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ADMAF, Abu Dhabi

Fotofest 2014: Views from the inside, 2015
 

VIEW FROM INSIDE:

Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art

ADMAF, Abu Dhabi

March 21 - April 20, 2015

 

The internationally acclaimed FotoFest International makes its first appearance in the Middle East. At the invitation of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (ADMAF), FotoFest will present VIEW FROM INSIDE: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art as a special commission and visual arts centerpiece of the Abu Dhabi Festival 2015, the twelfth edition of the festival.

With more than 35 leading Arab artists and over 140 works from 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, VIEW FROM INSIDE, will take place at the Emirates Palace Gallery in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It opens with a private preview March 20, 2015 and continues through April 20, 2015.

As a special commission for ADMAF, founder and organizer of the Abu Dhabi Festival, VIEW FROM INSIDE, is based on FotoFest’s highly acclaimed presentation of leading Arab photo and media artists originally created for FotoFest’s 15th international Biennial in Houston, Texas. With the exhibition, there will be a series of public programs, curator tours and artist workshops. A special colloquium will be done with New York University Abu Dhabi on April 15, 2015 featuring eight artists exhibiting in VIEW FROM INSIDE. A limited edition commemorative book on the Abu Dhabi exhibition will be produced by ADMAF.

VIEW FROM INSIDE is joined by an exhibition of twelve Emirati artists curated by ADMAF, Emirati Insights, as well as three 2015 Festival Commissions sponsored by ADMAF.

Organized by FotoFest International, VIEW FROM INSIDE brings together one of the world’s leading curators of contemporary Arab art, Karin Adrian von Roques, with FotoFest’s co-founder and expert in the international photographic arts. Wendy Watriss.

“This exhibition focuses on the works and the voices of artists who are important and pioneering figures in the use of photography and media-related arts in the Arab world,” says lead curator Karin von Roques. “The range and quality of their work vividly reveal the inter-relationships between tradition and change, both regional and global, and how these inter-connections are central to the way contemporary artists engage with the world around them.”

The exhibition features video animations and three dimensional works alongside vivid photojournalistic images of recent news events and personal reflections on contemporary Arab life. The works are conceptual and figurative. Many of the works address issues of the diverse and shifting identities of both people and place in Arab life today. The artists confront societal and environmental changes, the rapidity with which they are occurring and how they are affecting traditional relationships with “homeland,” family, religion, gender, diaspora and displacement. Other works look at questions of religious and historical heritage; the legacies of colonialism; and political upheaval.

“The artworks reveal strong connections between contemporary experiences and the histories of the cultures from which they come - their relationship to Arab society today and the world beyond,” says Wendy Watriss, Co-founder of FotoFest International. “With passion, irony and anxiety, they confront the issues of transformation in their social and physical environment. Reflective, critical and often humorous, the artists show a deep engagement with what is happening in the Arab world today. The exhibition is about their voice.”

At its original showing in the United States, Al Jazeera America described VIEW FROM INSIDE as “one of the largest exhibitions to date of contemporary Arab photography and mixed media.” It was received enthusiastically by thousands of U.S. and international visitors over its six-week presentation. Reviewer Rupert Goldsworthy recently noted in the Arab art journal Contemporary Practices, that VIEW FROM INSIDE illustrates: “a clear view of what the future may hold.”

It is the third major exhibition on the Middle East that FotoFest has showcased: the first U.S. presentation of NAZAR (2005), a groundbreaking Dutch exhibition of historic and contemporary Arab photography which later traveled to the Aperture Foundation in New York City; and Kurdistan, In the Shadow of History (1996) which FotoFest originated and traveled with its producer-author-photographer Susan Meiselas.

 

Abu Dhabi, March 2015

 
Solo shows (selection)
 
