Published by Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 2018.
En/Ar
For our 30th anniversary, we invited artists from all disciplines to pause and reflect, to re-imagine our world, and to reinvent their narrative, following the challenge set by Mahmoud Darwish in his poem ‘To a Young Poet’:
Truth is black, write over it
with a mirage’s light.
Three consecutive exhibitions were held over 2018, of which this is the closing one. As in the two previous iterations, this third exhibition does not offer one reading of the past or the present. The artists offer a multiplicity of perspectives and present a wide variety of practices that reflect the complexities of our world and our time. Together the exhibitions form a constellation of new narratives and interrogations, while allowing scope for paradoxes and intricacies to emerge.
Participating artists in the October-January exhibition:
Adel Abidin (Iraq), Ahlam Shibli (Palestine), Ahmad Salameh (Jordan), Ammar Khammash (Jordan), Hrair Sarkissian (Syria), James Webb (South Africa), Khalil Rabah (Palestine), Mo’awia Bajis (Jordan), Riccardo Matlakas (Italy/UK), Sima Zureikat (Jordan/US), Studio 8 (Jordan), Yousef Kawar (Jordan), and Will Iskandar (Jordan/UAE).
In addition, students from the faculty of Fine arts at the University of Jordan have been working in our printing press workshop under the guidance of artist Jehad Al Ameri, head of the Visual Arts Department. They have been also designing items, mainly chairs, inspired from architectural elements at Darat al Funun. Their works are exhibited in the Print Studios.
At the Beit al Beiruti we display panels giving a timeline of our past 30 years of exhibitions and events, and exhibit works in remembrance of 25 artists from The Khalid Shoman Collection: Abderrazak Sahli, Adnan al Sharif, Ahmad Nawash, Ali Jabri, Ali Maher, Alia Amoura, Amal Kenawy, Aziz Amoura, Hassan Hourani, Fahrelnissa Zeid, Farid Belkahia, Fateh al Moudarres, Ismail Fatah, Ismail Shammout, Issam al Said, Jumana el Husseini, Mahmoud Taha, Marwan, Mohamed Kacimi, Nabila Hilmi, Nuha al Radi, Paul Guiragossian, Rafa’ al Nasiri, Shaker Hassan al Said, and Vladimir Tamari, as well as Thabiso Sekgala, who was part of HIWAR, our 25th anniversary exhibition. We also remember Zaha Hadid.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full program of artist talks and performances, films from our archive selected by artists, curators in conversation, workshops, performances, and more.