Beyond Ruptures includes works of Aref el Rayess, Jean Khalife, Samir Khaddaje, Samia Osseiran, Shafic Abboud, Said Akl, Akram Zaatari and Nesrine Khodr as a testimony and tribute to the cultural resistance led by artists, cultural workers, and art patrons, in the challenging environments Lebanon has presented over the years. Selected works in the timeline, mark important events in the lives of each artist, and act as time capsules showing different artistic practices shaped by violence.
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The exhibition probes the ways in which the domestic context of a private collection can be transferred into a museum context. In so doing, it explores the possibilities of restaging and articulating the affinities created between distinct objects by means of a collector’s desires and endeavours. The exhibition, which spans the 4th and 3rd-floor galleries of Arter, brings together works by almost 400 artists, anonymous artefacts and mass-produced items, as well as multifarious objects.
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Presenting a wide selection of works by Ozan Sağdıç (b. 1934), one of the most prominent names in the history of photography in Türkiye, the exhibition focuses on documentary photography, a widespread genre of photography in the world, while also shedding light on the country’s social, political, economic, cultural, and visual history from the 1950s to the present day.
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Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere is the title of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The part of the exhibtion called Nucleo Storico is gathering works from 20th century Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Much has been written about global modernisms and modernisms in the Global South, and a number of rooms will feature works from these territories, much like an essay, a draft, a speculative curatorial exercise that seeks to question the boundaries and definitions of modernism. Around forty artists who were active in the art contexts of West Asian and North Africa such as Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, and Tehran, are included in the exhibition, among them Dia al-Azzawi, Huguette Caland, Gazbia Sirry, Marwan, and Bahman Mohasses.
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Artist Yto Barrada will transform the MoMA PS1 courtyard with a large-scale installation, her first major outdoor work is composed of colorful concrete blocks stacked into pyramidal towers whose lower levels visitors can sit on and explore, providing an interactive experience in the courtyard and a setting for PS1’s signature summer music series Warm Up. The sculptures’ formations draw inspiration from multiple histories of surmounting barricades and retooling architectures: the construction of human pyramids in Morocco, Moroccan Brutalism, and Barrada’s family lore.
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This ambitious new work continues Ahaad Alamoudi’s expansive exploration of rapidly changing social and cultural environments, situating Saudi’s natural and urban landscapes as sites of possibility – punctured by effort and powered by fantasy – where both individual and collective attempts to do the seemingly impossible are imbued with humour, absurdity and, at times, hopefulness.
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The Hamburg-based French-Egyptian artist Hoda Tawakol ( born 1968 in London) is developing a new site-specific work for the garden of the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin. With her outdoor textile work, she creates spaces for dialogue: with native and non-native plants, with her own and other identities, as well as experiences and challenges that appeal to the senses and stimulate the mind.
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HOUSE OF SYRIAN ART will be showing for the first time a selection of drawings and sketchbooks by the Syrian painter Abdullah Murad, from the collection of the TAKLA FOUNDATION.Murad is considered one of the outstanding pioneers of contemporary abstract expressionist Arabic art. Drawing reflects the movements of life in the most direct form, its rise and fall, its swelling and fading. “One must always,” writes Matisse, “follow the desire of the line, the point at which it wants to begin or disappear.”
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“Unobservable dreams” focuses on the diverse realities of society and the contrasting desires arising from them. The exhibition explores how social values and economic prosperity are replaced by crises in a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, and how these changes impact different layers of society. This results in a more nuanced and complex societal landscape, reflecting its sensitive and multifaceted nature. The artists, adapting mythological references to contemporary realities, attempt to “voice” the “unobservable” dreams of their characters through their video works.
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An exhibition of works by Tala Madani as part of the museum’s exhibition cycle, “What If Women Ruled the World?”
This four-part series is exclusively dedicated to the work of women artists or artists who identify as female. Initiated by EMΣT artistic director Katerina Gregos and inspired by Yael Bartana’s 2017 neon work of the same name, this cycle of exhibitions is based on an often-repeated hypothetical question: What would happen if governance was characterized by female traits?
