Artists honor Baghdads Al-Mutanabbi Street

WEEKEND

Arts & Culture

October 13-14, 2012

By India Stoughton
The Daily Star

REVIEW

From the eyes of babes: Photography exhibit showcases youth talent

Nabaa area, Rayan Batlouni, a Zakira member, says at the opening, adding that most of these children are refugees. They hail from Syria, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines and Iraq. The other 40 youths trained by the association for Ruaa come from Sidon and are mainly from Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, she explained. The resultant images or at least the best of them once again harness the sort of charm found in Zakiras earlier project Lahza, Arabic for Glance, which opened a unique window on Palestinian refugee life though the disposable cameras the organization distributed to 500 children in Lebanons 12 official camps. This time around, viewers are permitted the same insight, although Ruaa, perhaps due to the fact that older children also participated, offers something more in terms of composition and form. Mahmoud Mohammads photograph of a woman contemplating a mannequin wearing a wedding dress is of particular note in this regard. The Palestinian youth from Ain al-Hilweh has set his shot up so it appears the thoughtful woman could simply step forward and fill the place of the faceless mannequin, successfully fulfilling her ambition in just a single stride. What the image represents is undoubtedly a cliche, but the manner in which Mohammad captures it is refreshing. Elsewhere, the images which are all shot on digital cameras using manual settings take as their subject the industrious world of the photographers neighborhoods. Ivan Sarmad, an Iraqi living in Nabaa, spies with his lens through the window of a cluttered barbers shop. Two men recline as their barbers go to work. One of these men is being shaved, which is hardly remarkable, but the second man, in the foreground of the image, is having his nose hair removed by threading, lending the image an intimate, if amusing, quality through its cheeky disclosure of male vanity. A photo by Andrew Awat, another Iraqi from Nabaa, hangs nearby. Awat has honed his cameras focus on the hands of a seamstress as she works. The hands dont appear to belong to an elderly woman but they are clearly familiar with hard work. They are also flecked with what appears to be dried paint. Likewise the sewing machine she is using is battered and worn. Both contrast starkly with the pristine white cloth shes working on, with its perfectly straight hemmed edge. Two other photographs, hung sideby-side, juxtapose contrasting emotions, although a young boy is the central feature of both. Tareq al-Qayyems picture shows a grinning male youth lounging in a ratty old armchair atop a pile of trash. Qayyems subject has thrown his legs over one arm of the chair and is leaning back against the other, just as one might fling oneself into the plush furnishings of an opulent hotel room as soon as the door has clicked shut behind the bellboy. Despite his squalid surroundings, the viewer has no doubt of the subjects self-possession, of his ability to proclaim any domain his own. Next to Qayyems work is an entirely different picture. Ahmed el-Zirs photograph is a dark image with only a young boys face visible at its center. This boy, although likely the same age as the child in Qayyems work, has timid, almost fearful eyes. His lips are parted, revealing his gappy, recently acquired adult front teeth. Its a discomforting picture - anxiety emanates

EIRUT: An old Arabic adage has it that Cairo writes, Beirut prints, Baghdad reads. The historic heart of literacy in the Middle East, by that logic, has for centuries been Baghdads Al-Mutanabbi Street, named after the 10th century poet, one of the Arab worlds most famous and respected literary figures. For over 800 years, Al-Mutanabbi Street has been lined with bookstores and outdoor stalls, a place where writers, students and intellectuals would gather, irrespective of race or religion, to talk, drink coffee and browse the phenomenal range of books. Even works banned by the government of the day were available, hastily copied and surreptitiously disseminated among the trustworthy. In March 2007 a car bomb exploded on Al-Mutanabbi Street, killing more than 30 people and wounding over 100. Beau Beausoleil, an American bookseller and poet living in San Francisco, decided that this particular attack was one that could not be swept beneath the rug of history. Ive been a poet and a bookseller for about 40 years, Beausoleil says. Like millions of others I marched against the invasion of Iraq, but felt completely powerless on a personal level to change anything. The bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street in 2007 did two things, he continues. It shocked and horrified me that this cultural center had been attacked, and it gave me an immediate realization that if I were an Iraqi bookseller then my bookshop would have been on Al-Mutanabbi Street I knew at that moment that I was no different than any Iraqi. Beausoleil decided to organize a

