The essence and memory of Al Saggaf Palace Within the intricate valleys of Mecca, humbly against the mountains, stood Al Saggaf Palace, witnessing the unfolding of history where civilizations, ethnicities, languages, and cultures have conversed and merged, rippling and resonating far beyond its boundaries. The palace has kept safe the soul of the land and guarded its stories. Initially the main seat of the Sherifs of Mecca, the palace became the residence of the founding father of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz bin Saud, and successive monarchs, before being finally chosen as the administrative residence of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Ministry of Culture commissioned five artist photographers and five writers from across the world to capture the essence and memory of Al Saggaf Palace. The result is a unique and astonishing collection of rare images enriched by the compelling interpretations of the space and narratives that take the reader on a visual voyage uncovering the ¿genius of the place¿ called Al Saggaf Palace. Genius of the Place: Al Saggaf Palace book series is an invitation to embark on a unique and immersive journey across time and space to unravel the soul of a historical heritage site in the spiritual center of Islam, Mecca, a focal axiom that resonated meaning to a myriad of cultures.
The essence and memory of Al Saggaf Palace Within the intricate valleys of Mecca, humbly against the mountains, stood Al Saggaf Palace, witnessing the unfolding of history where civilizations, ethnicities, languages, and cultures have conversed and merged, rippling and resonating far beyond its boundaries. The palace has kept safe the soul of the land and guarded its stories. Initially the main seat of the Sherifs of Mecca, the palace became the residence of the founding father of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz bin Saud, and successive monarchs, before being finally chosen as the administrative residence of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Ministry of Culture commissioned five artist photographers and five writers from across the world to capture the essence and memory of Al Saggaf Palace. The result is a unique and astonishing collection of rare images enriched by the compelling interpretations of the space and narratives that take the reader on a visual voyage uncovering the ¿genius of the place¿ called Al Saggaf Palace. Genius of the Place: Al Saggaf Palace book series is an invitation to embark on a unique and immersive journey across time and space to unravel the soul of a historical heritage site in the spiritual center of Islam, Mecca, a focal axiom that resonated meaning to a myriad of cultures.
The official catalogue of the new centre for contemporary art in Valencia, opening its doors in November 2023. ¿Sharing the artistic and cultural awareness means learning to understand, value and love art, so everyone can enjoy looking at it.¿ ¿ Hortensia Herrero The Hortensia Herrero Art Centre (CAHH) has two key aims. One is to share the best international contemporary art with society at large and the other is to help turn the Valencian Autonomous Community into a top cultural and artistic destination. The Centre will show off the Hortensia Herrero Foundation¿s private collection, which includes works by artists such as Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Miquel Barceló, Alexander Calder, Tony Cragg and Anish Kapoor, as well as temporary exhibitions of other world-famed artists. The project also meets one of the Foundation¿s key aims, namely heritage conservation by restoring and repurposing an iconic Valencian palace, Palacio Valeriola (Valeriola Palace), an iconic 17th-century building in the Baroque Style, in Valenciäs Old Town. Furthermore, once the Valeriola Palace has been restored, the Hortensia Herrero Art Centre will also house the offices of the Hortensia Herrero Foundation, sprang to life in 2012 with the mission of fostering interest, knowledge and awareness of art and culture. Hortensia Herrero is the President of the Foundation that bears her name. She is Vice-President and majority shareholder of Mercadona, Spain¿s biggest supermarket chain. Her philanthropic work stems from her wish to give back to the land where she was born and that has given her so much in life.
The volume documents the first institutional solo exhibition in China by Los Angeles based artist. This monograph serves as a survey of the artist¿s work to date and also premieres a number of important new paintings: Full Moon epitomizes Jennifer Guidi¿s practice and the evolution of her artistic process. Guidi¿s immersive work operates within both the physical and metaphysical world. Her abstract compositions refer to the natural world literally and visually as she mixes sand with paint to depict arresting natural and cosmological phenomena. Her surroundings of Los Angeles, where she setup her studio after graduating from Art Institute of Chicago, are palpable through her work: the immense skies of California filled with the fleeting color of sunrises and sunsets, the particular hazy light of Los Angeles that blurs colors together and casts deep shadows and the mountains she passes daily on the way to her studio. Her practice is however deeply rooted in what also lies beyond physical surroundings, in the spiritual and metaphysical worlds. Each of her paintings is an `energy source¿ indebted to the power of vibrations, and her works incorporate recurring symbols related to Western and Eastern religions, ancient civilizations and the esoteric sciences. Guidi¿s very process of creating these serene, repetitive works is akin to a meditative practice. Reveling in external and internal symmetry in her work, such as sunrise and sunset, light and dark, these ideas sit alongside a scientific study of geometry and color theory, creating works that are not only visually in harmony but are epistemologically balanced too. The title, Full Moon, emphasizes the cosmological and mystical roots of her practice; the moon is like life: constantly changing; it is representative of peace, prosperity, harmony and luck, while the full moon is a time to be receptive and to connect.
