Press Kit: Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian, and Turkish Artists

Laura Murray Public Relations § 604.558.2200 § [email protected]

Museum of Anthropology at UBC Vancouver, BC, CanadaApril 20 - September 15, 2013

Press Kit

Safar/Voyage: Press Kit

Further information: Laura Murray Public Relations § 604.558.2200 § [email protected] 2

Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian, and Turkish Artists at MOA will be the first major Canadian group exhibition of 16 internationally lauded, contemporary artists from the Middle Eastern region.

The exhibition follows the universal theme of voyage applied in this case to artists of Arab, Iranian and Turkish origins. Gradually, it takes viewers from the planet earth, down to maps, and further to specific cities such as Tehran and Cairo, after which it proceeds to reveal internal and meditative spaces, from emotional and existential to spiritual imaginings. The journey acknowledges the realities of war, revolution, and the diasporic or migrant conditions, as well as the engagement of artists with cultures outside the Middle East. Personal, political, philosophical, and spiritual perceptions of artists from a variety of national backgrounds such as Iranian, Turkish, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Egyptian, are juxtaposed to provide insights into the great variety of voices characterizing the art of the region. Using a wide range of media, from painting and sculpture to video and audio installations, the artists celebrate individuality as well as our common humanity.

Safar/Voyage will be exhibited in the Audain Gallery and the O’Brian Gallery. The two galleries are state-of-the-art and combine more than 8,000 sq ft of exhibition space.

The creation of this exhibit would not have been possible without the commitment and expertise of the Safar/Voyage Volunteer Committee, Safar/Voyage Benefactors, and the generous support from the following sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor Lead Media SponsorsPublication Sponsor



Contemporary art is now an expanded field—inclusive of geographies that until recently had escaped the attention of Western art centres such as Paris and New York. A vast area commonly referred to as the Middle East constitutes part of an “emerging geography” whose art has finally become globally visible. The region’s artists, however, are neither fixed inside its territories nor permanently diasporic. Often on the move, they define themselves and the world according to their personal visions. Safar/Voyage (voyage being the translation of its equivalent in Persian) is a universal theme conceptualized as a visual essay, a constructed odyssey, bringing together a selection of seventeen artists and capturing moments of their journeys, which begin in our shared world and ultimately move beyond. The visions are spread out through time and space and embodied in a diversity of media: from painting and sculpture to installation, video, photography, and performance.

Voyage takes on many guises. It is as innocuous as tourism (with a twist), as disturbing as war—the violent crossing of borders—and as philosophical as the transience of life. Safar/Voyage wraps around the globe, scans geographies, and leads into cities both modern and ancient, war zones, pilgrimage sites, and imaginary spheres. It creates stages or discursive spaces for questioning identity, reflecting on modernity, and observing the impact of foreign intrusions and internal turmoil; it offers glimpses into socio-political issues such as immigration, escape, and diaspora, and reveals voyage as an ideal for some, an impossibility for others. Dreams and desires, politics and satire surface at each transit point. The various stops create encounters designed to inform about unique and collective positions, share highly charged travel accounts, and provide access to inner psyches and fantasies. Safar is a quest for understanding and knowledge.

Safar/Voyage: Curatorial Statement from Fereshteh Daftari



Adel AbidinAbidin Travels, 2006

Artist StatementI came up with the idea when I visited Iraq in 2004 and was greeted at a checkpoint by an American soldier, who said, “Welcome to Baghdad!” I realized I was being welcomed by an occupier of my own city. This experience made think about cities in war and their messy transformations.

After the occupation and gentrification of a city in a conflict zone, you would need a guide, even if you grew up there. This is what I saw happening in Baghdad. So I created a travel agency, using “holiday travel” as a point of departure and Iraq as a destination, to explore the idea of tourism and consumerism in general, and how these generic models break down when applied to a country ripped apart by war.

I created this work to draw attention to the new Iraq, “the democratic Iraq,” a mythical place where, in reality, possibility and opportunity barely exist.

BiographyBorn in 1973 in Baghdad, Abidin now lives and works in Helsinki. He attained a BFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, a BA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and a BS at Mansour University, also in Baghdad.

His work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

Video stillDimensions variableCourtesy of the artist



Tarek Al-GhousseinUntitled 1, Untitled 2, Untitled 3, Untitled 5, Untitled 7, Untitled 8, Untitled 9 (Self-Portrait Series), 2003-6

Artist StatementThe Self-Portrait series represents a personal journey, a coming to terms with who I am as a Palestinian-Kuwaiti with a physically distant connection to Palestine. While the images may rightly be interpreted by some as a political statement—owing to the keffiyeh, which has often been associated with terrorism—they also convey a personal struggle to reconcile who I am with the place in which I live. These self-portraits are about the reciprocal relationship between the individual and the inhabited landscape. The incomplete nature of the narrative established by the series was something I hoped would result from the lack of a “fixed” meaning for the individual images or for the collection of images.

