Poetry and exile exhibition - BM

 The distant imagination of the Middle East’s exiled writers

   

Women and children refugees evacuate the village of Zenin during the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. John Phillips / Time Life Pictures / Getty Images

Since early Islamic days, Arabic literature has been engaged with hijrah, or migration – a theme that became particularly potent after 1948 and, more recently, with the bloody conflicts in Iraq and Syria. To illustrate the importance and urgency of the problem of displacement, a recent conference at Columbia University explored its various manifestations in classical and contemporary Arabic literature.

“Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience,” Edward Said wrote in his essay Reflections on Exile. “It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.”

The anxiety and alienation described by Said have been central to the work of many Arab poets’ work, particularly since the postcolonial era and the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. As changing borders and threatened nation-states continue to destabilise the region and drive countless Arabs from their homes, the problems of migration, exile and lost homelands is now more urgent than ever, says the literary scholar Muhsin Al Musawi, who organised a major conference, Arabic Literature: Migration, Diaspora, Exile, Estrangement, at Columbia University last autumn.

“Exile and migration have only been gaining more attention lately,” explains Al Musawi, who presented a paper on the Palestinian poet Darwish during the conference. “The question has become a subgenre in the humanities and in the next 20 years it will be one of the main topics in academia – in sociology, political science and history.”

These massive changes make a deep mark on a region’s literary work, and poetry in particular has played a central role in the region. “Poets feel the huge burdens that are endangering human life,” the scholar explains. “These changes are as enormous as the world wars. We are talking about billions of people who are getting dislocated or killed. The poet cannot stand aside and claim that he has nothing to reflect on.”

Subjects at the Columbia University conference ranged from the question of translation to the poetry of Adonis and Darwish; the Nakba; Arab Jews; Moroccan fiction writers and Abbasid poets.

Indeed, themes of migration and estrangement have been present since the beginning of Arabic culture. Since pre-Islamic times, the Arab poet was actively involved in society, speaking for his tribe, fighting injustice and oppression. “Historically, there is a sense of exile in Arab writing,” explains Al Musawi. “The idea of the stranger is very old in Arabic literature. The idea of deportation and migration is always there. However, with the postcolonial stage, you find a different scale of massive deportations and migrations.”

Reflecting on these crises, the poet’s work expresses the angst and questioning that mark the Middle East after the colonial era. The “free verse” movement that began in the 1940s sought a new revolutionary language and form to reflect the changes that were shaking up postcolonial Arab societies. The poets of the movement struggled to speak out for social and political change, in Sartre’s tradition of engagement (iltizam). But while these poets held an important role in society and politics, artistic protest was perilous. Poets – including the Iraqi modernist Abdel Wahab Al Bayati, the Egyptian Muhammad Afifi Matar and Moroccan-born Abdellatif Laâbi – were often persecuted, tortured and jailed.

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http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-distant-imagination-of-the-middle-easts-exiled-writers

Adonis in Venice, Italy, last year. Barbara Zanon / Getty Images
 

Dunya Mikhail. Courtesy Dunya Mikhail
 

The Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish gestures during a show in the northern Israeli city of Haifa in 2007. AFP / Pool / Gil Cohen Magen
 

The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish.
 

Selected Poems by Adonis.
 

The War Works Hard by Dunya Mikhail.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The distant imagination of the Middle East’s exiled writers
 

zt  http://blog.britishmuseum.org/tag/poetry/

Poetry and exile: contemporary art from the Middle East

Holly Wright, administrator, British Museum

The current temporary display in the John Addis Gallery: Islamic World, Poetry and exile: works by Abdallah Benanteur, Ipek Duben, Mireille Kassar, Mona Saudi and Canan Tolon, curated by Venetia Porter, brings together the recently acquired work of six artists all exploring the phenomenon of exile. In a gallery predominantly populated with Islamic art and objects dating as early as the 7th century, it could be said that this display of contemporary art is incongruous. So why is it here?

