Conversations

Conversations is a space for discussions and dialogue with invited guest writers, artists, critics, and curators on relevant topics, current events and exhibitions, modes of working, forms of funding, etc. It is divided into three sections;

︎︎︎ Texts in the form of reviews and articles.
︎︎︎ Podcast episodes with invited guests.
︎︎︎ K-oh-llective blog entries.   

Review #10: A Multifaceted Exploration of Violence: A Return of the Sun

Christina Chatzitheodorou


“A Return of the Sun” is a group show featuring the works of Alia Farid, Aziz Hazara, Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas, Christian Sleiman, Haig Aivazian, Inas Halabi, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Jumana Manna, Kiymet Dastan, Lamia Abukhadra, Nadia Bseiso, Omnia Sabry, Rania Stephan, Saba Innab. The Exhibitions is curated by Reem Shadid, and runs at Beirut Art Center from May 18th until September 16th, 2023.

Overall, the exhibition uses different means to communicate the significance and raise our awareness on violence. It offers a unique perspective on forms of violence on the environment that otherwise might be unnoticed. From photographs and installations, to short films and documentaries, the works provide a holistic idea of what constitutes violence, yet the environment is presented as more than an idle factor unilaterally affected by human actions. The space itself has a psyche of its own and it changes meanings and significations, along with its continuously changing contextualization.

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Review #7: Reorienting the Gateway: Saudi’s Inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale

Sara Almutlaq


The first edition of the Islamic Art Biennale: Awwal Bait in on display from January 23, 2023 – April 23, 2023 in Jeddah’s Hajj terminal. The first edition was led by the curatorial team consisting of Sumayya Vally, Dr. Saad Alrashed, Dr. Omniya Abdel Barr, and Dr. Julian Raby. With participating artists; Igshaan Adams, Leen Ajlan, Reem Al Faisal, Adel Al Quraishi, Nasser Al Salem, Noura Al Sayeh-Holtrop, Sarah Alabdali, Rund Alarabi, Nora Alissa, Moath Alofi, Farah Behbahani, Sultan Bin Fahad, M’barek Bouhchichi, Sarah Brahim, Bricklab, Lubna Chowdhary, Civil Architecture, DAL – Digital Arts Lab, Abdelrahman Elshahed, Alia Farid, Basmah Felemban, Iheb Guermazi, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Ziad Jamaleddine / L.E FT Architects, Idris Khan, Yasmeen Lari, Huda Lutfi, Ahmed Mater, Haroon Mirza, Joseph Namy, Moataz Nasr, Beya Othmani, Yazid Oulab, Shahpour Pouyan, Kamruzamman Shadin, Wael Shawky, Muhannad Shono, Dima Srouji, Studio Bound, SYN Architects, James Webb, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Ayman Zedani, Fatiha Zemmouri, Soukaina Aboulaoula.

Before unraveling the nuances, success and failures of Islamic Arts Biennale ’s curatorial antithesis; we must consider the force of perspective situating the biennale in a space of Islamic pilgrimage demands. In witnessing the biennale, as building and exhibition one is consumed with references to national fidelity and pious hospitality. The Hajj Terminal—dubbed by SOM as “The Gateway to Mecca”—and its contemporary counterpart, the inaugural “Awwal Beit” exhibition, are born of similar moments in national history. The Hajj Terminal, built during Saudi’s first oil boom, was a material representation of the nation’s vision of Islamic hospitality. The “Awwal Biet”, launched 50 years later, in a similar air of revolutionary vigor, extends that Islamic hospitality to creative practice as a spiritual and unifying act.

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Review #4: Familiarity

Anne Szefer Karlsen


“L’appartement 22 (2002-2022)” is a group exhibition curated by Abdellah Karroum, runs from 11 October 2022 until 07 January 2023 at Lot 219 - temporary space which has often served as backstage of experimentation and production of works in the industrial district of Bensouda in Fes.

As I enter the hall, I also remember the courtyard with its lemon tree, and the weirdly domestic feeling it provided to a space that was in transition from industrial to cultural. Now, just as then, the neighbour’s cock crows from time to time, and cats and dogs wander in and out—making sure that the space stays in-between industrial, cultural, and domestic. Today, however, the opening of the exhibition draws a crowd that requires us to see it as a cultural space; an understanding that is also provoked by the objects on display, the captions thoughtfully contextualising the art and the crates that house them, and the hospitality offered to us as visitors.

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Review #3: Being Borrowed, or a Chance to Extend Ropes

Nadia Mounier


“Being Borrowed; On Egyptian Migration to the Gulf” is a group exhibition with works by Nourhan Abd El-Salam, Aya Bendary, Omar Mansour, Farida Rady, Tasneem Gad, Doha Aboelezz, Farida Serageldin, Khaled El Demerdash, Hossam Gad, Eman Magdy, Lina El Shamy, Sally Abo Basha, Mariam Diefallah, Carlos Estrada-Ruiz, Nahed Nasr, Azza Solaiman, Zeina Belasy, Khaled Othman, Mohey Eldin Yehia, Ali Zaraay, Ibrahim Mohamed, Yasmina El Kamaly, Nadine El Banhawy, Tariq Abdalla. The project is a result of months-long workshop by Farah Hallaba (Anthropology Bel3araby), and the exhibition is curated by Farida Youssef, runs at Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) in Downtown Cairo from 2 - 31 October, 2022.

Impressive is the ability of photography to fix or recall memory in a sudden manner that carries with it the accumulations of time. Despite the privacy of the projects and their association with their producers, they were able to cross the dividing line of privacy to intertwine and intersect with many other experiences that had something to say, but were not fortunate enough to have the space to express it.

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Review #2: Pièces Détachèes

A. George Bajalia


“Pièces Détachèes” is a solo show featuring the work of Nassim Riad Azarzar, drawing from his ongoing research and practice as well as the results of his residency at L’Appartment 22 in Rabat, Morocco. It runs from August 26 to September 22, 2022.

If the perspectival lines of the horizons painted onto so many trucks themselves are reflections of the driver’s perspective while on the road, then their appearance in Azarzar’s drawings and sketchbook are only on stop on their road onward. Azarzar builds from his interest in what he calls “vernacular aesthetics,” although here we might also introduce “vehicular aesthetics.” Beyond the obvious play on words, his work does provoke questions of circulation, mobility, and iteration.

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Review #1: The Nutshell

Dina Jereidini


“The Nutshell” is a group show featuring the work of Hany Rashed, Yasmine ElMeleegy, Alaa Abdelhamid and Ahmed Shawky Hassan and runs at Access Art Space in Downtown Cairo from 15 May - 15 June, 2022.

In reviewing this show, I was met with an abundance of references (and referentiality); an abundance of physical space, of affective and efficacious excess. And although abundance drew me to this artist-organised exhibition, it also contributed to an antagonistic push-back. And so I pushed forward, and from that initial position stems a few observations and realisations.

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