Jumana Emil Abboud
Basma Alsharif
Anas Al-Shaikh
Samah Hijawi
Magdi Mostafa
Joe Namy
Aaron Cezar
Cliff Lauson
Jane Scarth
Martin Czechowski
Dominik Czechowski
This exhibition examines aural culture and oral history through the work of six contemporary artists. Using a variety of media, the evocative potential of sound is explored, from stories to music to ambient noise, connecting the past to the present.
Curated by: Aaron Cezar, Cliff Lauson Jane Scarth, Eimear Martin and Dominik Czechowski
This exhibition examines aural culture and oral history through the work of six contemporary artists. Using a variety of media, the evocative potential of sound is explored, from stories to music to ambient noise, connecting the past to the present. The artworks employ different sonic strategies to both conjure and challenge cultural memory. Sound becomes a medium of performing history and, in turn, listening a performative act. Artists include: Jumana Emil Abboud, Basma Alsharif, Anas Al-Shaikh, Samah Hijawi, Magdi Mostafa, and Joe Namy.
Echoes & Reverberations runs in tandem with A Prologue to the Past and Present State of Things at Delfina Foundation. Both exhibitions launch Staging Histories, a new research and commissioning platform for performance art. Through archival research and new commissions, Staging Histories traces seminal moments of performance mapping shared histories and contemporary global concerns. The first stage of the project explores performance art from and in relation to the Arab world.
Co-curated by Aaron Cezar, Director, Delfina Foundation, and Cliff Lauson, Curator, Hayward Gallery, with Jane Scarth, Residency and Projects Manager, Delfina Foundation, and Eimear Martin and Dominik Czechowski, Assistant Curators, Hayward Gallery.
An online catalogue has been produced in collaboration with Ibraaz Platform 009, which addresses the genealogies of performance art in North Africa and the Middle East. Contributors include Anthony Downey (Editor-in-Chief, Ibraaz), Aaron Cezar (Director, Delfina Foundation), Cliff Lauson (Curator, Hayward Gallery), Alexandra MacGilp (Curator, Maraya Art Centre) and writer Rayya Badran.
A collaboration between Hayward Gallery, Delfina Foundation, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah and Shubbak - A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture (11-26 July 2015) with additional support raised through A. M. Qattan Foundation and the Art Basel Crowdfunding Initiative on Kickstarter.
We are grateful to the major supporters of our crowdfunding campaign: Perihan Bassatne, Maya Rasamny, Fatima Maleki, Marwan T. Assaf, Raghida Ghandour, Jenny Hall, and Midge Palley.
Image: Magdi Mostafa, Planting Sound (2014). Image courtesy of the artist.
Delfina Foundation
29/31 Catherine Place London SW1E 6DY