Abu Dhabi Festival

Abu Dhabi Festival has a trio of exhibitions this year: View From Inside (Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art), the 2015 Festival Commissions and Emirati Insights. The Festival is hosting the Middle East debut of FotoFest International with The View from Inside exhibition which includes over 140 works by over 35 leading Arab artists from 12 …

Interview with Ahmed Matar

Huffington Post's James Scarborough interviews Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Matar on Arab art "hitting the global art world with the force of a haboob, a summer sandstorm." Once you're done wincing at that line, read the whole of the interview here. On why the "Edge" in Edge of Arabia, Matar says: We were the first …

Two Matar Poems

يقظة Awakening صباح هذا اليوم This morning أيقظني منبه الساعة The alarm clock woke me up و قال لي : يا ابن العرب And told me: oh son of Arabs قد حان وقت النوم ! It is time to sleep! انحناء السنبلة The Stalk Bows أنا من تراب وماء I am made from dust and …

Ahmed Matar’s Black Humor

I have been listening to Ahmed Matar's poetry since childhood, when no long car ride was undertaken without the cassette tape of the Iraqi poet reciting poems, giving us lines which were a blend of humor and despair, ironic in  their tone, lacerating in their self-criticism, bringing us face to face with a shared Arab …