Ahmed Mater, Magnetism, 2012. One of four photogravures showing different stages of the installation of the magnet and iron filing (2012,6018.3, Funded by Abulaziz Turki). © Ahmed Mater

I first became interested in the modern and contemporary collections of the Middle East department in 2012, while visiting Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam. The work of Ahmed Mater immediately stood out to me, as it added an unexpected emotional interpretation of the pilgrimage to Mecca which was unique and surprising to me as a visitor. I would later go on to study the collection of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art in greater detail for my MA, still barely scraping the surface; as it continues to grow and to be used in increasingly imaginative and diverse ways.

In this display the concept of exile is approached through the personal experiences of each artist and their political and humanitarian views. Each work directs the viewer to the incidents that have inspired them and it is these references which place the art within a broader context. Not only do the works inspire an emotional response but they also ignite curiosity as to what inspired those artists. It is this emotional engagement and varied approach which makes the pieces so important and interesting to me, and hopefully to the visitors who will see the display.

Ipek Duben, Refugee, 2010, photoprint and hand-stitching on synthetic silk on Canson paper, (2011,6029.1, funded by CaMMEA, the Contemporary and Modern Middle Eastern Art Acquisitions group). © Ipek Duben

The works in the display were not created in isolation; their influences overlap whether it be on specific political or personal events or the work of poets such as Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) and Farid al-Din Attar (c. 1145–c.1221). The works are all united by difficulty, whether that of the artist or the experiences of others. Ipek Duben formulates this difficulty in her book Refugee by overlaying images of suffering with delicate gauze and simple embroidered text and in doing so she starkly contrasts the hardship shown in the images. The simplicity of the technique employed gives the work a scrapbook feel, rendered incredibly moving as it highlights the experiences of refugees from Kosovo, Pakistan, Liberia and elsewhere.

Mona Saudi, Homage to Mahmoud Darwish, The Poem of the Land, 1979, silkscreen on watercolour. (2014,6026.2, funded by CaMMEA). © Mona Saudi

Mona Saudi’s work Homage to Mahmoud Darwish, one of three displayed on the opposite wall, is inscribed with the poetry of the renowned and revered Palestinian poet (1941–2008). The one illustrated here is The Poem of the Land. For me, an interesting element of this work is that the style of Saudi’s drawings echo posters which she created for the Plastic Arts Section of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, some of which are displayed alongside Homage and are part of a group that have been donated by the Palestinian Poster archive. This is a unique quality of the British Museum’s collection of Middle Eastern art, in that the works often contain references that extend beyond the collection itself and in doing so give even small displays the ability to explore more widespread elements of history and human experience.

Canan Tolon, Futur Imparfait, 1986-9. Ink and graphite on Mylar (2013,6039.1.1-33 funded by CaMMEA and SAHA, an association which supports artistic projects connected to contemporary Turkish art). © Canan Tolon

In Canan Tolon’s series, Futur Imparfait, her exile is more singular and personal. Inspired by her experience of illness as a child, the series acts as a memory of her protracted stay in a French hospital when she was separated from her home. The thirty delicate drawings on Mylar add a voice from another perspective. It is a series executed in ethereally light washes of ink and graphite, reflecting the removed reality she experienced while in a strange country and environment. Tolon’s own words are relevant regarding not only her own work but of the artists in the exhibition as a whole:

… it is not the misfortune of others which fascinates and astonishes but the extraordinary will of a child to live…

This sentiment is characteristic of the message and draw of the works in this display; there are painful and violent stories here, but predominantly it is the human reaction to these events and not the suffering in itself which is explored. The aftermath of war, illness and displacement is discussed through delicate drawings and through poetry. This alone is reason enough for these pieces to be here.

This space within the gallery of Islamic art is used for rotations of works on paper from across the collection that we are not able to put on permanent display. These include Persian or Mughal paintings, even shadow puppets as were featured in a previous display. With the ever-expanding collection of Middle Eastern art, this small area will continue to host increasingly diverse and exciting exhibitions, so watch this space! Further information on this collection and the Middle East department as a whole can also be found on the Museum’s collection online.

Before joining the Museum as an administrator in the Middle East Department in 2013, Holly Wright studied for the MA in Museum and Artefact Studies at Durham University. Her dissertation was ‘Collecting the contemporary: modern and contemporary art in the Middle East Department of the British Museum’.

Poetry and exile: works by Abdallah Benanteur, Ipek Duben, Mireille Kassar, Mona Saudi and Canan Tolon is on display in Room 34 until 1 March 2015, admission