BiographyBorn in 1962 in Kuwait, of Palestinian origin, Al-Ghoussein lives and works in Sharjah, UAE. He received a BFA from New York University, New York, and an MA from the University of New Mexico.

He has launched solo exhibitions throughout the Middle East and Europe, with group exhibitions also in Asia.

Untitled 1, Untitled 2chromogenic prints55 x 75 cmCourtesy of the artist and The Third Line, Dubai



Nazgol AnsariniaRhyme and Reason, 2009

Artist StatementMy projects in the United States mostly revolved around the systematized aspects of everyday life; on returning to Iran, I was inclined to focus on the randomness and spontaneity around me. This led me to join together unlikely subjects and objects, such as incorporating scenes of everyday life in Tehran in the traditional imagery of a Persian carpet.

In a city like Tehran, while the line between public and private is very clear, the social experience of everyday life seems to seep into the private or domestic domain. The experience of Tehran traffic doesn’t leave you when you enter the comfort of your home. When you turn on the TV, you see an extension of the same official behaviour that governs the public space. So in that sense the carpet becomes a projection of one’s daily social experiences reviewed or remembered in one’s private space.

The Persian carpet has always illustrated some aspects of Iranian life—literature, religion, mythology, mysticism. In Rhyme and Reason some of these aspects are replaced with images from modern city life.

BiographyBorn in Tehran in 1979, Ansarinia currently lives and works there. She received her education from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, followed by a BA from the London College of Communication and an MFA from the California College of Arts.

Her solo exhibitions have appeared in Tehran, Paris and London. Her work has featured in group exhibitions in Turkey and the USA.

carpet; hand-woven wool, silk, and cotton360 x 252 cmCourtesy of the artist. Collection Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai. Photography by Negar Arkani



Kutlug Ataman Strange Space, 2009

Artist StatementStrange Space was shot in Erzincan, in eastern Anatolia, at the extreme northern tip of what is traditionally known as Mesopotamia.

I described to the camera operator what I would like to see, and he filmed me accordingly. We had a shooting plan, and we made a few trials—this is how I work in the film business, with an operator. So, turning the camera on myself was not new to me. It is unusual for me to do my own camera work, something I reserve for my art career.

There was no editing—just a single take, starting with me in close-up and following me until I completely disappear in the distance, as small as a pixel. The film documents a real-time performance. There is no manipulation of time or space by editing. The film creates real time and real space.

BiographyBorn in 1961 in Istanbul, Ataman now lives and works in Istanbul and London. He studied at Santa Monica College before receiving a BA and MFA from The University of California.

He has launched solo exhibitions in London, Istanbul, Rome and Sydney. Ataman’s work has featured in group exhibitions throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the USA.

video stilldimensions variableCourtesy of the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery, London



Ayman BaalbakiDestination X, 2010, recreated for MOA in 2013

Artist StatementDestination X is an old car piled high with the hastily gathered belongings of a refugee family—luggage, everyday objects, and colourful cloth bundles tied to the roof. During the Lebanese civil war these floral fabrics, regional and postcolonial at the same time, replaced fabrics embroidered with local peasant motifs, mirroring the lost agricultural “paradise.” The overloaded car suggests movement and absence, urgency and wandering. The letter X symbolizes forced flight into exile to places unknown. Distance is swallowed in an aimless journey, when time and duration become vague. The journey and its hardships, the risk of leaving home, the difficulty of resettling. Drugged by displacement, these people learned to lose and lose themselves.

Biography Born in 1975 in Ras el Dekouaneh, in the suburbs of Beirut, Baalbaki continues to live and work there. After receiving a Diploma of Superior Studies from The Institute of Fine Art, Lebanese University, he received a DEA from the Université Paris viii and is working towards a PhD there.

Baalbaki’s work has featured in both solo and group shows in both the Middle East and Europe, including London, Beirut, and Venice.

Mixed media installationdimensions variableInstallation: The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 2010. Courtesy of Rose Issa Projects, London. The Farjam Collection, Dubai. Photography by Omar Mazhar.



Ali BanisadrThe Merchants, 2009

Artist StatementWhen I paint I go into a sort of trance, so that time and place disappear and it becomes about mind travel. The worlds in my work are archetypes, a combination of different elements, fragments from different places within my memory.

In 2006 during a residency in Normandy, I visited the D-Day site. As I walked around the site a flood of memories came back to me from my childhood in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. I was surprised how familiar the site looked even though it was my first time there. Until then, I hadn’t been conscious of the fact that the things I had experienced growing up had an impact on my work. Seeing the D-Day site brought all these impressions to mind, and I started to put these sights and sounds into my work. Travelling in general is an important part of my practice, as my experiences always find their way into my work somehow.

BiographyBorn in 1976 in Tehran, Banisadr now lives and works in New York. After receiving a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, he then received an MFA at the New York Academy of Art.

