Tashweesh performance video still, 2013. Courtesy of the artists
Continuous City: Mapping Arab London, 4–5 July 2013
The Pop-Up Mathaf returns to London for two days to re-imagine the city’s historical, contemporary and fictional Arab presence. In light of the prevalence of art related to the Arab world in London’s galleries and museums, the programme critically considers the city’s role as a home for generations of diasporic artists, writers and musicians among its many migrants and exiles.
The programme also launches a year of research, map-making, publications and activity online, exploring, for example, London’s role as a historic location for imagining the Arab Orient, and its more recent role as a pan-Arab financial, political and media hub.
Mapping Arab Literature in London
Explore Arab London’s literary and artistic heritage with artist Ibrahim El-Salahi, publisher Margaret Obank and authors Ma’n Abu Taleb, Etel Adnan, Sophia Al-Maria and Hisham Matar and Serpentine Gallery Co-Director Hans Ulrich Obrist. Curated by Pop-Up Mathaf guest curator Deena Chalabi, the event promises a unique and lively debate on the history and future of Arab literature in London.
Day: Thursday 4 July 7–9pm (Booking essential)
Location: London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London WC1A 2JL
Tashweesh and Waeil Abo Bakr, Friday 5 July 8–10pm (Booking essential)
Two special performances take place in the extraordinary setting of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013, designed by Sou Fujimoto.
Palestinian audio/visual collective Tashweesh present their most recent sound and video performance: a fractured narrative exploring a contemporary moment full of desire and disaster and, on this occasion, incorporating recent histories of Arab London. The result is a collision between sound and video, field recordings, archive material, vocals, breaks and soundscape.
Renowned violinist Waeil Abo Bakr assembles musicians for a performance that incorporates histories of local London musicians and nightclub owners on the Edgware Road and elsewhere from the 1970s to present.
Location: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
Serpentine Gallery,
Kensington Gardens,
W2 3XA, London
The events are free of charge, but booking is essential.
For details, please visit www.serpentinegallery.org or email information@serpentinegallery.org
Continuous City: Mapping Arab London is a collaboration between Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and the Serpentine Gallery’s Edgware Road Project. It is part of Ehtifal, a three-day festival hosted by the Serpentine Gallery and Qatar Museums Authority during Shubbak 2013: a window on contemporary Arab culture (22 June–6 July) and the Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.
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