A new comprehensive survey of the work of the acclaimed Estonian artist. Anu Poder (1947-2013) was an acclaimed artist from Estonia whose work was recently featured in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. This publication will be the first comprehensive survey of her practice in English, published on the occasion of her exhibition at Muzeum Susch opening in December 2023, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Anu Poder is one of Estoniäs most revelatory voices of the last five decades. Her work has stood out since the 1970s as uniquely crafted, originally conceived, and deeply personal. Yet, because it was somehow out of sync with the then established art landscape in Estonia, it has been overlooked for many years. Poder is known for exploring the human body, highlighting the fragility, impermanence and ephemerality of life in a series of highly evocative sculptures. Throughout her life, she employed unconventional materials such as textile, wax, plaster, soap, plastic and wood to compose delicate assemblages. This book will feature introductory essays to her practice in the broader context of Eastern Europe by Cecilia Alemani and Linda Kaljundai and a contextualization within the feminist movement by Bojana Pejic. The publication will also feature in-depth analyses of her work, including the significance of textile and clothing by Ann Coxon, Poder¿s relationship to dance and performance by Agnieszka Sosnowska, a dive in to her unrealized and lost works by Marika Kuzmicz, a comparative look with other key women artists working at the same time by Agata Jakubowska, and an analysis of Poder¿s relationship with corporeality by Adomas Narkevicius and Dina Akhmadeeva. The book will also include numerous images about her life, many of which never published, accompanied by a narrative by Triin Tulgiste. A large iconographic apparatus will complement the book, with unpublished photographs and other documentations.
A great painter and his atelier, in which the lives of leading postwar artists intertwine. A remarkable graphic novel devoted to Pablo Picasso on the 50th anniversary of his death. The graphic novel Atelier Picasso tells a true, timeless story. It takes place in the postwar period illuminated by the light of the Côte d¿Azur. In Picassös atelier, the lives of great artists and an Italian tailor, Michele Sapone, intertwine. Picassös tailor was born in a small village near Caserta and had always been immersed in art, without realizing it. After the War, he moved with his family to Nice and discovered a bright world, populated by art and artists. He became close friends with Picasso, Giacometti, Hartung, and many other artists. With them he shared a love of painting and life, exchanging tailor-made clothes with artworks. Michele would sew fabrics as painters paint canvases. His daughter Aika inherited his keen interests. She grew up surrounded by artists and posed for Picasso and Giacometti. She would argue with Hartung and keep company with Campigli, Magnelli, and Severini. We see her smiling in shots taken by photographers the likes of David Duncan and Edward Quinn. In 1973 Aika opened a gallery with her husband Antonio that became a home for the family¿s artists. The first exhibition was devoted expressly to Picasso, but he died only a few days before the inauguration, on 8 March 1973. Fifty years on, Picasso continues to teach us how to reinvent life and gaze at it with new eyes.
On the 50th anniversary of Picasso's (1881¿1973) death, a book devoted to the progressive proofs by the leading Spanish master. While there has been considerable interest in Pablo Picassös late work over the past several decades, and some of that interest directed at the artist¿s work in the linoleum print medium, there remains much to discover regarding this aspect of his prodigious printmaking activities, and specifically on the role played by the progressive proof. There has been an uptick in the acquisition of these sets of proofs by museums and private collectors over the past twenty years but exhibitions and published accounts have lagged behind. With this present project we examine for the first time in depth a particularly illuminating set of eight progressive proofs made by Picasso and his printer Hidalgo Arnéra for the artist¿s first published linocut, the so-called Cranach II (Baer 1053; 1958). The first in a series in the medium of linoleum block prints (after a singular effort in 1939), Picasso created the first Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger in two colors and in the same orientation as the Cranach original on 3 July 1958. The following day he commenced making five different linoleum blocks ¿ bistre or grayish brown, yellow, red, blue and black ¿ to be superimposed on each other in that order and in reverse of the original, the Cranach II print. He then proceeded to print different proofs, in the process making two different states of the color blocks and three of the black in order to arrive at the final image. This event touched off a decade of work in linocut (or linoleum block) printmaking, inspired by the South of France, where the artist had increasingly worked since the 1940s. Speaking to the artist¿s love affair with the region, he begins a series of linocuts depicting the bullfight. Nine proofs for the Pique II (1959) attest to this; the series completed by the finished print.