Banisadr’s solo exhibitions have appeared in Salzburg and New York, while his work has featured in group exhibitions in New York, Milan and Ghent.

Oil on linen152.4 x 203.2 cm Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Private collection, London. Photography by Jeffrey Sturges



Taysir BatnijiHannoun, 1972–2009; recreated for MOA in 2013

Artist StatementIn this installation I have created a space or field where scattered “flowers” formed by rounded pencil shavings suggest poppies. This space is observed as in a dream from a threshold that cannot be crossed: the floor is raised by a platform 10 centimeters high. The viewer, initially surprised at the sight, senses frustration at being kept outside, owing to the fragility of the shavings and the psychological barrier imposed by the platform. A space accessible and inaccessible at the same time.

Hannoun was conceived as an ideal space, a space for meditation, dreams, a sphere of intimacy—light, fragile, and imposing at the same time. As impenetrable and inaccessible as Atelier (22.06.2006–07.06.2009), the photograph of my workshop in Gaza. Soon after the workshop was completed in 2001, I was forced to return to Paris. Every year when I return home—difficult since the closing of the border by Israel in June 2006—I open my abandoned workshop, look at my things, and sweep away the dust. But all too soon it’s time to go, and I close it up again. This installation juxtaposes two situations: in Gaza, an actual place of production but inaccessible, and in Paris or elsewhere, an actual production without the physical place for construction. Like the workshop, Hannoun is an “attempt to work,” of which one perceives less the finished product than the traces of its possible realization.

BiographyBorn in 1966 in Gaza, Batniji now lives and works in Paris. After receiving his BA from An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine, he received a Diplôme National Supérieur d’Expression Plastique from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Bourges, and a Post-Diplôme from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille.

His solo exhibitions have featured in Paris, Hamburg and Rotterdam, while his work has appeared in group exhibitions in Frankfurt, Rome and Istanbul.

performance/installation; colour photography on paper, pencil shavingsphotograph: 150 x 100 cm; installation: dimensions variableCourtesy of the artist and Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg. Photography by Taysir Batniji



Mona HatoumHot Spot, 2006

Artist StatementTravel figures strongly in my practice since I am not really a studio artist. I like to work in different locations and often turn an exhibition invitation abroad into a kind of residency. I try to work with local craftsmen and materials, anything that inspires me in that location. Things come together from disparate, accidental, and unconnected events. I feel more creative when I am on the move and working in different contexts, from Mexico City to Caracas to Cairo—places that function in a pre-industrial way. The people in these places come up with simple and inventive solutions for making things by hand, which I enjoy incorporating into my work.

The idea behind Hot Spot was that “hot spots” are not limited to contested border areas these days, as the whole world feels caught up in conflict and unrest. The work can also be seen as a reference to global warming.

BiographyBorn in 1952 in Beirut, Hatoum now lives and works in London and Berlin. She studied at Beirut University College, Byam Shaw School of Art, London, and Slade School of Fine Art, also in London.

She has launched solo exhibitions in Istanbul, Beirut, Venice and Stockholm. Her work has featured in group exhibitions in New York, Sydney, and Kassel, Germany.

stainless steel and neon tube217 cm diameterCourtesy of the Rennie Collection, Vancouver. Photography by SITE Photography



Susan HefunaWoman Cairo 2011, 2011

Artist StatementLife is a journey, and travelling is part of my personal history. Born between two cultures (German and Egyptian), I travel between cultures automatically.

My studios too are in different cities: in New York, where I draw, and Egypt, where I do photography and the latticework inspired by the mashrabiya (the traditional screened window). Different places are conducive to different types of work, and I like the exposure to diversity. I see things differently from inside a place than from afar. Travelling gives me distance, and from distance comes new perspectives. A bit like my mashrabiyas—viewing them close-up and from a distance are different experiences, offering different perspectives. From too close, the letters can no longer be read.

I see my screens as meditative and my working process as spiritual. I need to concentrate for days before I can begin drawing. When I start, I need to empty my mind and concentrate deeply, just like meditation. The time of preparation, of doing “nothing,” is as important as actually drawing.

BiographyBorn in 1962 in Germany, Hefuna lives and works in New York, Egypt, and Germany.

She has launched solo exhibitions in Chicago, Istanbul, Cairo and London. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions in Sydney, Hamburg, New York, Venice, London and Seville.

wood and ink200 x 200 cmCourtesy of the artist. Photography by Achim Kukulies



Raafat IshakResponses to an Immigration Request from One Hundred and Ninety-four Governments, 2007-9

Artist StatementI left Egypt for Australia at fourteen, without my parents. The move was an adventure, albeit a long one. Consequently my identity is based on a position of independence, freedom, and protest, best supported by my early decision to become an artist.

