Our editors select TMR World Picks. We welcome your suggestions: editor@themarkaz.org
TMR
Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power
Jan. 29 —May 25, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE — more info
The Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power exhibition, in partnership with the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, presents a unique look at Africa’s revered figures. Showcasing exquisite royal attire and sacred symbols that reflect the cultural significance and authority of African kings and queens, the exhibition aims to show their lasting impact on contemporary art and culture.
Abdullah Al Saadi: Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia
Jan. 30 —May 4, 421 Abu Dhabi, UAE — more info
Abdullah Al Saadi: Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh, features ten works by Abdullah Al Saadi and offers a reflection on his decades-long artistic practice. In his practice, Al Saadi embodies a wanderer, chronicler, cartographer, poet, decipherer, memory carrier, and storyteller. This exhibition includes works that were produced on his journeys in the wilderness and invites viewers to explore his creative process in relation to the practices of Arab poets from centuries ago.
Maximal Miniatures: Contemporary Art from Iran
Jan 31—May 23, Middle East Institute, Washington DC, US — more info
Maximal Miniatures features the work of 13 leading contemporary Iranian artists who reimagine the rich visual tradition of the Persian miniature genre through inventive formal techniques, including experimentations with scale, color, composition, figuration, and abstraction. Curated by Donna Honarpisheh, associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, the exhibition references Persian history, poetry and stories from the Book of Kings (Shahnameh) to explore questions of identity, gender, diaspora, and the mythologies that form past and present lives.Participating artists include: Reza Derakshani, Parinaz Eleish, Amir H. Fallah, Arghavan Khosravi, Farideh Lashai, Farah Ossouli, Kour Pour, Elham Pourkhani, Shahpour Pouyan, Iman Raad, Bahar Sabzevari, Soraya Sharghi, Mahsa Tehrani. Select artworks are available for sale.
The Legend of The Looms
Feb 1—Mar 8, Blackburn Art Museum & Gallery, Blackburn, UK — more info
Working in film for the first time, Ali Al-Jamri’s commission titled The Legend of The Looms is an installation of poetry, film and textiles exploring shared revolutionary histories through handloom weaving. It features a filmed narrative debate poem between two ghostly handloom weavers: one from the North West, where weavers were critical in working class movements before, during and after the Peterloo Massacre of 1819; the other from Bahrain, where weaving communities played vital roles in reform movements. The film is exhibited in installation format with the textiles featured in the film, for which Al-Jamri is working with renowned Manchester-based textile artist Ibukun Baldwin. Commissioned by the Arab British Centre as part of As We Are, Might Have Been, and Could Be, in partnership with British Textile Biennial.
Talk: The Future of the Middle East
Feb 3, The Conduit, London — more info
A long-awaited ceasefire agreement has been reached, but the future of Gaza and the Middle East remains uncertain due to shifting power dynamics. Iran, through its “Axis of Resistance,” continues to exert significant influence in Syria, Iraq, and beyond. Meanwhile, grassroots movements are emerging in Iran and the region, challenging the status quo and complicating strategies for allies and adversaries. This talk featuring Dr. Andreas Krieg, Professor Ali Ansari, and Negin Shiraghae, discusses the high-stakes drama of state power, resistance networks, and grassroots movements, uncovering how these forces are redefining the Middle East’s future.
Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave
Feb 4 — Feb 25, Barbican Cinema, London, UK— more info
Cinema-ye Motafavet in Persian translates to “different cinema” and designates the trailblazing work of the arthouse community in 1960s-70s Iran. Ehsan Khoshbakht has curated a fantastic program of nine newly restored masterpieces of this Iranian New Wave for the Barbican.
Collaborative spirit galvanised this revolution. The opening double-bill shows Abbas Kiarostami and Amir Naderi’s quietly tumultuous coming-of-age stories characterized by subversive subservience and euphoric longing. They set the tone for the awesome showcase of short, feature and documentary films in which children, women and the stricken take center-stage amidst moving cityscapes, intimate indoors and dreamlike vistas.
“It’s just a small retrospective,” Khoshbakht affirms, of a pivotal time, that may attract nostalgics who idolize pre-1979 monarchical Iran. “These films should shatter those illusions in every shot.” Perhaps none better than Ebrahim Golestan’s scrutiny of imperial corruption in the dazzling Crown Jewels of Iran that he irreverently describes as “arts managed by clowns.”
For the intellectually curious, “these films will serve as a document to understand Iran and Iranianness, its paradoxes, and its hopes and fears.” Bahram Beyzaie’s timeless circular tale, The Stranger and the Fog, explores this alienating ambiguity through a female lead, while poet-director Forough Farrokhzad cures the rampant ugliness of reality with the poetic sublime in The House is Black.
