Speaking of Art Sharjah Art Foundation

What role have artists played in dismantling colonial infrastructures? In what ways have they contributed to creating new platforms in the postcolonial era? What can we learn about forging solidarities through art from past generations? In this episode, Hoor Al Qasimi speaks with Morad Montazami, who co-curated The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987) with Madeleine de Colnet, about the artistic revolution that followed Morrocan independence in 1956. They discuss the transformation of Casablanca Art School and the efforts towards cultural decolonisation led by Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabâa, Bert Flint, Toni (Antonella) Maraini and Mohamed Melehi. Tune in to hear about the story of the Moroccan ‘new wave’ that triggered a new social movement and contributed to artistic solidarities between Latin America, West Asia and Africa. 

 

 

CREDITS 

Host: Hoor Al Qasimi 

Guest: Morad Montazami 

Editorial and Content Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma, Mahshid Rafiei 

Sound Producer and Editor: Basil Kisswani 

Music and Sound: Luc Allieres, Café da Mañha, 2021

Special Thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi. May Alqaydi, Dima Bittard, Unnikrishnaan Suresh, Ward Helal, Hasan Hujairi, Asad Siddique
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Natasha Ginwala as she explores one of Lala Rukh’s works from her iconic series, River In An Ocean, and how it captures the diverse rhythms of life and landscape with a minimalist vocabulary of lines, symbols and blackness.

Backstory is available in both audio and video formats. To view this episode in video, click here.

CREDITS

Host: Natasha Ginwala

Artwork: River In An Ocean: 6 (1993) and Moonscape (2010 / 2012) by Lala Rukh

Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei.

Film and Multimedia: Dima Bittard, Unnikrishnan Suresh, Ward Helal, Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, and Magdi Tawfig.

Special Thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi, Umer Butt, Elaine Lubguban and Mahmoud El Safadi.

© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2024
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lala Rukh was one of the most significant artists of her generation. Her practice encompassed drawing, printmaking, photography and video, developed against the backdrop of political turmoil and feminist movements in Pakistan. Yet, despite her expansive four-decade artistic, pedagogical and political career that has influenced generations in Pakistan and beyond, she has remained an enigmatic figure. Join Hoor Al Qasimi and Natasha Ginwala, curators of the exhibition In The Round, the first major survey of works by Lala Rukh that includes rarely seen drawings and installations as well as extensive archival material, as they explore the impact that she has had on the lives and works of her peers and students. Tune in to hear insights from those that were closest to her, including Umer Butt, Mariah Lookman and Maryam Rahman, as they share what Lala Rukh meant to them as an artist, an educator and a friend.

 

CREDITS

Host: Hoor Al Qasimi

Guests: Natasha Ginwala, Umer Butt, Mariah Lookman, and Maryam Rahman.

Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei.

Sound Producer: Basil Kisswani.

Sound Editors: Basil Kisswani and Kamayani Sharma.

Music and Sound: All Pakistan Music Archive and Grey Noise Gallery, Dubai.

Rasoolan Bai, Dadra, 1961; Roshan Ara Begum, speech, 1960; Roshan Ara Begum, Khamaj, 1960; Sadiq Ali Mando, Clarinet, 1961; Zahida Parveen, Tilang Bahar, 1961. 

Special Thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi, Mahmoud El Safadi, Hasan Hujairi, Asad Siddique, Dima Bittard, Ward Helal, and Shafeek Nalakath.

 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Elizabeth Giorgis as she tells us about some of the symbols and imagery that appear in Melkamzer’s paintings, such as faces, vines, suns and moons, to gain insight into reading telsem. 

Backstory is available in both audio and video formats. To view this episode in video, click here.

CREDITS

Host: Elizabeth Giorgis

Artwork: Untitled  (year) by Henok Melkamzer.

Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei.

Film and Multimedia: Dima Bittard, Unnikrishnan Suresh, Ward Helal, Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, and Magdi Tawfig.

Special thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi

© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2023
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do artistic practices traverse across generations? How do they continue to address critical conditions in our present moment? In our latest episode, Hoor Al Qasimi speaks with curator Elizabeth Giorgis about the work of artist Henok Melkamzer, one of the most prolific practitioners of the Ethiopian art form called telsem. Melkamzer talks to Giorgis about his journey and process. Drawing from astrology, religion and spirituality, telsem interweaves symbols, drawings and texts imbued with spiritual and philosophical significance. Tune in to hear about how this art form is also an intellectual tradition that has been shaped throughout the ages by the sociopolitical and cultural histories of Ethiopia, and how contemporary artists like Melkamzer challenge Western conceptions of modernism through telsem.

 

CREDITS

Host: Hoor Al Qasimi

Guests: Elizabeth Giorgis and Henok Melkamzer.

Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei.

Sound Producer: Basil Kisswani.

Sound Editors: Basil Kisswani and Kamayani Sharma.

Music and Sound: Courtesy of Girum Mezmur and Asserate Bossena, Performance at the Africa Institute, March 2023

Special Thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi, Amal Al Ali, Hanna Teshome and Dawit Habeshas.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Backstory, curator and art historian Salah Hassan elaborates on the historical significance of Untitled (1990), a painting by Gavin Jantjes, and how it contributes to the discourse and representation of African and African Diaspora art.

 

Backstory is available in both audio and video formats. To view this episode in video, click here.

 

CREDITS

Host: Salah M Hassan. 

Artwork: Untitled  (1990) by Gavin Janjtes.

Producers: Jyoti Dhar, Kamayani Sharma and Mahshid Rafiei.

Film and Multimedia: Dima Bittard, Unnikrishnan Suresh, Ward Helal, Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, and Magdi Tawfig.

Special Thanks: Nawar Al Qassimi and Carmen Hassan.

 

© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2023

 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.