2023
L'appartement 22 2023Piero Atchugarry Gallery 2023
Baró Galeria 2023
2022
Wilde Gallery 2022Ceysson & Bénétière 2022
Musée La Kasbah 2022Es Baluard Museu 2022
2021
Conrads Gallery 2021Officine dell'Immagine 2021
ADN 2021
2019
Skanstull Metro Station 2019Analix Forever 2019
Ceysson & Bénétière 2019Wilde Gallery 2019
2018
CDAN 2018Göteborgs Konsthall 2018
2017
Art Front Gallery 2017Officine dell'Immagine 2017
Galerie De Multiples 2017Analix Forever Gallery 2017
Jane Lombard Gallery 2017Galerie Delacroix 2017
Goodman Gallery 2017Lawrie Shabibi 2017
Analix Forever Gallery 2017Maisons des Arts du Grütli 2017
2016
ADN Platform 2016Keitelman Gallery 2016
Labanque 2016MMP+ 2016
2015
MAMCO 2015MIAMIBUS 2015
Analix Forever 2015
2014
CCC Tours 2014ADN Galeria 2014
ADN Platform 2014Analix Forever 2014
Yvon Lambert 2014
2013
Museum Kunst Palast 2013Keitelman Gallery 2013
Paradise Row 2013Institut Français de Casablanca 2013
Galerie Fatma Jellal 2013Analix Forever 2013
2012
Goodman Gallery 2012Shoshana Wayne Gallery 2012
Lombard-Fried Projects 2012
2011
Galerie Conrads 2011Fondazione Collegio San Carlo 2011
Galerie Hussenot 2011AKBank Sanat 2011
2010
Galerie Hussenot 2010
2009
Galerie Conrads 2009FRAC Alsace 2009
2008
Galerie Delacroix IFM 2008Creux de l'enfer 2008
2007
Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten 2007Musée national Pablo Picasso 2007
Shoshana Wayne Gallery 2007La maison rouge 2007
Lombard Freid projects 2007
2006
Bank galerie 2006
2005
CAC d'Istres 2005
2004
Espace des arts Colomiers 2004 CAC Le Parvis 2004
2003
Migros museum 2003
 
Biennials, Triennials (selection)
 
2022
Setouchi Triennale 2022
2020
Altai Biennale 2020
2019
Setouchi Triennale 2019SCREEN IT - Stadstriennale Hasselt Genk 5 2019
2018
13eme Biennale de Dakar 20187th Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale 2018
1er Biennale de Rabat 2018
2017
57th Venice Biennale 20177eme Biennale Architecture, Shenzhen 2017
11eme Biennale de Bamako 201715eme Biennale d'art contemporain Alios! 2017
2016
Biennale Poznan 2016Setouchi Triennale 2016
2015
10èmes Rencontres de Bamako 20155th Thessaloniki Biennale 2015
16th Media art Biennale Wro 20151st Trio Biennale, Rio de Janeiro 2015
2nd Bodrum Biennial 2015
2014
Fotofest Biennial 2014
2013
5th Auckland Triennial 2013White House Biennial 2013
2012
10th Dakar Biennial 2012Manif d'Art 6 2012
2011
3rd Thessaloniki Biennial 201111th Lyon Biennial 2011
54th Venice Biennial 2011
2010
XIIth Cairo Biennial 20101st Mediterranean Biennial of Haifa 2010
Port Izmir 2, international triennial of contemporary art 20109th Dakar Biennial 2010
Biennale Cuvée 2010
2009
Xth Lyon Biennial 2009Art Tel Aviv 2009
9èmes Rencontres de Bamako 2009
2008
1st Brussels Biennial 2008Pontevedra Biennial 2008
2007
24th Biennial Memorial of Nadezda Petrovic 20071st Luanda Triennial 2007
52th Venice Biennial 20078th Sharjah Biennial 2007
2004
Gwangju biennial 2004
2006
2nd Seville Biennial 20067th Dakar Biennial 2006
2000
4th Dakar Biennial 2000
1999
7th Biennal Art Media 1999
 
Group shows (selection)
 