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“Unobservable Dreams” showcases video works from YARAT’s collection by artists like Zamir Suleymanov, Emin Azizbeyli, and Vajiko Chachkhiani. The exhibition explores societal shifts, crises, and contrasting desires in an unpredictable world. Through mythological references, the artists give voice to hidden dreams and emotions. Themes of hope, identity, and despair are woven throughout, reflecting the complex layers of society. The exhibition delves into both collective and personal struggles across cultures.
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“Voices of Silence” is Aidan Salakhova’s first large-scale museum exhibition in Baku, commissioned by YARAT. It addresses domestic violence, amplifying the voices of its victims through an installation of 12 white stone jugs. Each jug tells a tragic story from the past 12 years, blending beauty with haunting narratives. The exhibition urges society to break the silence, fostering dialogue and action against domestic violence.
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Samy Zarka offers us a contemporary journey into the imagination of the identity of Palmyra in Roman Gaul. Through the collection of testimonies of exiles about their destroyed, abandoned Syrian homes, the artist approaches the site of the mosaics with its traces of Syrian presence, like a landscape of memories of lost dwellings offering a captivating temporal echo to the faces of Palmyra, cycles of construction and deconstruction over time.
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Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) is an Iranian visual artist and photographer who lives in New York City. For decades, Neshat’s expansive body of work has focused on the problematics of the female body in Islamic cultures, specifically in relation to her country, Iran, and the way in which the female body has continued to be a contested space for sin, shame, desire, repression, political & religious ideology, while also rebellion, power and protest.
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The artist Mona Hakimi-Schüler, who grew up in Tehran and now lives in Berlin, uses a wide range of artistic forms of expression to address the political situation in Iran and the role of women in society. Her own life story is also reflected in her works and the artist herself appears again and again in her works.
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Dis-placed at Konschthal Esch, part of the Biennale 2024 – Architectures, d’Esch Capitale Culturelle, examines the notion of ‘loss of home.’ From September 2024, the second part of the exhibition will take place, featuring works by Taysir Batniji, Marco A. Castillo, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Haus-Rucker-Co, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Marlene Dumas, Guillaume Delaperriere, Omer Fast, Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian, Samira Hodaei, Candida Höfer, Hiwa K, Lisa Kohl, Gregor Schneider and The Blaze.
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In this exhibition, Mahmoud Alhaj examines the colonial violence and mechanisms of domination and control imposed on Palestinian geography over the years. Alhaj’s projects preceded the intensification of these oppressive tools, ultimately leading to the ongoing atrocities in the Gaza Strip over the past months.
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Yalda Bidshahri is an Iranian writer and curator in the United Arab Emirates. She creates communal spaces of imagination and freedom through exhibitions, programs and publications developed in close collaboration with artists and practitioners across disciplines. Born from a premonition, In your dreams features multidisciplinary artworks that often combine traditional elements of Iranian culture with imagination and provocation offering emancipatory perspectives on identity and gender.
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Yellow Area is an online solo photo exhibition by Erfan Dadkhah that explores the rise and decline of Alborz, Iran’s first industrial city. Established in the 1960s, Alborz thrived during urbanization but faced economic hardships in the 2000s, leading to layoffs, industrial shutdowns, and rising living costs. Through personal experiences, the exhibition captures the struggles and fading memories of the city’s inhabitants, highlighting its uncertain future.
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Archipelago: Visions in Orbit uses the metaphor of an archipelago—distinct yet connected islands—to explore diverse artistic perspectives. In response to societal fragmentation and geopolitical tensions, the exhibition highlights a shared cultural fabric while embracing complex differences. Featuring artists like Esther Teichmann and Jade de Montserrat, it examines themes of migration and belonging. Curated by MA Curating Art and Public Programmes students, the show reflects Whitechapel’s rich history of migrant communities and includes public performances and events.
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Inspired by Jonas Mekas’ Manifesto Anti-100 Years of Cinema, this performative exhibition in Tehran unfolds in two episodes. It celebrates collaborative creativity, friendship, and reflection, exploring the balance of light and darkness as essential to image-making. Featuring diverse artists, the exhibition spans film, video, sound, and poetry, engaging Tehran as a resonating hub of universal human experience. Curated by Raha Raissnia and Martin Germann, it also includes live performances and screenings.