The genesis of the Responses project, of writing to 194 governments requesting immigration, lies in the Australian government’s position in the early 2000s toward asylum seekers arriving by boat. The art community supported allowing the refugees to settle in Australia, despite popular opposition. I participated in a few fundraising exhibitions; for one, I made a simple text work stating “Send me home,” proposing that I should leave to make room for a more needy refugee. This led me to question what that home would be and where. Is there such a thing as a “home”? Was either Egypt or Australia a home as such? Continuing along this line of thought, I decided to investigate which countries would welcome me and provide me with a “home.”

The ninety-seven responses I received meant an equal number of non-responses, allowing for the words “no response” in Arabic transcript to create a noticeable division without having acceptance and refusal literally stated. I wanted

BiographyBorn in 1967 in Cairo, Ishak lives and works in Melbourne. Having received his BFA in painting from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, he received a Post-Graduate Diploma in Architecture from the University of Melbourne. He is a current PhD candidate at Monash University, Melbourne.

Ishak has launched solo exhibitions in Melbourne, and his work has featured in group exhibitions in Europe and Australasia. oil and gesso on medium density fibreboard

panels: 30 x 21 cm (194 total)Installation: Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Photography by Andrew Curtis

the reading of the actual responses to be secondary to the viewing of the project in its entirety. Arabic script can be more visually compelling than the message it carries. The use of Arabic facilitated the viewing of the responses as a fluid set of rules, a set of temporary statements. Arabic is inherently and historically fluid.



Y.Z. Kami Konya, 2007

Artist StatementLike many Iranians, I grew up reading Persian poetry; my favourite poets were Hafez and Rumi. Reading Rumi, I dreamt of Konya, the city where he lived and died, though he was born in Balkh. In the thirteenth century Konya was the most important city in the Seljuk sultanate. Mahin Tajadod, a family friend and scholar of Persian literature, travelled to Konya for a symposium on Rumi and told me about her experience there. I have been drawn to the city since my teenage years, and in 2005 an opportunity to visit it arose when I was invited to participate at the Istanbul Biennial.

Travelling has been a way for me to gather material and images for the work I execute in my studio in New York. My photographs of Konya, for instance, have entered into my work. In recent years, I have also managed to work in other cities.

BiographyBorn in 1956 in Tehran, Kami now lives and works in New York. He was educated at Holy Names College, The University of California, and the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français, Paris. He received a BA and MA from Université Paris-Sorbonne.

Kami’s work has featured in solo exhibitions in Athens, London and Beverly Hills, and in group exhibitions in Moscow, Venice, Southampton (USA), and New York.

iris-printed photographs with oil painting on paper408 x 221 cmCourtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery, New York. Photography by Robert McKeever



Farhad MoshiriYek Donia, 2007

Artist StatementFor a long time I obsessed over canvas aging techniques—making a surface look old, worn, and cracked. Folding the canvas many times, I noticed that I was creating latitude and longitude lines, which prompted me to do a few maps of Iran. But when I decided to make Yek Donia, meaning “One World,” I shelved my prior techniques because I had a “crystal planet” in mind. Using one size of crystal for the work, I had to delete thousands of small islands from the world map that were smaller than the single unit. I chose to do all the land in yellow, the colour of the sun.

I’m a scavenger of ideas, and the more I travel—the more area I have to trot—the more chances I have of stumbling on an idea worth pursuing. It could be a feeling, a word, a piece of broken glass, a drawing on a torn piece of paper, or something someone said.

BiographyBorn in 1963 in Shiraz, Moshiri lives and works in Paris and Tehran. He was educated in Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia.

His has launched solo exhibitions in Paris, Dubai, and Salzburg. His work has appeared in group exhibitions in Berlin, Venice, France and New York.

Swarovski crystals on canvas on board138 x 223 cmCourtesy of Gold Tulip Art Foundation. Photography Christie’s Dubai Ltd.



Youssef NabilI Will Go to Paradise, Self-Portrait, Hyeres 2008, 2008

Artist StatementI grew up in Egypt, where we talk a lot about the afterlife. Death has always been an important subject in my work and in my self-portrait series. But I also discuss existence and my own life in particular. My recent film project, You Never Left, 2010 (8 min), talks about the relation between leaving home and dying.

I have always felt like a visitor wherever I go: I’m there for only a few days and then I must leave. My relation to my whole life is the same—for me it is about coming to a place that is not yours, then having to move on.

People tend to forget about the spiritual journey, especially now, in the age of digital, instant communication. But I believe that we are capable of great things, if we go in the right direction.

BiographyBorn in 1972 in Cairo, Nabil lives and works in Cairo, Paris, and New York. He studied French Literature at Ain Shams University, Cairo.

Nabil has launched solo exhibitions in Paris, New York and Rome. His work has featured in group exhibitions in London, the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, and in Venice.

hand-coloured gelatin silver printCourtesy of the artist and Nathalie

Obadia Gallery, Paris/Brussels



Hamed SahihiSundown, 2007

Artist StatementSundown was shot by the Caspian Sea, a popular vacation spot for Iranians. I shot from different places and for a long time, and chose this part of the video.

