Published in 2013 by The Khalid Shoman Foundation
Edited by Sarah Rogers and Eline van der Vlist
Designed by Hans Gremmen
Worldwide distributor: Idea Books, Amsterdam
Language: EN/AR
Essays:
Sarah Rogers - Histories in the Making: The Khalid Shoman Collection and Darat al Funun
Faisal Darraj - The Peculiar Destinies of Arab Modernity
Anneka Lenssen - Distances greater than between these walls: On ideals and the constitution of an audience
Kirsten Scheid - Between the Promise of Life and Its Fragility: The Arab Body in The Khalid Shoman Collection
Saleem Al-Bahloly - Art History outside the History of Art
Ulrich Loock - Transitions and Translations
Stephen Sheehi - Before Painting: Nicola Saig, Painting, and Photographic Seeing
Hassan Khan - The case against continuity, or is it possible to be enchanted?
Personal reflections by Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, Adnan Yahya, Ahlam Shibli, Ali Kaaf, Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Annemarie Jacir, Emily Jacir, Ibrahim Rashid, Khaled Khreis, Maha Mustafa, Mamdouh Bisharat, Marwan Kassab Bachi, May Muzaffar, Mohammad al-Asad, Mona Saudi, Nada Shabout, Oraib Toukan, Pierre Bikai, Rachid Koraïchi, Raed Ibrahim, Rafa’ al Nasiri, Rajwa Bint Ali, Sama Alshaibi, Samar Dudin, Samia Halaby, Sheena Wagstaff, Suha Shoman, Tania Tamari Nasir, Wijdan F. Al Hashemi, and Ziad Dalloul.
This extensive publication brings together the voices of artists, architects, curators, art critics, and scholars to reflect on the Khalid Shoman Collection and its potential role in narrating a regional art history. The book consists of three interwoven parts: (1) academic essays by scholars from different disciplines examining a range of art historical concerns through art works from the Collection, (2) personal reflections by artists, curators, critics, and scholars who have lived the history of Darat al Funun, and (3) the works by the over one hundred and forty artists forming the Collection, reflecting the shifts and transformations in the region’s artistic practices over the last four decades.
By bringing together this diverse consideration of the Khalid Shoman Collection, the publication reveals not only the captivating story of a historically unique endeavor, but also considers the timely question of what a regional art history might mean within today’s globalized art world.