Annual Conference 2019
co-organised by Doha Institute For Graduate Studies and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art,
Doha, from 25 - 27 November 2019
Art Schools: Histories and trajectories
The 2019 Conference is dedicated to the histories and trajectories of art schools. It focuses on fine arts institutions as well as the marginal avant-garde groups that emerged in response to the multiple developments in art theories and innovative artistic practice around the globe. We seek to examine the varying historical and institutional formations of of Art Schools, and the emergence of groups and movements around new and alternative ideas. The programme brings together scholars and art professionals from different countries to look at specific contexts in Algeria, France, India, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Sudan and Tunisia.
The conference examines the modern “origins” of these institutions and initiatives, such as the establishment of colleges for teaching art, museums and cultural councils, all of which can be connected to the rise of the nation-state. At the periphery of the fields of fine arts, several groups formed in opposition to the more traditional art schools, or those based on binary classification systems. Located outside the institutions, these groups had complex relationships and interactions with the official practitioners in the field. While some took an avant-garde position, others were more conservative, and as some promoted national identity, others actively participated in transnational geographies.
Modern art institutions have changed dramatically in the last few decades. Since the post-independence(s) era, we have witnessed transformations in the relationships between the institutions and the alternative, marginal and conservative groups. The most salient of these has been the commodification of avant-garde art, due the increasing centrality of the market and the independent sector in the fine arts fields across all continents: the peripheries now compete with their centers over ownership of exchange values, the market, and civil society. The conference addresses these transformations through an exploration of academic, archival, and artistic projects focusing on the making of the fine art fields and their margins.
Touhami Ennadre, Hands, Silver print. Courtesy of the Artist. (Circa 1985).
MATHAF TALK
Spirit of Places and Light
Touhami Ennadre
With an introduction by Abdellah Karroum, Director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Date: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Time: 6 PM
Location: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Please join us for our first artist encounter in 2020.
Touhami Ennadre will discuss his trajectory as a photographer for more than 40 years. He will speak about photography as art expression and meaning beyond image. In his practice, the light that elevates a photograph as a work of art for Ennadre is comprehended in the spirit of place of encounter exemplifying the artist feelings of the subject. It is in this relationship that the decision to take a picture occurs.
The artist will also talk about his origins and belonging to specific places and communities as well as his response to post-millennium events such as 9/11 and the Arab Spring which informed his work in the recent years. For Touhami Ennadre, a true artist can extract expression from his subject or model beyond any spectacular images. Work of art expresses the relationship of the artist to history and humanity.
In addition to the Talk at Mathaf Touhami Ennadre will conduct a photography workshop with local artists and photographers.
For registration or further information, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Touhami Ennadre (born 1953, Morocco) is a Moroccan-French photographer internationally celebrated within the contemporary photography scene and practice. He participated in major exhibitions including Documenta 11 and The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945 – 1994. Known for his unique style of black and white photography, his work is part of major museum collections such as the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York, Frac Aquitaine in Bordeaux and Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.
Creative Conversation for Artists
Program Date: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Program Time: 4 – 6 pm
Program Description
Mathaf Art Programs invite you to join the next Creative Conversation for Artists with Artist Muna Al-Badr and Masoud Al-Bulushi on 10 March Mathaf!
Creative Conversation for Artists invites emerging and established practicing artists to present and debate new projects and conceptual ideas to the wide creative community of artists and curators in Doha. Artists will have the chance to engage an open dialogue about recent experimentation and lines inquiry in their work, as well as discussing the challenges faced in the creative process and development of conceptual thinking.
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
To register, click here
Join us share your thoughts!
Artist Encounters with artist Rima Kaddissi
Exploring Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Program Date: March 8, 9, 10, 11, 2020
Program Time: 4 – 7pm
Program Description
“In-House Lab” invites artists to challenge local resources and practices, through cross-collaborative creative experiments. The workshop aims at preserving identities and heritage, in the midst of the current technological disruption.
All workshops conducted in English
Admission is free. Seating is limited. Register early!
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Mathaf offers a unique opportunity to work with living artists to design a series of workshops that link an element of their personal creative process with an aspect related to the creation of the artworks in the Mathaf Collection.
Mathaf Talk with Rima Kaddissi:
Low-Tech art in High-Tech age
Cancelled until further notice
Join artist Rima Kaddissi as she presents her low-tech artistic practice in the midst of the current technological disruption. The artist will take us on a journey through a series of experiments she underwent in a face-a-face endeavor with the Computer.
The talk explores interdisciplinary relationships between art, science and technology. How could emerging technologies assist the creative process? How do we aspire to expand the human experience with the rise of the virtual realm as a possible new medium and platform?
Kaddissi will question our potential role, as those working in the creative sector, should we decide to step in and collaborate in writing the story of our future.
Rima Kaddissi was born in Lebanon in 1978. Ranging from performance to installation, video, and sound art, Kaddissi’s practice explores the impact of technology on the human body with its glitches and possible perfectness.
Since 2006, Kaddissi started developing the Artists’ Colab, the key structure of PACE, a cross-disciplinary Platform for Artistic Collaboration and Experimentation. Her research has been implemented in several academic and cultural institutions. She is currently teaching at ALBA (Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts) in Beirut.
Mathaf Talk is a series of educational public interventions focused on research and knowledge production around the strategies and practices of modern and contemporary art. The program invites artists and art professionals and aims to engage both the academic and local community, in larger conversations around artistic practices in Qatar and around the world.