A lavish volume that pays tribute to one of the greatest contemporary Italian sculptors. Published in collaboration with FENDI, the volume Arnaldo Pomodoro: The Great Theatre of Civilizations is an immersive journey into the work of the greatest Italian sculptor of the second half of the 20th century. The book itself is conceived as a sculpture. In a large format, it is made of luxurious materials and fitted within a perforated and die-cut slipcase that recalls the silhouette of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, the iconic historic building which is both a symbol of the EUR district and the headquarters of the FENDI maison. Arnaldo Pomodoro: The Great Theatre of Civilizations unfolds as a great ¿theatre¿ at once real and imaginary, historical and imaginative. It presents a selection of works from the late 1950s to the present day, along with largely unpublished documentary material exploring the extensive relationship between spheres of action pertaining to the visual and performing arts in the artist¿s life. Here evanescent traces of possible ¿civilisations¿ emerge ¿ archaic, ancient, modern, or simply fictional civilizations. In their interweaving, they provide a rich archaeology, constantly redefining our knowledge, imagination, conception of time and space, history and myth, and our relationship with other species and nature. Produced in collaboration with Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro and published on the occasion of the remarkable exhibition in Rome, this book is no mere exhibition catalogue, but rather a lavish volume enriched with considerable archive material that makes it a valuable reference source on the artist¿s work and an essential tool for scholars and collectors.
The work by the Irish contemporary artist. Edited by Shai Baitel, the book features twenty-two large painted canvases and six freestanding sculptures that speak to Ward¿s nomadic lifestyle driven by a need for both escapism and its darker counterpart, avoidance. Though known for his figurative work, Ward explores these themes through abstract compositions and mixed media sculptures. Walking in the Dark speaks to the themes of migration and traumas ¿ both national and personal ¿ by asking the question of: why do people roam? What is the aftermath of perpetual movement? Like the abstracted nature of Ward¿s artworks, a nomadic sensibility often abstracts the deeper reasons for such roaming. His work begets questions around what exactly Ward is veiling through his travels. Like the act of walking in the dark, viewing Ward¿s work requires one¿s eyes to adjust to see what would otherwise not be detected. Using wet, loose brush strokes with distinctive markings on the oversized canvases, he tells his story through a nostalgic veil of innocence and naivety, revealing snapshots of the past while simultaneously obscuring or hiding others, with each layer depicting different fragments of time that are indeed screen-shots of the artist¿s life. There is an abundance of hidden psychological, political, and emotional meaning to be discovered in Walking in the Dark, exemplified by the labyrinthine and shaded design of the space where the artworks are being shown. It narrates a story that is both timely and provocative, reflecting the artist¿s personal experience with chaos, governance, and violence, while commenting on the breakdown of society and referencing to both historical and modern-day global disputes. While engaging with themes of destruction and conflict, Ward¿s work addresses his own life, defined by a perpetual sense of movement and a constant feeling of geographical restlessness.
The first comprehensive publication on artist Jessie Homer French¿s work. Born in 1940 in New York, New York, Jessie Homer French lives and works in Mountain Center, California. Homer French is a self-taught, self-proclaimed ¿regional narrative painter¿ who routinely, perhaps even obsessively, paints archetypes of death, nature, and rural life. Through a simplified language of apparently naive, flat colors and calm brushstrokes, her paintings emerge as a continuous analysis of her surroundings, in which creation and destruction coexist with exemplary candor. The paintings reproduced in Fire, Fish, and Death are a lyrical exploration of the fragility and beauty of existence, conveyed through soft brushstrokes and a vibrant palette. Often depicting death and destruction ¿ which usually comes in the aftermath of fires ¿ the artist consistently challenges the viewer through the use of striking imagery, such as large numbers of deceased fish in pristine water or funerals with heavily adorned coffins that draw attention away from the bereaved. Despite the artist's realistic representation of these scenes, they possess an otherworldly and surreal quality that transports the viewer outside of their present reality and creates a sense of disorientation and awe. Jessie Homer French, blessed with a poetic eye and a deft hand, reminds us of the transience of life, capturing the fleeting moments of existence in a way that is both haunting and idyllic.