Might this retrospective inspire engagement with Iran’s precarious condition? Khoshbakht maintains that the program is the product of a collective and active process: “Hundreds of hours have been spent restoring the films, ‘liberating’ them from oblivion and permanent loss.”
—Elena Pare
Before and After Gaza: Literary Resistance for Palestine
Feb 5, 5-7 pm, NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, 20 Cooper Square NYC 10003. — RSVP (required)
A reading for Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader with editors and contributors Malu Halasa, Jordan Elgrably and Lina Mounzer & special guest Mosab Abu Toha. RSVP here.
“A powerful and inspiring testament to the human spirit, to the resilience of the Palestinian people, and to their indomitable struggle for liberation.” —Nathan Thrall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.
Youssef Rakha presents The Dissenters in conversation with Linda Mokdad
Feb 6, Magers and Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis, US — more info
The Dissenters is a transcendent portrait of a woman and an era that explodes our ideas of faith, gender roles, freedom, and political agency. It has been described as “hallucinatory, erotic, and stylish.” The event is co-hosted by Mizna. It’s free to attend but registration is required.
Screening + Q&A: The Palestine Laboratory, Part 1
Feb 10, Frontline Club, London, UK — more info
Antony Loewenstein investigates how Israel has developed a “technology of occupation” in Palestine and profits from selling it globally. “Plenty of countries sell weapons, but what makes Israel’s industry unique is the mix of weapons, surveillance technology, and architectural techniques that combine to create a comprehensive system for controlling ‘difficult’ populations and are based on years of experience in Palestine…what Israel is testing and selling and promoting is not just weaponry, it’s an idea,” says Loewenstein in the film. “It’s a concept, and it’s a very appealing concept to many other countries. Israel sells the idea of getting away with it.”
The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein, Yasmine Ahmed, and Dan Davies.
Talk: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Feb 11, The Conduit, London, UK — more info
Award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad joins Max Porter for a searing indictment of Western hypocrisy and a moral grappling with what it means to live at the heart of an empire, as a citizen of the US and as a father. Omar’s latest book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, releases Feb. 25. The event is organized by On Front Line.
Aleph Quintet: Shapes of Silence
Feb 14, Institut Français, London, UK — more info
Awarded by the Journées Musicales de Carthage in Tunisia and the Prix de la Presse Musicale in France, Aleph Quintet is one of the recent revelations of the Brussels music scene. Composed of five musicians, the Aleph Quintet blend North African music with jazz improvisation, Gnawa rhythms and Sufi culture, bearing witness to their roots, and retracing the years of travel during which the collective united around music.
Film Screening: The Sealed Soil (Khak-e Sar bé Mohr) by Marva Nabili
Feb 16, Il Cinema Ritrovato On Tour, Minneapolis, US — more info
The earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman, Marva Nabili’s The Sealed Soil (1977) chronicles a young woman’s resistance to her forced marriage, a rebellion quickly misinterpreted by her family as demonic possession. It’s been described as “a formally rigorous, if emotionally distanced, critique of patriarchy and the spurious reform of Iranian agricultural life that was a factor in the 1979 revolution.”
Shakespeare in Arabic
Feb 17, Columbia Global Centers, Paris, France — more info
The Markaz Review is pleased to co-sponsor Shakespeare in Arabic, organized by Columbia Global Paris Center and the American University of Beirut with theatremaker Georgina Van Welie. The evening will explore Arabic adaptation of Western theatre classics, from Shakespeare to Brecht, culminating in a showcase of a bilingual Arabic-English adaptation of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. British theatre producer Georgina Van Welie, along with Lebanese theatre makers Lucian Bourjeilly and Caroline Hatem, will discuss their experiences of Arabic adaptations of Western classics, and creating work both in the region and internationally. The discussion will be followed by an extract from Georgina Van Welie’s Arabic/English adaptation in development of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, translated by Ghareeb Iskander, with video by Syrian artist Bissane Al Charif.
Nai Barghouti with the London Contemporary Orchestra
Feb 22, Cadogan Hall, London, UK — more info
Along with her Amsterdam-based quartet, award-winning singer, composer, and flautist Nai Barghouti is renowned for her stunning rearrangements of iconic pieces from Umm Kulthum to Fairuz as well as original work rooted in Arabic maqams, Jazz and classical Western music. For tickets, see here.
Joe Show, Night of Satire in London
Feb 23, Shaw Theatre, London, UK—more info
The Joe Show is a satirical political program featuring Youssef Hussein, known as Joe. He is coming to London for the first time to perform an exclusive stand-up comedy show at the Shaw Theatre in London. Organized by MARSM, the evening will showcase Jo’s sharp wit, incisive critiques of Arab politics, and humorous takes on current events. For tickets, see here.
