Author Description

"Arabicity" - an exhibition of nine contemporary artists from the Arab world - is the first collaboration between Rose Issa Projects in London and the new Beirut Exhibition Center. The exhibition features the work of Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Buthayna Ali, Chant Avedissian, Ayman Baalbaki, Hassan Hajjaj, Fathi Hassan, Susan Hefuna and Raeda Saadeh. Following the success of "Arabicity" at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK, earlier this year, this version of the exhibition shows how these very different artists resist stereotyping, challenging the confines of their identity and reshaping the parameters of their cultural traditions. Celebrating life and memories, the common thread running through their work is a multi-layering of Arab history. Whether through installation, painting or photography, "Arabicity" illustrates the unique and varied ways in which the artists present their conceptual and aesthetic concerns, executed with great warmth, humour and visual poetry. The exhibition is about the different routes and roots that artists from the Arab world choose, whether living inside or outside the region. It gives them a space in which to express their response to the personal, national and regional issues affecting the Arab world - why we do what we do and accept what is done; how we can resist clichés, injustice, opportunism and sometimes opportunities. In their diverse media and subject matter, their works also reflect the pulse of the region. In chaos they discover what endures.