for the study of contact zones and material exchanges between private and public spheres, as well as transcultural interactions in a global context.