Costas Douzinas
Activity
The Mediterranean to Come: shore-to-shore dialogues on art, economy and society
in progress
Lectures and conversations
In collaboration with the Birbeck Institute for the Humanities (London), the MACBA embarks on a series of lectures and conversations with artists, researchers, writers and cultural managers from countries that make un the Mediterranean basin, in particular its southern and eastern coasts. The series offers a space in which to share the social, political and cultural concerns that affect the different communities and states in this region, at a time of uncertainty that allows us to rediscover ourselves, in Barcelona and Catalonia, as southern Europeans. While this initiative is based on an obvious geographic affiliation, it does not shy away from probing its meaning: How is the myth of the Mediterranean expressed? When did it begin? What interests does it serve? How has it changed as a result of each new wave of modernity? These reflections rooted in history will become the basis for exploring possible cultural articulations between countries considered to be part of the Christian tradition and those of the Arab world, and to outline some possible scenarios of our future.
participant
Akram Zaatari was born in Sidon, Lebanon, in 1966, and lives and works in Beirut. His body of work includes video, film, photography, installation and writing. Zaatari studied Architecture at the American University in Beirut, and then moved to New York to study Media at New School University. In the mid-nineties, he began working at Future TV in Beirut, where he made experimental short films that were a blend of documentary and video art. Zaatari’s work focuses on the military conflicts in Lebanon and in contemporary Muslim societies, and explores the power and bias of the media. He approaches politics through everyday life, the use of the body and social relations. His films shun traditional narrative in favour of fragmented storytelling and blur the boundaries between image and text. He incorporates elements from popular culture in his work, such as images from American and Egyptian films and songs played on Lebanese radio stations.
Zaatari is co-founder of the Lebanese Association for Contemporary Art and the Arab Image Foundation (AIF), which aims to collect, study and disseminate the photographic heritage of the Middle East. Through the AIF, he has recovered the work of the popular Lebanese photographer Hashem el Madani (1982), who portrayed civil society in his country from the early fifties. Zaatari has curated photography exhibitions in cities such as London, Beirut and Brussels, and his texts have been published in magazines including Third Text, Bomb, Framework, Transition and Parachute. His work can be found in the collections of Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Modern in London and TBA21, Vienna.
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The Mediterranean to Come: shore-to-shore dialogues on art, economy and society
1 artists
highlights
4 results
Conferència d’Akram Zaatari — El Mediterrani que ve: diàlegs d’una riba a l’altra sobre art, economia i societat [Enregistrament audiovisual activitat]
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El llenguatge de la revolució – Notícies de l’Est — El Mediterrani que ve: diàlegs d’una riba a l’altra sobre art, economia i societat [Enregistrament audiovisual activitat]
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Culs als seients: un experiment de recreació de la cultura del cinema a Tànger — El Mediterrani que ve: diàlegs d’una riba a l’altra sobre art, economia i societat [Enregistrament audiovisual activitat]
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És morta Europa? La política de les fronteres
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