At a twelve-week workshop with Abbas Kiarostami, I learned to focus on a simple idea and find the best way to film it. Although the workshop emphasized simplicity, Sundown’s minimalism echoes my earlier paintings of distant landscapes showing a crowd of small figures and the relations between them.

Surrealism is one of my favorite things in art, but life itself is a mixture of reality and the surreal—we just have to see it. Dreams are part of life. We dream every day and every night. On that beach looking at the people, I imagined one of them ascending into the sky, and no one would notice because they were so busy with whatever they were doing, being happy or depressed, thinking about what to do or say, or just watching their loved ones. The ascending figure is leaving that situation, looking down at the people. That was exactly the feeling I had. I tried to stop for a minute and look at everything from a distance.

In this video, the idea of travel is this: a journey between dreaming and living that we make all of our lives.

BiographyBorn in 1980 in Tehran, Sahihi continues to live and work there. He received a BA in painting from Tehran University of Fine Arts, and an MA, also in painting, from the Art University of Tehran.

His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Tehran and London.

video stilldimensions variableCourtesy of the artist



BiographyBorn in Tehran, Tabrizian lives and works in London. She received a BA and MPhil from the University of Westminster, London. In 2001 she was granted professorship at the University of Westminster also.

Tabrizian has launched solo exhibitions in New York, Milan, and London. Her work has featured in group exhibitions in Australia, Italy, USA, and Belgium.

Mitra TabrizianTehran 2006, 2006

Artist Statement Tehran 2006 differs from the usual representations of Iran: the social documentary or journalistic approach; the constructed images, often on a “big” subject (favoured by some photographers working in Iran); the “abstract” photography with a poetic slant; or the tendency to exoticize (in photography or video). Rather, it echoes contemporary Iranian cinema, which often uses non-actors and focuses on an apparently “small” subject that is treated allegorically, alluding to wider social issues.

In general, the work attempts to problematize the dominant representation of the East in the Western art world—that is, as victim or the exotic other. Instead, it focuses on survival as a strategy of resistance.

I hope Tehran 2006 creates curiosity about the cultural context within which it was made, while remaining open to interpretation. As Roland Barthes aptly observed in his essay “Death of the Author,” the author is simply a “scriptor,” who exists to produce but not explain the work. In critiquing the authority of the author/artist, who controls the meaning of the work, he attempts to open up interpretive horizons for the active reader. As Barthes puts it, “the death of the author is the birth of the reader.”

C-type light jet print101 x 302 cmCourtesy of the artist



Parviz Tanavoli Oh Persepolis II, 1975-2008

Artist StatementI travel annually from Vancouver to Tehran — not ordinary travelling but a seasonal migration. Like my ancestors, when spring arrives I pack up and move to my other land, putting winter behind me. From Vancouver, with my battery fully charged, my studio in Tehran is the perfect place to land. When the heat arrives, I eagerly return to Vancouver, where the summer is unique, the best on earth. There, although I do not work hard, the works left behind easily fill my time. Vancouver is also the place I write. My next seasonal migration is again to Tehran in the fall, which is as exciting as the spring migration.

I cannot separate myself from my past. A verse of Persian poetry or a stone from Persepolis can get my blood moving more than the entire contents of a contemporary art museum. There must be a reason the ancient site of Persepolis has such an impact on me. Remembering Persepolis and reflecting it on a wall is not just nostalgia, it is also to show that even now, good things can be made.

BiographyBorn in 1937 in Tehran, Tanavoli lives and works in Vancouver and Tehran. He was educated at Tehran School of Fine Arts and Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan.

He has launched solo exhibitions across Europe, the Middle East, and USA. His work has featured in group exhibitions in London, New York, Paris, and Venice.

bronze186 x 128 x 25 cmCourtesy of the artist. Photography by Kyla Bailey, MOA



Dr. Fereshteh Daftari is a renowned expert in Middle Eastern art and was curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) from 1988 to 2009. During this time she organized a number of exhibitions with contemporary artists such as Xu Bing, Paul McCarthy, Shahzia Sikander, Shirin Neshat and Y.Z. Kami.

Interested in global modernities and cross-cultural currents, she guest curated an exhibition of Iranian modern at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery (2002). In 2003, she collaborated with Mona Hatoum on Artist’s Choice: Mona Hatoum, Here is Elsewhere. Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking at the Museum of Modern Art was Daftari’s last major exhibition at MOMA (2006). Since 2009, she has written several essays on contemporary Iranian artists such as Ali Banisadr (Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Paris).

Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian and Turkish Artists marks Dr. Fereshteh Daftari’s first contemporary art exhibit in Canada. She will also be participating as part of the Global Dialogues series.