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A unique exhibition celebrating the artistry of Arab artists-printmakers. The exhibition showcases a rich selection of fine art prints on paper from the DAF collection, some of which have rarely been seen by the public. Showcasing more than 310 fine art handmade prints on paper, the exhibition features the creations of 36 renowned Arab artists from across the Middle East and North Africa. The exhibition aims to be not just a display of art, but also an educational opportunity to learn about the history and techniques of printmaking.
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Yesterday I Was a Tiny Tube of Toothpaste showcases the artist’s ability to use color and calligraphic abstraction for storytelling. Accompanying the exhibition, Pace Publishing will produce a facsimile of her studio sketchbook from her Tokyo show. A self-taught artist and former neuroscientist, Mohamedi creates atmospheric abstractions that reflect universal experiences. This exhibition marks her first solo show in Japan and the grand opening of Pace’s new Tokyo gallery.
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Signals, Atif Akin’s first solo exhibition, is a select group of works from Akin’s long term research project over the past ten years on radiation, mutation and archaeology. Akin’s work is about technoscientific criticism in the context of contemporary art, science, and politics. Integrating technology as both subject and means of expression, Akın explores issues that are considered sensitive in the public discourse, unlocking them from the rigid political categories in which they reside.
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Tashkeel presents Homepage, a solo exhibition by Mouza Al Hamrani, concluding her Tashkeel Critical Practice Programme (CPP). The exhibition reinterprets early Khaleeji cyberspace, turning digital ephemera into a tangible experience. Al Hamrani explores the impact of the internet on conservative GCC culture, anonymity, and how digital artifacts change when removed from their original context. Homepage bridges past and present, reflecting on the region’s digital history and its influence today.
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Galerie Georg Nothelfer presents the first solo exhibition of Iranian artist Elmira Iravanizad, featuring her new works. The exhibition showcases small and large oil paintings, sculptures in ceramic, metal, and wood, and intricate collages made from drawings and cut-outs. Iravanizad’s layered approach transforms materials, blurring the lines between painting and sculpture. Her interactive pieces invite viewers to engage, as they explore the interplay of organic and inorganic forms. Reflecting her cultural background, her work connects urban landscapes of Tehran, London, and Berlin, creating a dialogue between past and present.
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Karma inaugurates its new exhibition space in Chelsea at 549 West 26th Street with “Landscapes,” featuring the work of first-generation New York School painter and poet Manoucher Yektai, running from September 12 to November 9, 2024. This is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Yektai’s landscapes, showcasing paintings from 1957 to 1992. By merging abstraction and classical elements, Yektai’s work reflects his identity as both an American citizen and Iranian expat. Art historian Suzanne Hudson states that he “produces rather than illustrates landscape,” challenging traditional views and enriching the Abstract Expressionist narrative.
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Nino Mier Gallery presents Sneak Peek: Backstage Stories, featuring paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Orkideh Torabi. Her theatrical works humorously critique patriarchal structures while referencing global art history. This second solo show includes panel and monoprinted paintings that explore Iranian cultural politics. Torabi’s playful reinterpretations of masterpieces, like Caravaggio’s works, subvert traditional narratives, depicting figures with whimsical features. Influenced by her recent visit to Iran, she blends Persian aesthetics with contemporary themes, humanizing royal figures.
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The Ductile Structures exhibition presents a personal inner world expressed through the design of fabrics. Drawing inspiration from architectural elements, particularly Gothic and Baroque styles, the works feature pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and lines that reflect the artist’s emotions. Music plays a significant role in shaping the pieces, guiding the creative process like hands molding clay. This exhibition highlights the deep connection between architecture, music, and fashion, all originating from the artist’s inner world.
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Wentrup presents Paris-based artist Desire Moheb-Zandi’s first solo exhibition during Berlin Art Week 2024. Moheb-Zandi’s large-scale sculptural tapestries blend traditional weaving techniques with modern motifs, reflecting her Turkish heritage and personal history. Using diverse materials like recycled bras, neon threads, and upcycled yarn, she intuitively assembles works without preparatory sketches. Her tapestries and soft sculptures evoke the rhythmic flow of the sea, creating a poetic cocoon of memories and emotions.
