Culture Alert: Art mingles with diplomacy, feminism and sport
The Middle East's cultural scene at the start of 2018 is almost as lively as its political landscape, as art flirts with feminism, diplomacy and sport.
The Middle East boasts a long list of exhibitions, concerts and conferences in January — perfect for those art junkies whose New Year's resolutions included devoting more time to cultural events and outings.
The shadows of Qadiri’s mind: The often-Byzantine diplomatic machinations of the Middle East provide a reason to pop into the Sursock Museum in Beirut and take in the works of an artist who portrays international diplomacy as an alien conspiracy. “The Craft,” the first solo show in Lebanon by Monira Al Qadiri, features sculptures and videos by the Kuwaiti artist.
Qadiri's semi-autobiographical pieces have a science fiction angle and unearth the unlikely stories of the artist’s childhood growing up in Kuwait. For Qadiri, pop culture, futuristic architecture, junk food, interpretations of dreams, alien abductions, geopolitics and diplomacy, war, and peace were all parts of modern life that left her with a sense of distrust, according to the museum’s press release.
The exhibition premiered at Gasworks in London on the occasion of the biennial festival “Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture, 2017.” The show remains on view at the Sursock until Feb. 5.
