#Art and design RSS feed Art RSS feed World news RSS feed Arab and Middle East unrest RSS feed Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off * Jump to content [s] * Jump to site navigation [0] * Jump to search [4] * Terms and conditions [8] Edition: UK * US Sign in Mobile About us * About us * Contact us * Press office * Guardian Print Centre * Guardian readers' editor * Observer readers' editor * Terms of service * Privacy policy * Advertising guide * Digital archive * Digital edition * Guardian Weekly * Buy Guardian and Observer photos * Subscribe Today's paper * The Observer * Comment * Sport * New Review * Magazine * Observer Food Monthly Subscribe * Subscribe to the Guardian * iPhone app * iPad edition * Kindle * Extra * Guardian Weekly * Digital edition * All our services The Guardian home ____________________ [Art and design] Search * News * Sport * Comment * Culture * Business * Money * Life & style * Travel * Environment * TV * Data * Video * Mobile * Offers * Jobs * Culture * Art and design * Art The Arab spring hits Paris An exhibition by artists from North Africa and the Middle East, at the Villa Emerige, has more meaning than most modern work * + Tweet this + IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=17841205555826 7&href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/01/arab -spring-art-exhibition-paris&send=false&layout=button_count&wi dth=140&show_faces=false&action=recommend&colorscheme=light&fo nt=arial&height=21 + [icon_reddit.gif] reddit this * Philippe Dagen * Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 1 November 2011 14.04 GMT * Article history About this article Close The Arab spring hits Paris This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.04 GMT on Tuesday 1 November 2011. It was last modified at 16.25 GMT on Tuesday 1 November 2011. ayman-ballbeki-art Portrait of a combatant ... a painting by the Lebanese artist Ayman Baalbaki Photograph: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images In a short time artists born in north Africa and the Middle East have come from nowhere to bask in the limelight, thanks to the Arab spring. This is a good thing, but not exclusively. On the upside, the various upheavals have opened our eyes to the fact that there are creative artists at work on both sides of the Mediterranean. On the downside, there is no relation of cause and effect between the art, which has been there for decades, and recent events. The artists were well ahead of the policymakers, a point underlined by this show, if only because visitors can find out about the artists' background. We learn that Laila Muraywid, who was born in Damascus in 1956, has been working in Paris since 1981. She combines sculpture, performance and photography with an impressive visual intensity, to address subjects such as women's rights, seduction, desire, secrets and violence. It is astonishing she has only recently come to public notice. Much the same is true of Khaled Takreti, 47, also Syrian and Parisian by adoption. His frantic yet methodical drawing underpins large, chilly paintings, a mixture of anguish and mute silence. Moroccan-born Abderrahim Yamou, 52, paints and crafts objects that prove cruelly ironic once you see past their superficial elegance. Yazid Oulab is a sculptor of about the same age. He specialises in nails, some carved out of wood, others made of glass or inscribed in grey crayon on paper. They are all forms of universal suffering unrelated to particular beliefs. Some of the exhibitors at the Paris show belong to a younger generation, which is enjoying curiosity without the frustration of having to wait for years to be discovered. Ayman Baalbaki, from Lebanon, is already quite a star, with his hard-hitting portraits of combatants in big brushstrokes of bright colour, in front of pop-art flowering backgrounds and ruined buildings, a souvenir of the wreckage of Beirut. Taysir Batniji, a child of Gaza, has built a black-and-white photographic inventory of the watchtowers and pillboxes surrounding the enclave, in a similar vein to the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The pictorial and photographic self-portraits by Hicham Benohoud are more metaphorical. It is hard to know whether to treat these thought-provoking pictures as grotesque or tragic, derisive or self-effacing. Without indulging in overemphasis, these artists find inspiration in deeply serious situations and issues. This explains why their work often seems more necessary, loaded with much more meaning than a lot of what we see today. This article originally appeared in Le Monde * Print this Printable version * Send to a friend * Share * Clip * Contact us * larger | smaller Email Close Recipient's email address ____________________ Your first name ____________________ Your surname ____________________ Add a note (optional) _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/32qyt * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * Google Bookmarks * del.icio.us * livejournal * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close * Contact the Arts editor arts.