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Neda Saeedi’s sculptures and installations in her exhibition “For in Fire Yet We Trust” explore themes of historical violence, exploitation, and imperialism. Through deformed cultural symbols, fragile glass, and burning imagery, she confronts Europe’s oppressive past and present. The exhibition questions how we cope with history’s debris and whether there’s hope for change, all while refusing to give in to despair.
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In her first solo Los Angeles show in over a decade, British artist Shirazeh Houshiary presents new works exploring life’s origins and cosmic mysteries, from cellular structures to the aurora borealis. Her abstract paintings, featuring phrases like “I am” and “I am not,” reflect cycles of creation. Highlights include Enchanter (2024), Earth Lament (2023), and sculptural pieces like Maelstrom (2022), capturing the dynamic interplay of form, energy, and space.
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Lawrie Shabibi presents Aspects, the first solo exhibition in the UAE by Saudi Arabian artist Alia Ahmad. Through intimate paintings and watercolors, Ahmad explores the rapidly changing environment of Riyadh, where tradition meets modernity. Her abstracted forms—floral, geometric, and vegetal—create a personal visual language. The segmented compositions evoke constant growth, offering glimpses of infinite patterns beyond the canvas.
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Ayyam Gallery presents a retrospective honoring the late Syrian artist Leila Nseir, known for her contributions to art and feminism. Nseir’s work reflects her humanist concerns and feminist thought, addressing conflict, inequality, and cultural identity. Her evolution from sculpture to painting, due to health challenges, showcases her resilience. Nseir’s untitled and undated works, influenced by ancient art, transcend time, questioning gender roles and celebrating women’s stories in Arab society.
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The joint exhibition of Sarah Almehairi and Bernhard Buhmann features works that explore themes of imperfection and discovery. Almehairi builds layers of marks and forms that emphasize asymmetry, while Buhmann’s mechanical portraits are marked by erasures and wounds. Both artists use color gradations and trompe l’oeil effects to blur boundaries, creating a sense of wandering and unpredictability, inviting viewers into an intimate, unplanned encounter with their evolving visual narratives.
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“Bound: Textiles Between Loss and Repair”, curated by Murtaza Vali, is the final exhibition in a series on contemporary fiber art. Featuring works by Dana Awartani, Jumana Manna, Hana Miletić, Dala Nasser, and Khalil Rabah, the show explores the fabric’s role in nurturing and healing. Through abstract forms, the works evoke shrouds and bandages, symbolizing loss, pain, and recovery. The absent body extends to collective, political, and environmental experiences.
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The exhibition promises a rich tapestry of artistic expressions, featuring over 80 artworks that encompass painting, drawing, ceramic, sculpture, and printmaking.
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The “Light – Stone – ness” exhibition by Shiva Kakavandi is based on the concept of stone in the sense that stone embodies nature’s quiet voice and symbolizes resilience. This substantial material, formed from the fragmentation of larger masses, paradoxically becomes lighter with each break while retaining its rugged essence. In her ongoing exploration of stone’s geometry, Shiva Kakavandi delves into themes of light and suspension. Her work reveals a fascinating contradiction at the core of stone: the interplay of lightness and heaviness.
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Wadi 99 Art Gallery presents Naguib Moein’s first solo exhibition in Beirut. “Regnum” is an exploration of composition and ornamentation in sculpture. Moein creates a harmony between the aesthetics of architecture and sculpture, giving his works a unique and unconventional touch. His works resemble fantastical monuments or meticulously constructed towers and castles. These forms depict mysterious details of an ancient legend—a legend that encompasses all the mythical tales that have passed through human imagination since the dawn of civilization.
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Burçak Bingöl’s solo show opens at Galeri Nev İstanbul, its latest stop after Tate St Ives and Ka Ankara. The exhibition will feature Bingöl’s ceramic works in a new installation exclusive to the gallery space. Additionally, a book detailing the four-year project will be published during the same period. The works combine ceramic materials and methods with the history of modernism, focusing on the themes of memory, forgetting, and transformation.
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Laying out an index of memory, Zineb Sedira in fact inculcates an interrogation of conventional cinematic style and boundaries, to the hilt. The factual and the staged, the documentary and the autobiographical are never in a contradistinction in Sedira’s work. Individual and collective footage intertwine, simultaneously emphasizing a heightened intellectual and militant approach that draws on both her personal history and significant, inconsolable episodes in international history.
