Monumental Shadows: On museums, memory and the making of history
Co-published by Art Jameel and Khaph Books
Art Jameel and Kaph Books, announce the release of Monumental Shadows: On museums, memory and the making of history. The 320-page publication reboots contemporary global conversations on museum practices, history-making and the politics of dispossession and conflict in relation to material heritage from a wide range of voices.
This bilingual (English/Arabic) publication features commissioned essays, interviews and visual contributions by 19 ground-breaking artists, curators and cultural producers from 10 countries. Edited by Nora Razian, Art Jameel Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes, with a foreword by Art Jameel Director Antonia Carver, Monumental Shadows provides perspectives from countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including the Philippines, Pakistan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UAE and Palestine.
Monumental Shadows is part of Art Jameel’s long-term, broad engagement with the role of heritage in the present, and with the role of museums in presenting histories; it is a product of many international collaborations with institutions and artists over the past 20 years.
The book includes contributions from: Ariella Aisha Azoulay, Pio Abad, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Nora Al-Badri, Anahi Alviso-Marino, Noah Angell, Haytham El Wardany, Faustin Linyekula, Omar Berrada, Jumana Manna, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Marian Pastor Roces, Gala Porras-Kim, Michael Rakowitz, Uzma Z Rizvi, Alya Sebti, Dima Srouji and Akram Zaatari.
Monumental Shadows is the culmination of Art Jameel’s multi-year project exploring the many facets of material heritage—from the destruction of monuments and contested ownership, to the use of scanning technologies in preservation and reconstruction—working with artists whose practices are rooted in regional histories. The edited volume expands on Jameel Arts Centre’s 2019–21 exhibition programme examining the politics of material heritage, including the group exhibition Phantom Limb in 2019, and solo exhibitions by Michael Rakowitz and Hiwa K in 2020 and 2021.
Pio Abad, Marian Pastor Roces, Haytham El Wardany, Rand Abdul Jabbar and Michael Rawkowitz query the relationship between heritage and inheritance in a contested present; Jumana Manna, Dima Srouji, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme engage with the land in Palestine to create new vocabularies and imaginaries of hope and resistance; Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Alya Sebti and Nora Al-Badri probe the institutional archive and look at ways of destabilising this while Anahi Alviso-Marino, Uzma Rizvi, Akram Zaatari, Gala Porras-Kim and Noah Angel speak to the artefacts and objects confined in displays and storage areas to elucidate an alternative to given notions of objecthood.
The publication is available worldwide through several distribution channels covering bookstores, university libraries, online retailers and book fairs, and at the Art Jameel Shop, both online (worldwide) and in-store in Dubai and Jeddah. For the full list of distributors, click here.
Art Jameel Publishing is part of the organisation’s mandate to increase access to under-documented cultural histories and artistic practices. Publications include artist books, monographs, photography books, exhibition catalogues and much more.
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Artist’s Rooms bilingual monographs
Curated in dialogue with the artists, Artist’s Rooms feature Art Jameel Collection artists, aiming to foreground influential practitioners from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Artists in this monographic series include Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Mounira Al Solh, Farah Al Qasimi, Hemali Bhuta, Taysir Batnaji, Lala Rukh, Larissa Sansour, Sheher Shah, Randhir Singh, Prabhakar Pachpute and Samson Young. Recent Artist’s Rooms monographs include: Artist’s Rooms: Daniele Genadry with text by Fares Chalabi; Artist Rooms: Risham Syed with text by Adnan Madani; Artist’s Rooms: Ayesha Sultana with text by H.G Masters.
Press contacts: ruba@artjameel.org and bernice@sendreceive.eu
