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Ailyn Agonia
DOHA
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art unveiled its Fall programme featuring four exhibitions on a range of themes and contexts and spanning generations on Tuesday.
The opening ceremony was led by Mathaf's Director Abdellah Karroum and the curators of the featured exhibitions including Mathaf Curator Laura Burlow.
The highlight of the programme is an exhibition of the works of artists from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and diaspora titled 'Revolution Generations'. Curated by Karroum, the exhibition is staged in three parts and presents works of 29 artists chronicling important moments of change in the history of modern and contemporary art.
"The exhibit is a historical narrative that celebrates a generation of artists that dared to go against the status quo and who were vital actors of cultural and social change in their respective surroundings. It looks at their lives, thoughts and the dreams that shaped their work. We chose these three chapters in the region's history because they were iconic eras that are still influencing our lives to this day," Karroum said.
The exhibition takes the audience on a journey to the region's fight for independence in the 1950s and the iconic Pan-Arab cultural movement of the 70s. The final stage of the exhibition is an ode to a generation of artists who prefigured the Arab Spring in the 2000s.
The second featured exhibition titled 'Mounira Al Solh, I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous' is curated by Hendrik Folkerts of the Art Institute of Chicago and Barlow. It presents more than 150 drawings and embroideries of Mounira, documenting her encounters and conversations with Syrian refugees as well as other people from the Middle East forcibly displaced to Lebanon, Europe and the US.
Folkerts said,"These works inspire us to reflect on and discuss how migration and displacement, conflict and hope, and diasporic relations to the notion of home shape our world today."
Barlow added,"Mathaf brings this project to the region for the first time, expanding the engagement with Al Solh's drawings and embroideries that reflect so powerfully on the humanitarian impact of the Syrian war."
Concluding the tour around Mathaf's Fall display are two focus exhibitions titled 'Fateh al Moudarres: Colour, Extensity and Sense' curated by Sara Raza (Independent Curator), which presents a posthumous view of the oeuvre of this modernist artist's studio practice, and 'Jassim Zaini: Representation and Abstraction' curated by Fatma Mostafawi, which presents a focused view of the works of a pioneering Qatari modernist.
The four exhibitions will be open for public viewing until February 16, 2019.