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk * Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk * If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content Art and design * Art World news * Arab and Middle East unrest More features Related * 18 Jan 2012 Art of defiance: expressions of the Arab uprisings â in pictures * 16 Mar 2011 Media Talk podcast: Blogging the revolution from the al-Jazeera forum in Doha * 8 Jul 2011 How Sultan al-Qassemi tweeted up a revolution * 19 Oct 2009 Golden Gates: contemporary art from the Middle East * Print this Printable version * Send to a friend * Share * Clip * Contact us * Article history Email Close Recipient's email address ____________________ Your first name ____________________ Your surname ____________________ Add a note (optional) _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ Send Your IP address will be logged Share Close Short link for this page: http://gu.com/p/32qyt * StumbleUpon * reddit * Tumblr * Digg * LinkedIn * Google Bookmarks * del.icio.us * livejournal * Facebook * Twitter Contact us Close * Contact the Arts editor arts.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk * Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk * If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk * Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 3353 2000 * + Advertising guide + License/buy our content About this article Close The Arab spring hits Paris This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.04 GMT on Tuesday 1 November 2011. It was last modified at 16.25 GMT on Tuesday 1 November 2011. Subscribe to the Guardian Weekly * Guardian Weekly masthead Subscribe now * Computer keyboard guardianweekly.co.uk Middle East protest coverage on Twitter Follow events live with our correspondents and a network of selected Twitter users * javierespinosa2 javierespinosa2: Graves enfrentamientos n Aden entre separatistas y seguidores del partido norteño Islah esa región s una auténtica bomba de relojerÃa #Yemen about 7 minutes ago * Brian_Whit Brian_Whit: Arab Spring, Islam's Summer: The next fight in Egypt and Tunisia will be among Islamists http://t.co/2le9XSYC about 14 minutes ago * Brown_Moses Brown_Moses: Follow @tarekshalaby @ghazalairshad @msheshtawy for live updates from #Tahrir Square, #Cairo #Egypt about 16 minutes ago ⢠Twitter network of Arab and Middle East protests â¢Â Follow our protest network on a Twitter list On Art & design * Most viewed * Zeitgeist * Latest Last 24 hours 1. [Street-art-of-P183-known--001.jpg] 1. Moscow's Banksy: the street art of P183 â in pictures 2. 2. The real Mona Lisa? Prado museum finds Leonardo da Vinci pupil's take 3. 3. Sony World Photography awards - in pictures 4. 4. Spot on: The Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama â in pictures 5. 5. Mike Kelley obituary 6. More most viewed Last 24 hours 1. Mona Lisas: compare Leonardo with his pupil - interactive 2. Eyewitness: Sony world photography awards 2012 3. Sony World Photography awards - in pictures 4. The real Mona Lisa? Prado museum finds Leonardo da Vinci pupil's take 5. Moscow's Banksy: the street art of P183 â in pictures 6. More zeitgeist What is Zeigeist? What is Zeitgeist? Zeitgeist is an experiment in showing trending news, topics and articles from the Guardian. Find out more in our blog post. Last 24 hours 1. [Sasha-20-Emeryville-CA-20-003.jpg] 1. Lise Sarfati: She - in pictures 2. 2. Guardian camera club: Steve Ayres' portfolio 3. 3. Guardian Camera Club: Chris Quach on capturing achievement on film 4. 4. Photographer Lise Sarfati: 'I choose people for their energy and aura' â video 5. 5. Constructive criticism: the week in architecture 6. All today's stories Guardian Bookshop This week's bestsellers 1. 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's 1. 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's by Jean Carper £10.99 2. 2. Pure by Andrew Miller £8.99 3. 3. What the Grown-ups Were Doing by Michele Hanson £14.99 4. 4. Complete Poems of Philip Larkin by Philip Larkin £40.00 5. 5. Perfect by Felicity Cloake £18.99 Search the Guardian bookshop ____________________ (Submit) Search Bestsellers from the Guardian shop * Steepletone Memphis music centre * Steepletone Memphis music centre * Play your cherished vinyl, tapes and CDs or transfer them to digital format for just £149.95. * From: £7.95 * Visit the Guardian reader offers shop * See all offers and services from the Guardian Sponsored feature guardian jobs Find the latest jobs in your sector: * Arts & heritage * Charities * Education * Environment * Government * Graduate * Health * Marketing & PR * Media * Sales * Senior executive * Social care Browse all jobs arts________________ Search Curator of Exhibitions Bristol | £29,000 ARNOLFINI Related information Art and design * Art World news * Arab and Middle East unrest a destroyed army barracks in Benghazi Libya uprising - live updates 28 Feb 2011 Live updates of the uprising in Libya and protests across the Middle East and North Africa * 20 May 2011 Syria, Libya, Yemen, Israel and Middle East unrest - Friday 20 May 2011 * 3 Mar 2011 Libya uprising - Thursday 3 March, part one * 19 May 2011 The Middle East is running dry - and into the perfect storm? * 28 Jun 2007 Richard Long: Walking and Marking A vandalised billboard of Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi on 1 March 2011. Libya uprising - Tuesday 1 March as it happened: part 1 1 Mar 2011 Live updates from the Libyan uprising as Gaddafi forces fight back against rebels and the latest from protests in the Middle East and north Africa * License/buy our content | * Privacy policy | * Terms & conditions | * Advertising guide | * Accessibility | * A-Z index | * Inside the Guardian blog | * About us | * Work for us | * Join our dating site today * © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Quantcast