‘Borders’ gives an overview of how artists and critical thinkers from the Middle East and beyond come to terms with political conflict in their region. The impact of the obsession with security on their societies, new mechanisms – soft and hard – to separate and control groups of people, the withering of public space and the discourse that shapes it, the loss of meaning of nationhood: these urgent themes are tentatively explored by artists, architects and other critical observers from the Middle East (including Israel).
This collective artistic research formed the backbone of three exhibitions and the accompanying activities in Gemak, the centre for art and politics in The Hague. Artists and experts from the Middle East were invited to extend their activities to the Dutch city – known as the capital of international law – in order to ascertain to which degree the shifting nature of borders is also redefining public life in the old Western metropolises.
The author, Robert Kluijver, spent a decade working in the Middle East and South Asia before curating these exhibitions in Gemak.
The book will be launched on Thursday June 10 at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, at 18.00.
A short presentation of contemporary trends in Middle Eastern art by the author will be followed by music and drinks.
Location: Mediamatic Bank, Vijzelstraat 68, Amsterdam