October 8, 2019

History Is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary

by Nailah Taman | in Mizna News

September 12, 2019 – January 5, 2020

About History Is Not Here
Public Installations
Exhibition Programming
About the Curators
Exhibition Photos

Curated by Heba Y. Amin and Maymanah Farhat, Mizna partners with the the M to present History Is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary. On view until January 5, 2020.

See photos of the exhibition, the opening event, and the Family Day event here.

Coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of Mizna’s flagship art and literary journal, the exhibition’s roster is selected from the list of artists highlighted in its pages: Hamdi Attia, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou Rahme, Osama Esid, Fadlabi, Adelita Husni-Bey, Emily Jacir, Yazan Khalili, Joe Namy, Monira al Qadiri, Alaa Satir, Zineb Sedira, Athir Shayota, Nida Sinnokrot, Walid Siti, Raed Yassin, and Ala Younis.

This exhibition recognizes the so-called Arab world and its diaspora as multiform, made up of 22 countries with distinct histories as well as diverse ethnicities, languages, and religions. Through visual art, book art, installation, and video, the exhibition’s 17 U.S.-based and international artists engage the “Arab imaginary” as a strategy for examining various social, cultural, and political positions, making connections between contemporary geopolitics and the histories that inform them.

These artists address challenges in representation, including the misunderstandings and missteps, and the limiting and problematic terms that are often used to define the region, especially in the U.S. History Is Not Here rejects the idea of history as a fixed category and looks to alternative imagery and language structures from which new “imaginaries” can be generated. History Is Not Here is curated by Heba Y. Amin (visual artist and curator of visual art for Mizna) and Maymanah Farhat (writer and independent curator), in collaboration with the M.

Public Installations

Three public artworks are included in the exhibition. They are located in the Creative Enterprize Zone, the St. Paul neighborhood where Mizna’s office is located.

1. FADLABI b. 1975 in Omdurman, Sudan; lives in Oslo. The Air at Night, 2019. Mural: Acrylic paint. LOCATION — Wycliff Building, 2327 Wycliff Street, North Side.
2. MONIRA AL QADIRI b. 1983, Dakar, Senegal; lives in Berlin, Germany. Alien Technology II, 2017. Sculpture: CNC foam, steel, polyurea elastomer, paint. LOCATION — Universe Buildings, 670 Vandalia Street, West Side. Debuted October 1, 2019.
3. RAED YASSIN b. 1978, Beirut, Lebanon; lives in Berlin, Germany. Untitled, 2019, Billboard. LOCATION — Universe Buildings, 670 Vandalia Street, South Side. Debuted October 1, 2019.

Exhibition Programming

Opening Party
Thursday, Sept. 12, 6–9 p.m. | Remarks at 7 p.m.
Join us for a party to celebrate the opening of the Mizna’s first major visual art exhibition. Get a first look at the exhibition, and meet curators Heba Y. Amin and Maymanah Farhat, and featured artists Athir Shayota and Fadlabi. Cash bar and tunes by DJ Yasmeenah. M members and Mizna subscribers receive a free drink ticket!

Curator Conversation
Friday, Sept. 13, 6 pm • Free
Find out more about the exhibition History Is Not Here, in a conversation with curators Heba Y. Amin and Maymanah Farhat, moderated by the M’s Curator of Exhibitions Laura Joseph.

Artist Talk: Athir Shayota
Saturday, Sept. 14, 1 pm • Free
Artist Athir Shayota will talk about his experiences training and working as an artist in the American Midwest art scene.

Artist Talk: Fadlabi
Monday, September 16, 7 pm • Free and open to the public
Chroma Zone muralist Fadlabi will discuss his artistic practice as well as the content of his mural, The Air at Night, which includes themes relating to his upbringing in Sudan and the ongoing Sudanese revolution. This talk will be held at Forecast Public Arts, in partnership with Chroma Zone fest.

Guided Tour with poet Sagirah Shahid
Saturday, October 5, 1 pm. • Free • RSVP requested
Guided tour with local poet, Sagirah Shahid. ASL interpretation available.

