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Research Studio: Confluence

June 28 - July 31, 2018

Selected material from Jameel Arts Centre Library
A curated bibliography by Omar Berrada

Project Space Art Jameel

Sited on a body of water at a crucial intersection of cultures and histories, Jameel Arts Centre, and in particular its Library, aims to be a place where confluences of minds and practices flow together into a constant rush of ideas and projects. As a prelude to the developing library collection, a bibliography of over 150 publications in English and Arabic is put together in consideration of the notion of confluence from a variety of vantage points. With a focus on the Middle East/North Africa region, it looks at how people travel, how cultures meet, how languages transform around border zones. It explores the many dimensions of textual and cultural translation, including the mutation of forms in the history of art. It dwells both on the function of port cities in a globalised economy and on the intimate meeting of souls that a published correspondence between artists allows us to witness. As the bibliographies included in many of these books make clear, the list is potentially endless. Take these titles as a subjective set of reference points for readers—but also for the institution itself—to turn to as they consider the dizzying possibilities and ethical challenges that come with inhabiting the restless flows of confluence.” Omar Berrada

‘Research Studio: Confluence’ takes the form of a curated reading room and active research space open to the public, housed in Project Space Art Jameel, Alserkal Avenue, from June 28 to July 31, 2018 (Saturday to Thursday from 10:00am – 6:00pm).

As a response to this curated bibliography by Omar Berrada, interdisciplinary artist Noush Anand and translator and critic Hafsa Hariga are running reading groups; all are welcome to register and participate.

Anand and Hariga will lead and moderate group sessions in English and Arabic (respectively), based on readings selected from the Research Studio; each will create a language-specific open platform for discussion, reflection and debate, dwelling on the programme’s thematic concerns.

Project Space Art Jameel’s Research Studios are indicative of the direction and mission of the Jameel Library at the upcoming Jameel Arts Centre situated at the tip of Jaddaf Waterfront, on the Dubai Creek (opening on November 11, 2018).

English-language reading group (led by Noush Anand): Saturday July 14, 21, 28 and August 4 (11am-1pm)

Assigned readings: The land of the date, C. M. Cursetjee; Future Publics (The Rest Can and Should Be Done by the People): A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, Maria Hlavajova & Ranjit Hoskote (eds); and a selection of multiple excerpts.

Arabic-language reading group (led by Hafsah Hariga): Saturday July 14, 28 and August 11 and September 1 (4pm-6pm)

Assigned readings: click here.

To register, please email your full name and selected reading group (English or Arabic) to [email protected]. Each reading group is open to a maximum of 10 participants, reservation is on first-sign up basis. Participants are required to commit to the reading material and to attending all sessions. The reading groups are free to attend, participants however, are asked to pay for the cost of the provided books to keep; the total of which will not exceed AED 150.

Curator:

Omar Berrada is a writer and curator, and the director of Dar al-Ma’mûn, a library and artists residency in Marrakech. He recently edited The Africans, a book on migration and racial politics in Morocco, and curated exhibitions centering on Ahmed Bouanani’s work and archive. Omar was the guest curator of the 2017 Abraaj Group Art Prize as well as a co-editor of Sharjah Biennial’s web journal tamawuj.org. Currently living in New York, he teaches at The Cooper Union where he co-organizes the IDS Lecture Series.

Moderators:

Noush Anand is an interdisciplinary artist who belongs with Dubai. She performs enactments of community and citizenship, and is building a practice of dwelling, to understand how proximate relationships can reimagine old habits. She received her BFA in Theatre Design & Film Animation in 2007 from Concordia University, Montreal.

Hafsa Hariga is a translator, critic and blogger. She runs her own blog, rohalyasmine, about modern Arabic novels, and in particular, novels nominated for International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Hafsa has been a moderator at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature for the last two years and currently works as a translator for Oliver Wyman, an international management consulting firm. Her love of writing started in her youth and in 2007, she won a Gold Medal in a youth writing competition held by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for her short story, I Am the Son of a Sunny Land.