Contemporary artists from the Arab Eastern Mediterranean and its diasporas are developing new approaches, through both traditional practices and new media technologies, to confront the colonial legacies and the socio-political challenges of the present. Their work aims to nurture resilience, resistance, and liberation, while reviving indigenous cultural and knowledge systems in both collective imagination and lived experience.

Drawing on critical theory and decolonial thought, this talk examines the philosophical and methodological frameworks that shape this potential of art, and presents examples of artists, collectives, and cultural practices engaged in emancipatory aesthetics.

Khaldoun Hijazin, recipient of the Darat al Funun Dissertation Fellowship for Modern and Contemporary Arab Art 2025, presents this talk as part of his doctoral research. His work explores the aesthetic and philosophical criteria through which contemporary artistic practices can be understood as catalysts for emancipatory awareness in the face of colonial and capitalist structures.

The talk is in Arabic. To register, please fill in the form here.