The first Catalogue raisonné of the artist's paintings and sculptures. Jewad Selim is remembered as one of the defining figures of twentieth century Middle Eastern visual culture and the key protagonist of Iraqi Modernism. In the 1950¿s, Selim forged a distinctive movement which sought to express modern Iraqi identity by combining traditional, local forms of artistic expression with the visual language of the European avant-garde. Selim honed his artistic instincts across Europe studying in Rome, Paris and England before returning to his native Iraq. He moved equally deftly between media, excelling in sculpture and painting before embarking on his crowning achievement, the monumental public commission, Baghdad¿s ¿Freedom Monument¿, during which his life was tragically cut short in 1961. This volume brings together, for the first time, a comprehensive Catalogue raisonné of the artist¿s paintings and sculptures, beginning with his early teenage artistic exercises and culminating in his iconic mature work.
The book celebrating 100 years since the founding of the historic Italian multinational company. In the early 1920s, Oronzio De Nora was a young electrochemistry researcher at Politecnico di Milano. Experimenting with a new electrolytic cell, he cut his finger; he dipped the wound into the plant¿s oxygenated and electrified solution and invented Amuchina, a chlorine disinfectant. A touch of luck, a touch of genius. Over the course of the 20th century, the De Nora company became a world leader in the production of chlorine and soda; it developed hundreds of patents and established itself as one of the key drivers for industrial development. After a century of history and three De Nora generations, the company is now a multinational group, listed on the Stock Exchange, looking towards the sustainable future of the planet, energy conversion, and decarbonization. There is always an electrolytic cell behind the most advanced forms of green hydrogen production and water purification treatments. De Nora. Stories from a century of life recounts this exciting race towards the future. Luca Masia has written it in the form of short stories, in a narrative style that captivates the reader¿s attention from the very first pages. With an artist¿s gaze, Luca Campigotto ¿ one of the most widely appreciated Italian photographers on the international scene ¿ has documented the complex reality of De Nora: research laboratories, large-scale production, and specialized technicians. Its words and images illustrate a journey of scientific discoveries and technological innovations undertaken with ingenuity and dedication, while always putting people at the heart of the enterprise.
Bohemian glass after the Second World War in the new chapter of "Le Stanze del Vetro". Bohemia (the historical name for the largest of the lands that make up the present-day Czech Republic) was home to glassmaking innovators from the twelfth century onwards, who helped shape and augment the impact of European glass. Glassmakers based in this region were permanently pushed to invent new forms of glass production by competitive pressures from other European glassmaking centres, primarily in Germany and also in Italy, whose superb outputs dominated the global market in decorative glass. This major historical connection between European glassmaking centres came to an abrupt end in 1948, when then-Czechoslovakia was overpowered by the Communist regime. Until 1989, the country¿s borders were practically sealed off, denying free trade, travel, and communication with the western sphere, greatly impacting the local glass industry. Even so, the Communist regime presented itself abroad with the results of Czech glass-making efforts at large international exhibitions and world¿s Expos. Realized in collaboration with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, Bohemian Glass: The Great Masters features the works by six major artists of contemporary glass sculpture (Vaclav Cigler, Vladimir Kopecky, Stanislav Libensky, Jaroslava Brychtova, René Roubicek, Miluse Roubickova), born in the Czech lands in the 1920s and 1930s. These artists endured the largest-ever military conflict in Europe, followed by a brief respite of freedom and democracy, only to be plunged into totalitarian domination in 1948, which they could finally shed to return to standards of European democracy after 1989. These great masters initiated and nurtured a relatively ¿new¿ mode of glassmaking, ¿artistic glass¿: their creations were unique, as in the case of traditional artistic disciplines such as sculpting or painting, while drawing on the specific characteristics of glass. The volume closes with photographs by Josef Sudek (Kolin 1896-1976 Prague) from the `Glass Labyrinths¿ series, taken within the exhibition `Contemporary Bohemian Glass¿ which was held in Prague in 1970.