Fereshteh Daftari - Curator, Safar/Voyage

Biographies: Exhibition Curators

Jill Baird - Coordinating Curator, Safar/VoyageJill Baird is the curator of education and public programs at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her research and writing interests include arts and cultural education that challenge museums to respond to diverse communities. She was the co-chair of The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam through Calligraphy (2001) and curator of Inbody: moa Global Dialogue (2010), a program that facilitated exchanges between the public and artists, activists and scholars. She has published on such topics as collaborating with communities and on creativity and cultural exchange.



Dr. Laura Marks is a theorist, critic and curator of independent and experimental media arts. She is the author of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses (Duke University Press, 2000) and Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minnesota University Press, 2002), as well as numerous essays. She has curated programs of independent and experimental media for festivals and art spaces worldwide. Her research includes: Islamic genealogy of new media art, as well as

Artists, curators, filmmakers, and scholars participate in a three-day public discussion on ideas surrounding nomadic aesthetics, the importance of place, curatorial approaches, and the role of institutions in the representations of contemporary art and culture. The Dialogue concludes with a special feature “In Conversation with Jian Ghomeshi” in MOA’s Great Hall.

Jian Ghomeshi is an award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician, and producer. He is the host and co-creator of the national daily talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and Bold TV. Toronto’s NOW Magazine named Jian “Best Media Personality” in TV or radio, in the fall of 2009.

As a writer and interviewer, Jian has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, The National Post, El Mundo, and The International Herald Tribune.

As a singer, songwriter, and musician, Jian was a member of multi-platinum selling folk-rock group, Moxy Fruvous. He has worked with numerous arts groups, including the National Ballet, the COC and the Radio Starmaker Fund, and is a former member of the Board of Governors at the Stratford Theatre Festival.

Born in London, England, of Iranian descent, Jian now lives in Toronto.

Dr. Derek Gregory is the Peter Wall Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography at UBC. He has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada and the British Academy, and has received the Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographic Society. In 2012, he was invited to present the British Academy’s Annual Lecture in London. His distinctions also include the UBC Killam Research Prize and the UBC Killam Teaching Prize.

His diverse interests include British and American travel writing in the Middle East and the renewed power of orientalism in the post-9/11 world, among other topics. He brings his work to audiences beyond the academy through his writing contributions and public lectures.

Biographies: MOA Global Dialogue: Nomadic Aesthetics and the Importance of PlaceSponsored by Wesbild Holdings

Derek Gregory

Jian Ghomeshi

Dr. Anthony Shelton has been the Director of the UBC Museum of Anthropology since 2004. He is a distinguished anthropologist and curator, and has curated or co-curated thirteen exhibitions, including the landmark exhibition African Worlds and Exotics: North American Indian Portraits of Europeans.

His research and writing examines the theoretical foundations of the anthropology of art and aesthetics, as well as critical museology, and he has published on topics ranging from African visual culture and Chinese puppets to Western constructions of tropes of otherness.

Anthony Shelton

Laura Marks



Dr. Venetia Porter is a curator of the Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art collections at the British Museum. Having lived in Yemen, her research has focused on medieval Yemeni history and architecture. She curated “Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at the British Museum in January 2012.

Venetia studied Arabic and Islamic Art at Oxford University before obtaining a PhD on the medieval history and architecture of the Yemen at the University of Durham. Venetia’s work has focused on Islamic ceramics, particularly medieval Syrian pottery and Islamic tiles, Islamic coins and medieval Yemen.

Prior to her position in Islamic and contemporary Middle Eastern art collections, Venetia was an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum.

Her publications include Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, The Art of Hajj and Islamic Tiles.


Venetia Porter

Peter Morin, of the Tahltan Nation of northern British Columbia, is a Victoria-based performance artist and curator. His ideas about museums and their transformation through indigenous ways of knowing began in his cousin’s cabin, where visits with friends, relatives, and elders offered him a gradual understanding of Tahltan history and means of sharing it with one another. In 2011, Peter Morin created an installation Peter Morin’s Museum, curated by MOA curator Karen Duffek. His work is a dynamic mix of his own art work and curatorial practice. Recent curatorial work include Revisiting the Silence (2011), and "Irregardless": Humour in Contemporary Northwest Coast Art (2012) .

Peter Morin

Beirut-based architect Tony Chakar's practice involves ways of thinking about the built environment that go beyond traditional architectural approaches, by incorporating literature, philosophy and theory.

His works include: A Retroactive Monument for a Chimerical City (Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, 1999); Four Cotton Underwear for Tony (Ashkal Alwan, TownHouse Gallery, Cairo; also shown in Barcelona (Tapies Foundation) and Rotterdam (Witte de With) as part of Contemporary Arab Representations, a project curated by Catherine David (2001-02); and Beirut, the Impossible Portrait (The Venice Biennial, 2003).

