ArteEast Quarterly: spring 2015
ArteEast is pleased to announce the release of the spring 2015 edition of ArteEast Quarterly, an online publication that offers readers a critical forum for contemporary artistic practices in the Middle East, North Africa and their diaspora.
Spring 2015, ArteZine: “An Arm of an Ocean or Sea”
Guest editor: Raja’a Khalid
Guest edited by artist and writer Raja’a Khalid, this ArteZine aims to unpack the Gulf through narratives and commentaries that stem from or inform contemporary art practices in the region. In “Once upon a time: On Pirates, Poetry, and the Portuguese,” anthropologist Uzma Z. Rizvi explores the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of historical and contemporary scholarship that has attempted to pin the true identity of Ibn Majid, the Arab navigator immortalized in the famous encounter with Vasco de Gama. Artist Lantian Xie brings us the second installment of his story “Hong Kong Restaurant,” which takes place this time in a deep recess of a non-descript corner of Gulf urban. Expect a short and strange tragi-comedy, laced with Beckettian absurdity and a dark twist. Rahel Aima‘s essay “Museum of Future Government” closely examines the work of art collective GCC and their appropriation of the aesthetics of current-day Gulf bureaucracies, while contrasting their artistic flourishes with the grander plans of the governments themselves. Finally, Ömer Çavuşoğlu‘s “Lest The Ground Forgets” looks into the intricate details in current-day London’s architectural and urban design tapestry as woven through by immense Gulf capital investment. In “An Arm of an Ocean or Sea,” the amorphous Gulf is not only a geography, but also a time, a condition, and a phenomena.
For this issue of ArteZine and to learn more about the contributors, click here.
Spring 2015, Gallery: “Building a Narrative: An Exercise with Images and Text”
Guest curator: Merve Ünsal
A lot happens in artistic practice by and through talking. Talking about images, references, be it films or text, writing about the intended work and most often, telling somebody about the work. Guest curated by artist Merve Ünsal, “Building a Narrative: An Exercise with Images and Text” questions if it’s possible to transform the Gallery into a site of thoughts and images gathered around the relationship between construction, two and three-dimensionality, and language. Intended as an exercise in form or lack thereof.
For this issue of Gallery, click here.
For more information about the publications contact L. İpek Ulusoy Akgül, Managing Editor, ArteEast Quarterly.
To subscribe to the ArteEast mailing list, click here.