The first catalogue raisonné of the work of the provocative artist, awarded a Leone d¿Oro alla Carriera in 2003. Edited by Maria Cristina Mundici, with Raffaella Roddolo and Maria Grazia Messina, the Catalogue Raisonné of the works of Carol Rama analyzes fully, for the first time, the artist¿s 70-year career, from 1936 to 2005. A central and unique figure in the context of Italian art history, Carol Rama (Turin, 1918-2015) spanned the 20th century in a quest for experimentalism in both subject-matter and materials. Since the 2000s she began to be appreciated beyond Italy¿s borders, and her fame grew after 2015 also thanks to important retrospectives in Europe and the United States. In 2014 the Archivio Carol Rama began work on a Catalogue Raisonné of the artist¿s works, to reflect the complex and unusual nature of this figure, who became an icon of creativity also among recent generations. In an operation marking the first of its kind, the Catalogue documents detailed historical research into the painter, her oeuvre, and the contexts in which she worked. The Catalogue would not have been possible without the vital support of the Fondazione Sardi per l¿Arte. The first volume is devoted wholly to historical and critical writings by important scholars of the artist (Fabio Belloni, Maria Cristina Mundici, Raffaella Roddolo, Federica Rovati, and Elena Volpato), who analyze her production with new ways of seeing. It is completed by a collection of 200 full-page colour images. The second volume consists in a complete set of illustrated technical and historical descriptions of the works, compiled by Raffaella Roddolo, as well as the accompanying reference sections (appendices, biography, exhibitions, bibliography).
The work of two leading Surrealist artists Published on occasion of the exhibition Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy: Ring of Iron, Ring of Wool curated by Dr Victoria-Noel-Johnson, Marzina Marzetti (Director of the Helly Nahmad Gallery) in collaboration with Derek Des Islets and Matthew Foster, Helly Nahmad Gallery, New York, this catalogue explores the work of Kay Sage (American, 1898-1963) and Yves Tanguy (French-American, 1900-1955), two eminent Surrealist artists who married in 1940. Particular attention will be given to Sage¿s fascinating life and extraordinary work, which has long been obscured by her relationship with the better-known Tanguy, a key figure of French Surrealism. As such, the publication will analyse the various stages of Sage¿s life and career in Italy and Paris before returning to New York in 1939, parallel to Tanguy¿s own exceptional work of the late 1920s ¿ early 1950s, with the aim of highlighting how their personal and professional trajectories affected their respective work and careers thereafter. Sage¿s dedication to promoting and safeguarding Tanguy¿s legacy following his premature death in 1955 will also be explored.
A volume which explores Van Gogh's oeuvre through two fundamental aspects of his artistic identity: his love for the countryside and his attachment to the city. Admired for his light-filled landscapes as much as for his impassioned portraits, Vincent van Gogh was an impetuous painter with a cavalier disregard for convention when it suited him. At the same time he was a sophisticated thinker, fluent in several languages, and trained as an art dealer. Though often plagued by several doubts about his work, he was immensely ambitious and ultimately had a clear sense of his oeuvre as a whole and the place it was to take in the history of art. Such apparently contradictory positions define much of Van Gogh's life and artistic output. They are also at the basis of this volume, which explores Van Gogh's oeuvre through two fundamental aspects of his artistic identity: his love for the countryside as a stable, never-changing environment and his attachment to the city as the center of fast-moving, modern life. The catalog features works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Jean-Francois Millet, Georges Seurat, Camille Pissarro, Charles Francois Daubigny, Anton Mauve; prints after Daubigny, Daumier, Millet, that Van Gogh himself collected and copied as well as etchings and aquatints by Pissarro and Cezanne; and five letters written by Van Gogh to friends, colleagues, and art critics. It accompanies an exhibition at Complesso Monumentale del Vittoriano that begins on February 20, 2011.
Rediscovered after twenty-five years, the nearly sixty-foot mural painting by the German American artist Friedel Dzubas (1915¿94) was considered a masterpiece of religious depiction in its time. Crossing/Apocalypsis cum Figuras (1975) renders the Last Judgment from the Book of Revelation as a vast modernist abstract tab_x0002_leau unmatched in scale and impact. Commissioned as the focal point of the lobby entrance to the Shawmut National Bank of Boston, its placement signaled the founda_x0002_tional principle of the building¿s design firm, The Architecture Collaborative (TAC). Incorporated in 1945 under the aegis of Walter Gropius (1883¿1969), TAC worked as ¿a group of equals,¿ in Gropius¿s words, who would ¿bring our pragmatic requests and our spiritual desires into interplay.¿ Friedel Dzubas¿s Last Judgement: A Masterpiece of Modernist Abstraction considers this monumental mural painting, Crossing/Apocalypsis cum Figuras, as a testament to Dzubas¿s single-minded ambition within the context of secularized modernist painting at the time. Dzubas¿s process of composition is tracked in never-before-seen documen_x0002_tary photography while his magnum opus is re-framed in light of the complex sources of his hidden, if deeply resonant religious convictions.