He teaches History of Art and History of Architecture at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), Beirut. His current project, One Thousand Solitudes, is his “attempt to grasp and to comment, hence to participate in, what is currently happening all through the Middle East.”

Tony Chakar

contemporary cinema in the Arab world and non-Western approaches to new media. Dr. Marks is the Dena Wosk University Professor of Art and Culture Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

Laura Marks (continued)




Based in Vancouver, Glenn Alteen is a curator, writer and director of the Grunt Gallery. He has worked extensively with performance art and co-founded the LIVE Performance Biennial. He has curated many performances and community engaged projects, such as The Mattering Map (1996) by Pia Masse, which involved working-class diner owners and patrons in the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood of East Vancouver. He also curated The Nova Library in 2005, working with substance abusers.

Glenn Alteen

Karen Duffek is the Curator, Contemporary Visual Arts & Pacific Northwest at the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Her curatorial interests extend to contemporary aboriginal and international art, Northwest Coast First Nations art and she is responsible for Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth collections, and MOA Satellite Gallery at MOA. Karen is an award-winning writer whose publications include Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form and The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations. Her recent exhibitions include Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures (2010), Peter Morin’s Museum – Satellite Gallery (2011) and **** hiroshima, works by Ishiuchi Miyako (2011).

Karen Duffek

The grandson of Lebanese immigrants, Jayce Salloum was born in Kelowna, British Columbia in 1958. After studying arts in the United States, he began his artistic career in 1975, the year that civil war broke out in Lebanon. Already marginal because accompanied by "shock-texts," his first photo exhibits were rapidly transformed into installations as he progressively associated his photographs with archival objects and documents, and as he resorted to other mediums, such as video. Jayce Salloum gives special weight to the constituent elements of representation and, more particularly, to their underlying historical, social and cultural context.

Jayce Salloum



Biographies: The Hassan and Nezhat Khosrowshahi Lecture Series

Nader Ardalan

Hossein Amanat

Daniel Roehr

Abbas Amanat

Nader Ardalan is an Iranian architect, urban planner and writer. He studied architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh and at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. In 1972 he set up his own practice in Tehran, the Mandala Collaborative.

Ardalan, whose work ranges from private residences to master plans for new towns, is one of the most important architects to emerge from Iran in the recent past. His work reflects his particular concern for cultural and ecological aspects of architecture; in Iran it is strongly rooted in an understanding of the traditions and forms of Iranian Islam, although his buildings are in a totally contemporary idiom.

Hossein Amanat is an Iranian-Canadian architect, best known for designing the Azadi Tower in Tehran, Iran and the Bahá’í Arc buildings in Haifa, Israel.

Hossein won a nation-wide competition to design the Shahyad Freedom Monument in Tehran as a young graduate. The monument has since become a symbol of modern Iran. Since, Hossein has designed some of Iran’s most prestigious buildings including universities, libraries, a town on the Caspian Sea and the embassy of Iran in Beijing.

Hossein moved to Canada in 1980, diversifying his work. He has designed factories in China, high-rise buildings in San Diego, and a temple in Samoa. Hossein recently completed a transit-oriented mixed commercial and residential high-rise project along the Vancouver mass-transit line.

Daniel Roehr teaches studio, site engineering, advanced graphics and green roof research seminars in the University of British Columbia’s Landscape Architecture program. He is a registered landscape architect in British Columbia and Germany as well as a horticulturist and gardener.

His current research focuses on the integration of green roofs as part of a holistic system for stormwater management. Daniel regularly publishes, and his forthcoming titles include: Some Thoughts on the Internationalisation of Landscape Architecture in: Rainer Schmidt - City of Landscape. (Birkhaeuser 2012) and Representing Landscapes: A Visual Collection of Landscape Architectural Drawings, with M. Beall, Nadia Amoroso Editor (Routledge March 2012).

Abbas Amanat received his B.A. from Tehran University in 1971 and D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1981. He was a Carnegie Scholar of Islamic Studies (2005-2007) and the recipient of the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar Grant for comparative study of Millennialism (1998-2001).

He was the Editor-in-Chief of Iranian Studies, the journal of the International Society for Iranian Studies (1991-98) ) and served as the chair of the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale (1993-2004). He is currently Director of the Iranian Studies Initiative at Yale MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies.

His principal publications include Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian Shi’ism (2009), Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896 (2007), and Resurrection and Renewal: the Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850 (1989).



Biographies: Performing Arts

Iman HabibiIman Habibi, MMUS (UBC 2010), BMUS (UBC 2008), is an award-winning composer and pianist. His music has been performed by a number of noted ensembles and performers such as musica intima, The Standing Wave Ensemble, The Vancouver Bach Choir, The Prince George Symphony Orchestra, and has been workshopped by The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and The Aventa ensemble.

