Ibraaz and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation are pleased to celebrate the launch of Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East, the second volume in their co-produced Contemporary Visual Culture in the Middle East series. Dissonant Archives is the first book to consider the various ways in which contemporary artists from North Africa and the Middle East utilize and disrupt the function of the archive and, in so doing, highlight a systemic and perhaps irrevocable crisis in institutional and state-ordained archiving across the region.
The book was first launched in Tunisia during JAOU Tunis 2015 then with two formal events and a series of panel discussions in London and Istanbul chaired by the book's editor Anthony Downey.
Featuring writing, interviews and original artwork by internationally renowned academics, curators, activists, filmmakers and artists, including Emily Jacir, Walid Raad, Jananne Al-Ani, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Mariam Ghani, Zineb Sedira, and Akram Zaatari, Dissonant Archives includes contributions from Lawrence Abu Hamdan, John Akomfrah, Meriç Algün Ringborg, Héla Ammar, Burak Arıkan, Ariella Azoulay, Vahap Avşar, Sussan Babaie, Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck, Timothy P.A Cooper, Joshua Craze, Laura Cugusi, Ania Dabrowska, Nick Denes, Chad Elias, Media Farzin, Gulf Labor, Tom Holert, Adelita Husni-Bey, Maryam Jafri, Guy Mannes-Abbott, Amina Menia, Shaheen Merali, Naeem Mohaiemen, Mariam Motamedi Fraser, Pad.ma, Lucie Ryzova, Lucien Samaha, Rona Sela and Laila Shereen Sakr (VJ Um Amel).
Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East is available to purchase from Amazon.
Tunisia
28 May 2015
Book launch at JAOU Tunis 2015.
Istanbul
5 September 2015
Panel discussion and book launch at SALT Galata Istanbul.
Panel included: Vahap Avşar, Burak Arikan, Meriç Algün Ringborg and Başak Şenova.
London
10 September 2015
Panel discussion and book lunch at Rivington Place, London.
Panel included: John Akomfrah, Nick Denes, Guy Mannes-Abbott and Zineb Sedira.