The Stranger is a photographic series that span over nearly two decades. It began when the photographer Preben Holst decided to approach a stranger in a park and asked if he could do a portrait of him. Fascinated by the strength and immediacy of the resulting images, he continued to make portraits of strangers in cities such as Copenhagen, London and Oslo, where he now lives. The young men captured by Holst¿s analogue camera become testimonies of the subtle and gradual changes that urban masculine identity has undergone since the turn of the millennium. Holst with his sympathetic lens is a master of distilling the essence of his subjects, revealing to us a glimpse of their personalities and inner psychology ¿ complete with the longings and insecurities of youth. Preben Holst (b. 1974 in Kristiansand, Norway) is a photographer and artist based in Oslo. He graduated MFA from the Malmö Art Academy in 2009 and was awarded The Hasselblad Foundation Victor Fellowship in 2008. He has exhibited widely in Scandinavia and took part in the inaugural exhibition of the new National Museum, in Oslo 2022. His first monograph Preben Holst: Things That Never Happened (Teknisk Industri), was published in 2011.
The catalogue is inspired by the unique collection of the Red Sea Museum established by Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture in Jeddah, the city that served as the Red Seäs main port and whose identity was shaped by it. Through a rare collection of manuscripts, photographs, maps, and ancient and contemporary artifacts and artworks, the Red Sea Museum and its catalogue recount the stories of the Red Sea and the paths of its dwellers. The richly illustrated catalogue echoes the museum¿s structure and the exceptional diversity of its collections. The ¿Living Seä uncovers the blooming biodiversity of the Red Sea, shedding light on the hidden gems under the surface of its waters. Exploring the unique position of the Red Sea at the crossroads between East and West, the ¿Sea of Civilizations¿ looks at the role played by the Red Sea in connecting various civiliza[1]tions and geographies through trade, travel and navigation. The ¿Sea of Faith¿ plunges the reader into an exceptional spiritual journey, allowing them to travel through time to experience the journeys of the millions of pilgrims who came from all parts of the Islamic world and turned Jeddah into the Gateway to Mecca. The last section, the ¿Sea of Inspiration¿ highlights the vision of modern and contemporary artists and writers on this sea which played a determining role in the destiny of Jeddah, known as ¿The Bride of the Red Seä.
The Gate of Gates is the catalogue of the Red Sea Museum¿s inaugural exhibition. Curated by famous writer Philippe Cardinal, the exhibit showcases a unique collection of photographs by renowned Saudi artist Moath Alofi that revives the soul of this magnificent building, rich in history and memory. Commissioned by Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture to photo[1]graphing Bab Al-Bunt prior to its renovation and repurposing as a museum, Moath Alofi not only captures the rich architectural details of Bab Al-Bunt; he also encapsulates the sense of mystery behind the items he found abandoned in the building, objects of the past that recall another era and stand witness to the vitality of the place for hundreds of years. The sober yet powerful photographs convey a striking impression of serenity and purity; a serenity that probably evokes the quietude of the millions of pilgrims who landed in Jeddah after a long and perilous journey across the Red Sea, awaiting to reach their final destination in the holy city. A purity that reflects the innocence of their souls, the patience and self-sacrifice they have shown to reach the geographical center of their religious faith and surrender their person to God. Alofi¿s still photographs paradoxically vibrate with life ; they communicate the aspirations, memories, dreams, and feelings of pilgrims, merchants, and dwellers who have turned Bab Al-Bunt into the ¿Gate of Gates¿.
The catalogue is inspired by the unique collection of the Red Sea Museum established by Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture in Jeddah, the city that served as the Red Seäs main port and whose identity was shaped by it. Through a rare collection of manuscripts, photographs, maps, and ancient and contemporary artifacts and artworks, the Red Sea Museum and its catalogue recount the stories of the Red Sea and the paths of its dwellers. The richly illustrated catalogue echoes the museum¿s structure and the exceptional diversity of its collections. The ¿Living Seä uncovers the blooming biodiversity of the Red Sea, shedding light on the hidden gems under the surface of its waters. Exploring the unique position of the Red Sea at the crossroads between East and West, the ¿Sea of Civilizations¿ looks at the role played by the Red Sea in connecting various civiliza[1]tions and geographies through trade, travel and navigation. The ¿Sea of Faith¿ plunges the reader into an exceptional spiritual journey, allowing them to travel through time to experience the journeys of the millions of pilgrims who came from all parts of the Islamic world and turned Jeddah into the Gateway to Mecca. The last section, the ¿Sea of Inspiration¿ highlights the vision of modern and contemporary artists and writers on this sea which played a determining role in the destiny of Jeddah, known as ¿The Bride of the Red Seä.
