By Leeza Ahmady, Iftikhar Dadi and Reem Fadda, ArteEast Guest Curator
Summer 2009 | Gallery
Featured in this edition of the Virtual Gallery, ArteEast’s major visual arts exhibition – Tarjama/Translation – maps an influential subset of recent work from the Middle East and Central Asia and its diasporas as a complex and dynamic translational undertaking. Rather than highlighting the region as its main thematic or providing a panoramic, and thus fleeting, exposure to “Middle Eastern art,” Tarjama/Translation focuses on the common yet complex theme of cultural, artistic and critical translation.
This Virtual Gallery not only highlights work from Tarjama/Translation, but also offers exclusive insights into the entire exhibition process, from curatorial vision to installation. The Virtual Gallery features video interviews with artists Ersa Ersen, Wael Shawky, Lara Baladi, curator Leeza Ahmady, and a critical essay by Elliott Colla. In addition, essays written by critics, curators and artists accompany the works available online.
And be sure not to miss the Tarjama/Translation exhibition itself at the Queens Museum of Art, open through September 2009.