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“An Epic of Kings” showcases 25 folios from the Great Mongol Shahnama, the most renowned medieval Persian manuscript. This exhibition highlights Iran’s national epic, completed by Firdawsi in 1010, and later commissioned by the Ilkhanid ruler Abu Sa‘id. The monumental illustrations depict key historical figures, like Alexander the Great and Sasanian monarchs, as role models for the Ilkhanids. For the first time, these artworks are displayed alongside contemporaneous pieces from China, the Mediterranean, and the Latin West, highlighting Eurasian cultural exchange.
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this upcoming show, Pi Artworks continues its dedicated collaboration with local art schools. These collaborations are invaluable, and enable the next generation of artists and curators to step into the art market and gain professional gallery experience, with Paint, Once More 2 being no exception. Ten emerging painters here seek to establish unique creative languages while considering canvas and painting as a place of possibility – an optimistic and fitting opening for the gallery’s new season, that celebrates the promise of these recent graduates.
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“Undefined Territory” explores constructions of place, identity, time, and knowledge within contemporary Bangladesh. Through photography, audiovisual works, and archival materials, the exhibition challenges traditional notions of “territory,” addressing politics, colonial structures, and rigid perceptions of time. Featuring works by Shumon Ahmed, Palash Bhattacharjee, Marzia Farhana, Shahria Sharmin, and Munem Wasif, it examines the personal and political through a dynamic interplay of the abstract, tangible, and absurd.
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Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial* showcases the evolving artistic landscape of the GCC, featuring 21 artists and collectives from the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Co-curated by Maya Allison and Duygu Demir, the exhibition spans visual arts, architecture, and design, exploring themes of urban growth, environmental change, and identity. Reflecting on key moments from the past five years, it highlights the Gulf’s connection to natural rhythms and shared cultural ecosystems.
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Inspired by these lines from Forugh Farrokhzad’s celebrated poem The Window, Aida Mahmudova’s latest exhibition invites viewers into a deeply introspective journey, exploring solitude, nostalgia, and the yearning for inner and outer freedom. Through vivid imagery Mahmudova reflects on the tension between confinement and release, evoking the fragility of identity and the powerful forces that shape one’s inner world.
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Deadline for subissions: October 15, 2024. Parking Video Library and New Media Society are inviting artists worldwide to submit their video performances and documentation for an international open call. The call is open to a wide range of submissions, including live performance recordings, documentation of past performances, and works created specifically for the camera. As Parking Video Library celebrates its 20th anniversary, it aims to expand its reach and establish a new entry point to its works in Berlin. The goal is to create a virtual center that supports researchers, curators, students, and artists. For more information and details on the submission guidelines and eligibility criteria, please visit the link.
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In the exhibition from Palestinian-Danish video and installation artist Larissa Sansou, past, present and possible futures meet in a darkly expressive exhibition in which political but universally human topical issues interweave with imagined realities using the narrative methods of science fiction, documentary and opera. From the loss of the Palestinian people to the persistent threat of environmental catastrophe, the exhibition expands into studies of grief, memory and inherited trauma. Through her work, Sansour re-imagines the history of a nation on the brink of annihilation and of her homeland.
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This conference will explore how history and memory is reflected through contemporary art in the MENA region, and art’s association with broader social and intellectual practices. It will examine the possibility of challenging the present through the reinterpretation of history, exploring the enduring and collective impact of recent traumatic memories.
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The exhibition aims to document Tehran’s Shahr-e No citadel, the city’s former red-light district, burned on January 29, 1979, during the Islamic Revolution. Later turned into a park, this space was erased from collective memory as part of a cultural cleansing. Initiated by Hengame Hosseini with Parisa Davoudi and Nasrin Larijani, the exhibition, titled “No, I didn’t see anything…”, uses photography to remember and resist authoritarian erasure, offering a unique female perspective on a space they’ve never personally experienced.
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Türkiye’s prestigious contemporary art fair Contemporary Istanbul, proudly presents it’s nineteenth edition, with the preview day on October 23th followed by general admission from October 24th to 27th at Tersane Istanbul. Contemporary Istanbul is the leading art fair in the region and a major platform connecting artists, galleries, and collectors from around the world.
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