The Gate of Gates is the catalogue of the Red Sea Museum¿s inaugural exhibition. Curated by famous writer Philippe Cardinal, the exhibit showcases a unique collection of photographs by renowned Saudi artist Moath Alofi that revives the soul of this magnificent building, rich in history and memory. Commissioned by Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture to photo[1]graphing Bab Al-Bunt prior to its renovation and repurposing as a museum, Moath Alofi not only captures the rich architectural details of Bab Al-Bunt; he also encapsulates the sense of mystery behind the items he found abandoned in the building, objects of the past that recall another era and stand witness to the vitality of the place for hundreds of years. The sober yet powerful photographs convey a striking impression of serenity and purity; a serenity that probably evokes the quietude of the millions of pilgrims who landed in Jeddah after a long and perilous journey across the Red Sea, awaiting to reach their final destination in the holy city. A purity that reflects the innocence of their souls, the patience and self-sacrifice they have shown to reach the geographical center of their religious faith and surrender their person to God. Alofi¿s still photographs paradoxically vibrate with life ; they communicate the aspirations, memories, dreams, and feelings of pilgrims, merchants, and dwellers who have turned Bab Al-Bunt into the ¿Gate of Gates¿.
This interactive book features a unique selection of artworks, written essays and inter_x0002_views by an remarkable Saudi new media artist, Abdullah Rashed AlSahli, famously known in the virtual space as ARC. Born with a rare neuromuscular disorder called SMA that largely shaped his life and his art practices in an exciting way, Abdullah AlSahli found in digital art a passion and a means to escape his harsh reality. Despite suffering from this progressive dis_x0002_ease that results in the loss of motor neurons, hindering motor skills, dexterity, and movement, Abdullah creates refined, intricate and calculatingly detailed art pieces that defy physics and are whimsical in nature. Inspired by his own experience as an artist with disability, Abdullah AlSahli also founded Art Without Limits (AWL), a studio focusing on empowering artists with disabilities to unlock their full artistic potential. By shedding light on his life, work and story, ARC¿s monograph provides an inspira_x0002_tional insight into the practice, methodologies and philosophies of a successful and popular artist who has sold more than 333 pieces in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). ARC¿s monograph is a testimony of dedication and perseverance, and an illustration of the opportunities and new paths that digital art can create.
Beit Al-Manoufy as an example of the role of architecture in preserving a country¿s heritage and culture. Located in Al-Balad, Jeddah¿s historic downtown recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, the Beit Al-Manoufy guesthouse is an example of the local Hijazi architecture. In order to protect this iconic heritage building while promoting culture and art, Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture commissioned Saudi and international heritage architects and exhibition designers (Urban Phenomena, Christophe Martin Architects, La Meduse) to transform the abandoned guesthouse into a permanent museum and music center. The building now hosts the Tariq Abdulhakim Center, whose name pays tribute to the preeminent Saudi Arabian musician. The Center includes a museum showcasing a selection of the late artist¿s works and personal belongings, and a music archive center preserving written and audio recordings of Saudi and Arab music.
An exceptional immersive journey across time and space to unravel the soul of this iconic building. Genius of the Place: Al-Bunt book series is an invitation to embark on an exceptional immersive journey across time and space, to unravel the soul of this iconic building. Commissioned by Saudi Arabiäs Ministry of Culture, five reknown photographers and five international writers and poets from Saudi Arabia, the Arab region, and Europe, have mobilized their talent to capture the essence and spirit of Al-Bunt. The result is an astonishing collection of rare images accompanied by a compelling narrative, that take the reader on a visual and historic voyage uncovering the ¿genius of the place¿ called Al-Bunt. For, this photography book collection not only exhibits the beauty of Al-Bunt with its spectacular arches, stunning exterior walls and wooden windows, but it also magically reveals the subliminal sense of the place by intertwining images and words, materiality of the space and immateriality of the stories conveyed by the building, Jeddah, and the Red Sea. The breathtaking photos encapsulate the soul of the building, which seems to exist not only through its concrete material, but above all through its imposing presence and personality. Signs of damage and deterioration, abandoned objects, traces of time and use of the place, all captured in the photographs, bring back life to Al-Bunt and reveal its intangible spirit.