He has received numerous awards including First Prize at the SOCAN Foundation’s Awards for Young Audio Visual Composers for two consecutive years (2011-2012), The International Composers’ Award at the Esoterics Competition (2012), and The Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards for Emerging Artist in Music (2011). Iman was a finalist at the Inaugural Knigge National Piano Competition, and is also well-known for his collaborations with pianist Deborah Grimmett.

George Sawa is a musician and scholar of Middle Eastern music. was born in Alexandria, Egypt. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, he immigrated to Canada in 1970, where he studied ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, and obtained his doctorate in historical Arabic musicology at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on medieval, modern, and religious music of the Middle East at York University, and at the University of Toronto (1982-1995).

George is the author of the fundamental and well-received study Music Performance Practice in the Early cAbbasid Era, 132-320 AH/750-932 AD.

He is founder and director of the Traditional Arabic Music Ensemble, which has been heard in venues across Canada and the USA, and has been broadcast on the CBC. He has appeared as a guest soloist with several groups specializing in Middle Eastern music, and Early Music, and he has been a musical director for many of the productions of the Arabesque Dance Academy.

George Sawa

Kereshmeh EnsembleKereshmeh Ensemble is one of today’s leading Persian music ensembles that has worked entirely to build a bridge between East and West.

All of the members of Kereshmeh Ensembles have developed unique techniques over years of study and research. Kereshmeh Ensemble is based in Vancouver and has performed in numerous concerts in Canada and the USA and in a variety of folk festivals around the world.

Abegael Fisher-Lang is an acclaimed British Columbia storyteller known for her repertoire of the everyday to the mythopoetic. Among her large body of work, she has told world tales at business conferences, Celtic myths to university classes, Hannukah legends in a wintry barn, funny Jack tales at Word-on-the-Street, and a baby crone cycle to women’s initiation circles.

As artistic director for World Storytelling Day events and Vancouver International Storytelling Festivals, Abegael is known for bringing people together to celebrate good storytelling.

Abegael Fisher-Lang and Ali Razmi



Ali Razmi obtained his MA in music at the Art University in Tehran. He is an innovative and creative tar and setar musician with over 17 years of experience as a soloist. Ali has performed in a wide variety of genres, including traditional, pop, and fusion . Among his many achievements, he has performed as a soloist for the Iranian Philharmonic Orchestra, improvised with Master Shajarian (Iran’s leading singer in traditional Iranian music), and worked with Mehran Modiri, and Mohamad Esfahani’s group, Iran’s top pop music performers. In 2002 Ali performed at the Jahane Khusrau Music Festival in New Delhi as a member of the Rumi Group.

Abegael Fisher-Lang and Ali Razmi (continued)

Raqib Brian Burke has 28 years of study and experience under the Mevlevi Sheikhs Reshad Field, Suleyman Dede and Jelaluddin Loras, and Rifa'i Sheikh Sherif Baba Catalkaya. He performs Original Sema Whirling Dervish ceremony. He performed in the first ever Sema Ceremony by North American dervishes in Konya, Turkey, at the tomb of Mevlana Celaluddin Rumi founder of whirling and has since performed in Canada and the United States at numerous spiritual gatherings, weddings, memorial services, arts festivals and music events.

Raqib Brian Burke



Biographies: City-wide Programming

John Brookes In partnership with Van Dusen GardensJohn Brookes MBE FSGD has designed and built well over 1000 gardens during a career spanning 50 years. Based at Denmans, his acclaimed world famous garden in West Sussex. He runs an extremely busy design practice, creating gardens large and small, throughout the UK and abroad.

His extensive portfolio includes traditional English gardens both formal and informal, modern, minimalist, Islamic and wild gardens. He has won numerous awards throughout his career including 4 Gold medals at Chelsea. Widely regarded within the garden design world as an innovative and inspirational designer and plantsman, he is regularly quoted as a source of inspiration in the media.

He is also a successful and prolific author, having written 24 best selling books, and countless articles for newspapers and magazines. He lectures on garden design in UK and overseas and runs a design school in Argentina.

Simon Shaheen

Simon Shaheen is one of the most significant Arab musicians, performers, and composers of his generation. His work incorporates and reflects a legacy of Arabic music, while it forges ahead to new frontiers, embracing many different styles in the process. This unique contribution to the world of arts was recognized in 1994 when Shaheen was honored with the prestigious National Heritage Award at the White House.

A Palestinian, born in the village of Tarshiha in the Galilee, Shaheen’s childhood was steeped in music. He began playing on the ‘oud at the age of five, and a year later studying violin at the Conservatory for Western Classical Music in Jerusalem.

In addition to performing with his two bands, Qantara and the Near Eastern Music Ensemble, Shaheen tours as a solo artist internationally and as a lecturer throughout the academic world promoting awareness to Arab music through numerous lecture and workshop presentations.

Presented by The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

Press Kit: Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian, and Turkish Artists

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Transcript of Press Kit: Safar/Voyage: Contemporary Works by Arab, Iranian, and Turkish Artists