memorial reading, and at the same time came up with the idea of asking letterpress printers to create an artistic broadside of their personal response to the bombing. It was clear to me that this bombing was an attack on us all, he says, and that it was important for artists in the West to realize that we shared all the hopes and dreams that a street like Al-Mutanabbi Street represented. This street and its booksellers and readers represented the free exchange of ideas long before my own country ever existed. Out of this The Al-Mutanabbi Michael Pisanos Seven Voyages, illustrations in pen and ink, book designed and bound by Maria G. Pisano. Street Coalition was born a project which has been ongoing for the last five years. In 2010 Beausoleil, along with British book artist and printer Sarah Bodman who agreed to help coordinate the project in Europe reached their target of 130 original broadsides. They immediately put out a call for artists willing to create a set of three handmade books. The guidelines were to produce books that would encourage discussion, to make people think, to produce an inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street, explains Bodman. I asked for a personal response to the car bombing. I wanted them to try and find where Al-Mutanabbi Street, and all that it represents, started in their own lives. The pair originally hoped to get 130 artists on board they ended up with 262. All 786 books will be finished by the end of this year. Along with the broadsides they will then be sent on tour, and one complete set will be donated to the National Library of Iraq, in Baghdad. Anybody who loves books who makes books, reads books, sells books would be devastated to know what happened on that street, says Bod-

Ania Gilmore and Annie Zeybekoglu, Evidence Vol. 48, 6134, 27, 537, 1129.

man. To attack people because they were there, to attack their right to read, to discuss, to receive information, to dream, was so utterly wrong in so many ways. It is more than an attack on innocent people; it was an attack on the freedom of the printed page. Beausoleil and Bodman are planning several exhibitions of the art books over the coming year in Britain and the United States. They also have an exhibition scheduled at the University of Cairo in 2014, and are hoping to exhibit the work in Lebanon. I would love to be in contact with an arts organization in Beirut, Beausoleil says. One that would be interested in showing part of this work and hosting readings and panels of local writers and scholars who might speak [about] what the bombing of any cultural street means to any cultural community. Where does Al-Mutanabbi Street start for Lebanese poets, artists and writers? Is it possible to erase culture and thought? Some of these questions are addressed in Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here an anthology containing essays in response to the bombing by over 100 authors, including Lebanese-American poet and visual

Photos courtesy of Sarah Bodman

artist Etel Adnan and American journalist Anthony Shadid, who passed away in Syria earlier this year. The book, edited by Beausoleil and Palestinian-American poet Shehabi, was released in late August. Though they have been working on the project for years, both Beausoleil and Bodman say it is far from over. The project is only now starting to spread its wings and fly! Beausoleil says, while Bodman adds This is really only the beginning It would be wonderful to have the prints and books visit libraries, bookstores, centers and communities all over the world. Beausoleil feels the success of the project is due to the fact that it had no concrete aim, beyond making people think. I feel that wherever someone sits down and gathers their thoughts to write towards the truth, he says, wherever someone picks up a book to read, it is there that Al-Mutanabbi Street starts.
The Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project is curated by Beau Beausoleil and Sarah Bodman. To find about more about the project or to see the whole collection of artists books go to http://www.al-mutanabbistreetstartshere-boston.com/.

By Niamh Fleming-Farrell
The Daily Star

EIRUT: The artists werent above roughhousing in the middle of Dar al-Mussawirs exhibition space during Wednesdays opening night, but such fittingly childish theatrics in no way detracted from the quality of the young photographers work on display. Ruaa, Arabic for Vision, is the third time that Zakira, an association dedicated to the teaching of photographic theory and practice, has trained and then exhibited the work of youth photographers. In this most recent manifestation some 80 youths aged 14-18, from seven countries, produced thousands of images from which the Zakira team selected the best to be displayed at the Dar al-Mussawir space in Hamra. We trained 40 children from the

from its core. It was therefore some relief that Zirs subject, his brother, presented himself as a smiling youngster at the opening. He stood in the vicinity of his photograph and proudly told anyone who asked that indeed he was the owner of that apprehensive visage. From Zakiras earlier project, Batlouni says, some participants have gone on to work as freelance photographers. Among the cohort featured in Ruaa, she adds that there are certainly some who want to continue in photography or take it as a profession later on. For now though, they may celebrate the success of their first exhibition, even if that means horsing around in the midst of it.

Ruaa is up at Dar al-Mussawir in Hamra until Oct. 16. For more information please call 01-373-347.

Caroline Antars photograph in Nabaa.

Mahmoud Mohammads photograph of a woman contemplating a dress.

Photos courtesy of Zakira