This handsome volume is published on the occasion of the traveling exhibition organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, on the work and historical context of the Argentinian artist Marta Minujín (b. 1943), a central figure in the Latin American avant-garde. This heavily illustrated, beautifully designed monograph provides a overview of her career, traces intersections with American, European and Latin American developments in postwar art, and explores her contemporary relevance to the next generation of artists. This publication includes a major critical essay, ¿Arte! Arte! Arte! The Immersive World of Marta Minujin,¿ by Darsie Alexander, chief curator at the Jewish Museum, surveying Minujín¿s art, practice, and influence; a second essay, ¿The World Is Not Enough,¿ by the Argentinian journalist and curator Rodrigo Alonso, places Minujín in the political and historical context of Argentina in the years from the dictatorship of Juan Perón to the restoration of democracy and after. The book concludes with an interview with Minujín, ¿Art Protects Me,¿ focusing on the artworks she created during the Covid pandemic of 2020¿21. The volume is illustrated extensively throughout with Minujín¿s artworks, her performance pieces and happenings, large-scale public works, and images of her at work. Initially positioned as Argentinäs ¿answer to Pop art,¿ Marta Minujín remains a gen_x0002_re-defying artist who has produced some of the most experimental work of her gener_x0002_ation. Extraordinarily versatile, Minujín¿s career has traversed major developments in postwar art while maintaining a singular vision and aesthetic. Actively involved in hap_x0002_penings and live events in the early 1960s and heir to an era of experimentation among artists in Argentina, Minujín quickly garnered the attention of an international cadre of artists and critics. As Minujín lived through two dictatorships in her home country, her work became more socially engaged after the transition to democracy in 1986, igniting a new phase of large-scale public works; the famed Parthenon (1983) was recreated to critical acclaim at Documenta 14 (2014).
One August morning at Marcinelle, Maurizio Galimberti pointed his camera upwards and for several hours shot the same subject, which turned out differently in each of the 262 images. One for each of the victims of the disaster that occurred on the morning of 8 August 1956 in the same Belgian mining town, claiming the lives of 262 miners. A photographer and artist of international renown, Maurizio Galimberti is famous for working almost exclusively with Polaroid, developing an extremely personal manipulation technique to deconstruct and reconstruct the image. In this new book, Galimberti tackles the terrible tragedy of Marcinelle, 66 years later: his ¿reuse¿ of images is intended to inform. He delves into what has already been pho[1]tographed to unearth a meaning that has remained buried, a soul within the mechanical body. He contextualizes, historicizes. And so the images pass before our eyes: a woman orphaned as a child; the face of another woman behind the bars that separate her from the tragic truth; the lined-up coffins; the poster to recruit mine workers; the miners¿ huts; the daunting elevator for descending into the depths of the earth. And, lastly, the portrait of Urbano Ciacci, the last survivor of the tragedy. Maurizio Galimberti (Como, 1956) has been active on the international art scene for over 30 years. He is world famous also for his portraits of stars like Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro and Johnny Depp. He was world testimonial for Polaroid International and critics now consider him an instant artist, rather than just a photographer.
Itziar Barrio is a mid-career artist who is internationally recognized for her contributions to the intersections of art, film, and technology. Her interdisciplinary, boundary breaking work has been exhibited at art institutions across the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Itziar Barrio is an interdisciplinary artist producing long-term projects along with various collaborators. Her work aims to re-write dominant narratives about social contracts, identity, the construction of reality, as well as labor politics and ownership over means of production. Barriös work explores a wide range of cultural production, and questions the formal limits of film, technology, sculpture, and installation by deploying dissent as a tool to open future horizons. Johanna Burton (Director of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and former curator at the New Museum in NYC) has noted: ¿Barriös work point to the ways in which gender, race, sexuality, labor, desire, and more are the subtext of all negotiations, whether political or personal. Yet, rather than simply victims of circumstance, we may work to write, rewrite, or reroute the stories in which we play a part, whether small or large.¿ Barriös work has been presented internationally at PARTICIPANT INC (NYC), MACRO Museum (Rome), Matadero Madrid, MACBA Museum (Barcelona), Belgrade¿s Contemporary Art Museum, Museo del Banco de la República (Bogotá), Abrons Arts Center (NYC), Anthology Films Archives (NYC), Salzburger Kunstverein, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk (Poland) and at the Havana Biennial among many others.
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