Family Day: We Are Now
Sunday, October 20, 1–4 pm • Free and open to the public
Bring the whole family for an afternoon of hands-on making activities, performance, and storytelling. Catch a performance by theater artist Ifrah Mansour, practice Arabic drumming with musician Khaldoun Samman, try your hand at zine-making and screenprinting, and more!

Guided Tour with M curator Laura Wertheim Joseph
Sunday, November 17, 2 pm • Free • RSVP requested
Bring the whole family for an afternoon of hands-on making activities, performance, and storytelling. Catch a performance by theater artist Ifrah Mansour, practice Arabic drumming with musician Khaldoun Samman, try your hand at zine-making and screenprinting, and more!

The Deeper Half Blue: A Workshop with Joe Namy
Wednesday, December 4, 1–3 pm • Free • RSVP requested
Participants will explore various approaches to art-making with a focus on sound as a tool for transformation, engaging in exercises and discussions around the politics of music/sound, framed by the poetics embedded in Namy’s installation.

The Deeper Half Blue: A Listening Session with Joe Namy
Sunday, December 8, 1–4 pm • Free • RSVP requested
Participants will explore various approaches to art-making with a focus on sound as a tool for transformation, engaging in exercises and discussions around the politics of music/sound, framed by the poetics embedded in Namy’s installation.

Guided Tour with scholar Sima Shakhsari
Thursday, December 12, 6:30pm • Free • RSVP requested
Take a guided tour of History is Not Here led by women, gender, and sexuality scholar Sima Shakhsari.

About the Curators

Egyptian artist and scholar Heba Y. Amin currently teaches at Bard College Berlin, is a doctorate fellow in art history at Freie Universität, and a current Field of Vision fellow in NYC. She is also the co-founder of the Black Athena Collective, the curator of visual art for the MIZNA journal (US), and co-curator for the biennial residency program DEFAULT with Ramdom Association (IT).  Amin has had recent exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Bremen Böttcherstrasse Prize Exhibition, MAXXI Museum, 10th Berlin Biennale, 15th Istanbul Biennale, Kunsthalle Wien, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 12^th Dak’Art Biennale, Berlin Berlinale, and the IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. She also has an extensive repertoire in public speaking. Furthermore, Amin is also one of the artists behind the subversive graffiti action on the set of the television series “Homeland” which received worldwide media attention. Amin lives in Berlin.

Maymanah Farhat’s art historical research and curatorial work focuses on underrepresented artists and forgotten art scenes. Since 2005, she has written widely on twentieth and twenty-first century art, contributing essays and chapters to edited volumes, artist monographs, and museum and gallery catalogues. Farhat has also been invited to write for such publications as Art Journal, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Vogue Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Art + Auction, and Apollo. She has presented her research at New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Law School, the University of Amsterdam, and Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy, among other institutions. Farhat has curated exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad, notably at the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan, Arab American National Museum, Virginia Commonwealth University Gallery in Doha, Qatar, Art Dubai, and Beirut Exhibition Center. In 2014, she was included among Foreign Policy’s annual list of 100 Leading Global Thinkers in recognition of her scholarship on Syrian art after the uprising.

Laura Wertheim Joseph is the M’s new Curator of Exhibitions. Before coming to the M, she worked to advance recognition and opportunities for artists challenging perceptions of disability as Gallery Director at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. Laura has organized numerous exhibitions and is currently curating Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection for the Weisman Art Museum. She is the editor of forthcoming catalog of the same name. Other recent, nationally recognized curatorial projects include Testify: Americana from Slavery to the Present (Hennepin County Library) and A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde (Mary and Leigh Block Museum). She has written and lectured widely on contemporary art. She was the lead researcher for Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta (Katherine E. Nash Gallery/University of California Press). Laura received her PhD from the University of Minnesota, where she specialized in contemporary art and critical theory with a focus on feminism, gender, and performance studies, as well as theories of affect, embodiment, and materiality. She also holds a master’s degree in arts and cultural management from Saint Mary’s University.