If you missed it at Art Dubai, you must try to get your hands on a copy of this book.
Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring is a compendium of conversations with artists from the Arab world, undertaken and compiled by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, curators and experts in art from this part of the world.
Inspired by the exhibition Told, Untold, Retold, a show of 23 commissions from artists with roots in the Arab world, which the pair curated for the inauguration of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha in 2010, the book is a series of conversations, which delve not only into the practice of the 11 artists interviewed but their lives, views and perspectives.
“Back then [in 2010] the aim was to contextualise Mathaf’s collection which is mostly pan Arab Modernist art,” explains Fellrath. “The idea was to find mid-career artists to work on one commission and in doing so highlight the diversity in which these artists work and think.”
This was the core of the exhibition and although a few years have passed, it is also at the heart of this must-read book.
“We didn’t have time to do a publication at the time and one of the things we wanted to do was to capture the spirit and record the conversations. There was a certain tension in that show and an energy that captivated you. The Arab Spring started soon after and all these social shifts occurred and it was important for us to reflect on that.”
Although not about the so-called Arab Spring, the book clearly references this movement in the title and is an underlying topic within the wide-ranging conversations that follow.
In that sense, continues Fellrath, it is supposed to act as a primary document, material to capture the spirit of the time. But on a much more universal level, it speaks to the humanity within all of us.
“I strongly believe these are all individuals that have very interesting life stories and have something very personal to share that sheds a light on how diverse we all are, that there are so many ways of finding your own happiness in life, and that you can never really generalise those things.
“That to us, is much more important than anything, we want to highlight humanity, we are all people and come from somewhere, it is really very simple but this message gets so often lost in the art world.”
The interviews, conducted in Cairo, Beirut, Dubai, Paris, London and New York, are with: Manal Al Dowayan, Ghada Amer, Lara Baladi, Wafa Bilal, Mounir Fatmi, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Khalil Rabah, Zineb Sedira, Hassan Sharif and Akram Zaatari.
Whilst the focus is not on images and there is very little art work in the book, the profile pictures were taken by Sueraya Shaheen, whose collection of portraits of artists from across the region captures them honestly and candidly and make a really wonderful edition to this book.
* Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring is published by Skira available in Jashanmal, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai or online at Amazon. From mid-April, it will be in all good art book stores worldwide.