2023
Pola Museum 2023museum in progress 2023
2022
UB Art Galleries 2022Fondation Boghossian 2022
Cobra Museum 2022
2021
Brooklyn Museum 2021Fondation Boghossian 2021
Museo Reina Sofía 2021Iselp 2021
Es Baluard 2021
2020
Fondation Boghossian 2020La Galerie 38 2020
Sala de la Provincia de la Diputacion 2020MOCAK 2020
Ceysson & Bénétière 2020Goodman Gallery 2020
Palais de Tokyo 2020American University in Cairo 2020
Musée des Confluences 2020
2019
Fondation Boghossian 2019MAMA 2019
Ceysson & Bénétière 2019Maison Populaire 2019
Bedford Gallery 2019 Evliyagil Museum 2019
Jane Lombard 2019James Cohan 2019
2018
Mathaf 2018MACAAL 2018
Fondation Boghossian 2018Sammlung Philara 2018
Nasher Museum of Art 2018Ellen Noël Art Museum 2018
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea 2018MOCAK 2018
Bozar Center for fine arts 2018Philharmonie de Paris 2018
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 2018Goodman Gallery 2018
Institut Français de Saint Louis 2018Pensacola Museum of Art 2018
Von der Heydt-Kunsthalle 2018
2017
Gifu Museum 2017Huntsville Museum of Art 2017
Bandjoun Station 2017Institut des Cultures d’Islam 2017
Bellevue Arts Museum 2017Mudac 2017
Primo Marella Gallery 2017Goodman Gallery 2017
MACAAL 2017Museum De Wieger 2017
Conrads Gallery 2017Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière 2017
Keitelman Gallery 2017Musée du Pays de Hanau 2017
Château de Servières 2017CEAA 2017
Fondazione Fotografia Modena 2017H&R Block Artspace 2017
2016
Bedford Gallery 2016Beijing Today Art Museum 2016
Hôtel des Arts 2016Museum of Old and New Art 2016
Labanque 2016Les Photaumnales 2016
Al Maaden 2016Kunsthalle Faust 2016
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg 2016Archives Nationales 2016
Bardo National Museum 2016Arles 2016
Musée d'Art Moderne de Troyes 2016Rotor 2016
Goodman Gallery 2016Musée Bartholdi 2016
Institut d’Art Contemporain 2016Santander Art Gallery 2016
Brandts & Viborg Kunsthal 2016
2015
Fondazione VIDEOINSIGHT 2015A Tale of a Tub 2015
Contemporary Istanbul 2015ADMAF 2015
Goodman Gallery 2015Keitelman Gallery 2015
Galeria Municipal do Porto 2015Fabra i Coats 2015
AMOCA 2015Monastère Royal de Brou 2015
CAC La Traverse 2015FRAC Franche-Comté 2015
ZKM 2015The National Library 2015
Station 2015La FabriC - Fondation Salomon 2015
Van Abbemuseum 2015The Brooklyn Museum 2015
MMP+ 2015Sharjah Museum 2015
Kamel Lazaar Foundation 2015Sextant & + 2015
2014
Gwangju Museum of Art 2014QAGOMA 2014
N.B.K. 2014CAyT Centro de Arte y Technologia 2014
Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery 2014Station 2014
Institut du Monde Arabe 2014Art Gallery of Western Australia 2014
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art 2014Palais de Tokyo 2014
2013
L'art dans les chapelles 2013MAD Museum 2013
Marseille - Provence 2013V&A Museum 2013
30 ans des FRAC 2013MAC Marseille 2013
MAXXI 2013
2012
Museu de Arte Moderna de Salvador de Bahia 2012Institut du Monde Arabe 2012
Edge of Arabia 2012Apexart 2012
B.P.S. 22 2012Dorsky Gallery 2012
International Center of Graphic Arts 2012
2011
Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art 2011Fondation Blachère 2011
Brooklyn Museum 2011Dublin Contemporary 2011
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts 2011Museum on the Seam 2011
Tri Postal Lille 2011Meeting Point 6 2011
2010
The New School 2010Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil 2010
Fondazione Fotografia Modena 2010Aargauer Kunsthaus 2010
KAdE 2010Kunst Museum Bochum 2010
Moscow museum of modern art 2010Art Gallery of Ontario 2010
2009
Fondation Gulbenkian 2009Centro de Arte de Santa Monica 2009
Beirut Art Center 2009Salina Art Center 2009
2008
Kunstverein Medienturm Ilz 2008Te Papa museum 2008
Studio Museum Harlem 2008Haus der Kunst 2008
Centre Pompidou 2008CAAM 2008
Centro de Arte de Santa Monica 2008
2007
Johannesburg Art Gallery 2007
2006
CAC Le Parvis 2006CAPC musée d'art contemporain 2006
Bank Galerie 2006Les Abattoirs 2006
Moderna museet 2006Mori art museum 2006
2005
Wereldmuseum 2005Centre Pompidou 2005
The Stenersen Museum 2005Saw gallery 2005
Konstmuseum 2005Hayward Gallery 2005
2004
Museum Kunst Palast 2004Tri Postal Lille 2004
2003
2nd international contemporary art meeting 2003
2002
Espacio C 2002
1999
O.N.A. Foundation 1999CAC Castres 1999
Musée des beaux-arts de Dôle 1999Musée des arts décoratifs 1999
 
 
Public Space Projects (selection)
 
2015
Metavilla Collateral Project to the 12th Havana Biennial
Prison Qara Meknès Art Paris
2014
Analix Forever
2013
Sculpture Beach Art Dubai
2012
Le Printemps de Septembre Narracje 4
2010
Ivry FIAC Tuileries
2004
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt