Curated by Dr. Nada Shabout (Scotland, b.1962), Regents Professor of Art History and Coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative, University of North Texas, and Magalí Arriola (France/Mexico, b.1970), Director, Museo Tamayo.
During the twentieth century, migration, Arab diaspora communities, geopolitical challenges and anti-imperial struggles led to strong cultural affinities and solidarities between West Asia and North Africa and other postcolonial regions around the world. Beyond direct relationships, the different countries, including from Latin America, shared commonalities through empathies and congruities that resulted from navigating their new realities and its demands. In their search for modern and national identities, heritage and the past become instrumental in negotiating the new. Experiments in abstraction and heritage renewal speak of shared concerns and aspirations. This section will explore artistic and institutional intersections through specific themes that artists from different regions navigated to express their realities.
