| Description | From April 11 through June 17, 2018, Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM), Milan; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and UBS present But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa (Una Tempesta dal Paradiso: Arte Contemporanea del Medio Oriente e Nord Africa) in Milan. The exhibition marks the final presentation of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, a historic collaboration between the Guggenheim and UBS representing the largest international research, collection-building, and presentation initiative the museum has undertaken to date. MAP’s distinctive, artist-driven program, which began in 2012, underscores a mutual commitment by the Guggenheim and UBS to support contemporary art and education through a total of eight international exhibitions, more than 125 acquisitions, curatorial scholarship from three global regions, and extensive public programming.
Organized by Sara Raza, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East and North Africa, in collaboration with Paola Zatti, Chief Curator, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, and Omar Cucciniello, Curator, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, the exhibition features a range of artistic voices and critical concerns from a rapidly evolving region and its international diaspora. Works by thirteen artists explore the intersecting themes of migration, displacement, architecture, geometry, and history through a range of mediums, including works on paper, installation, photography, sculpture, and video. But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise was first shown at the Guggenheim Museum in April 2016.
“This exhibition presents challenging ideas and uncompromising artistic strategies, all of which help us to reflect upon a vital region of today’s world,” said Richard Armstrong, Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. “The culminating Milan presentation celebrates the extraordinary influence of a group of artists whose works and ideas have helped shape contemporary art. It is our hope that the impact of the works themselves, the relationships fostered through the MAP project, and the ideas articulated in its multiple presentations continue to resonate thanks to MAP’s unprecedented reach. We are grateful to our visionary collaborator UBS and to our colleagues at partner institutions around the globe, including our friends at GAM. By working on the ground with artists, arts professionals, and audiences, we can tell a richer, more expansive history of modern art and more faithfully represent the art of our time.”
But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, which features sixteen works by thirteen artists, is installed in the ground-floor gallery of GAM. The title of the exhibition comes from an artwork by Rokni Haerizadeh, which references a passage from an essay by German philosopher Walter Benjamin. Haerizadeh’s But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise (2010) is a suite of works on paper based on images appropriated from mainstream news sources. By overlaying photographs of collective gatherings with gesso, ink, and watercolor, the artist transforms individuals into animal-human hybrids, and renders a grotesque view of downward descending contemporary events promulgated by the mass media.
Artists Represented in the Exhibition
• Lida Abdul (b. 1973, Kabul; lives and works in Los Angeles and Kabul)
• Abbas Akhavan (b. 1977, Tehran; lives and works in Toronto)
• Kader Attia (b. 1970, Dugny, France; lives and works in Berlin)
• Ergin Çavuşoğlu (b. 1968, Targovishte, Bulgaria; lives and works in London)
• Ali Cherri (b. 1976, Beirut; lives and works in Beirut and Paris)
• Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (both b. 1969, Beirut; live and work in Beirut and Paris)
• Rokni Haerizadeh (b. 1978, Tehran; lives and works in Dubai)
• Susan Hefuna (b. 1962, Berlin; lives and works in Düsseldorf)
• Iman Issa (b. 1979, Cairo; lives and works in New York)
• Gülsün Karamustafa (b. 1946, Ankara; lives and works in Istanbul)
• Hassan Khan (b. 1975, London; lives and works in Cairo)
• Ahmed Mater (b. 1979, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia; lives and works in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
For more information, visit gam-milano.com.
An Evening of Music and Discussion with the Guggenheim Museum, the Barenboim-Said Akademie, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Wednesday, April 11, 7:00 pm
Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan
RSVP: global-art@ubs.com
Join the Guggenheim Museum, the Barenboim-Said Akademie, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for an evening of musical performance and conversation. Inspired by the vision of the Akademie's founders—conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and late literary critic, public intellectual, and writer Edward Said—this event provides a critical view on the entanglement of geography, music, and the migration of art and ideas. The evening will begin with a chamber music performance, followed by a conversation among visual artist Ergin Çavuşoğlu, violinist Samir Obaido, and composer Udi Perlman. This lively dialogue will explore themes pertaining to history, perception, and the colonial enterprise of the making of the “Middle East.”
This event is presented by UBS, a cultural collaborator of both the Guggenheim Museum and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in celebration of the exhibition But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa. On view at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna from April 11 to June 17, it is the eighth and final exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative.
Performers:
Michael Barenboim, violin, Samir Obaido, violin, Astrig Siranossian, cello, Katrin Spiegl, viola
Panelists:
Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, Dean, Barenboim-Said Akademie, and professor of musicology and composition (co-chair); Sara Raza, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East and North Africa (co-chair); Ergin Çavuşoğlu, artist; Samir Obaido, violinist; Udi Perlman, composer
This event will be live streamed via the UBS Art Facebook page. |
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