Middle East | Naima Morelli

Published! Interview with Mirna Bamieh on MEMO

21-11-2024

My interview with Palestinian artist Mirna Bamieh has been published by Middle East Monitor.

“In the past few months I have been making, just making, making, making those pieces and trying to translate emotions into colours and glazes and firing them and creating this alchemy of understanding around them,” she explained. Her move to Lisbon, added Mirna, is a welcome pause from producing so much work.

However, one conviction resonates very strongly with her; whether in a commercial context like the fair, an experimental gallery like Nika, or an institution like Shanghai: she believes in the meaning of standing up for what’s right. “As a Palestinian, all my life I was told that my voice is not important,” she concluded. “But it is. It is very important. It is very important to speak up.”

Here is the link to the interview

Published! Rethinking Animals in Contemporary Art for The Markaz Review

By: Naima Morelli

04-11-2024

Essay, Middle East, North Africa, Published

While, as human beings, we are bound to never fully transcend our human-centered perspective, art offers a means to glimpse beyond our own biases and limitations, imagining a world where animals and humans interact on equal terms.

I have written an essay on the presence of animals in art for The Markaz Review.

Here is the link to the article

Published! Interview with Dina Mimi on Middle East Monitor

By: Naima Morelli

08-10-2024

Interview, Middle East, Published

I have realized an interview with Palestinian artist Dina Mimi for Middle East Monitor. A compelling voice in the contemporary art scene, Dina Mimi’s work incorporates video, sound, performance and text to investigate the physicality of resistance in Palestine.

Here is the link to the interview

Published! Arab pavillions at the Venice Biennale on Hadara

By: Naima Morelli

02-10-2024

Italy, Middle East, News, North Africa, Published, Reportage

Being a foreigner is more than a state of mind. It is a state of the soul. The foreigner’s journey can be painful or enriching. Often it is both, as illustrated by a number of Arab artists at the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice, which continues through November 24.

Stranieri Ovunque, or Foreigners Everywhere, the theme of the Biennale chosen by curator Adriano Pedrosa, subverts the linear Western art trajectory by bringing outsider narratives to the forefront. The theme allows for explorations of identity, ethnicity, gender and belonging.

Published! Interview with Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan for Hadara

By: Naima Morelli

02-10-2024

Interview, Middle East, Published, Research

“Forty-five minutes before the preview opening of the Venice Biennale in April, there was already a long line of sleepy people waiting at the Arsenale. Half were elegantly dressed Arab women.

When Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan showed up a few minutes later with a big red smile, she was greeted by a peal of excited squeals. The line scattered, and the artist was cocooned for a group selfie. “They are Manal’s cousins,” explained an amused man in the line.

Most of these women have never been to the Venice Biennale before. It was AlDowayan’s participation that drew them. This was a chance to root for their heroine while enjoying what in Saudi Arabia has become the chicest of activities: art appreciation.”

My second piece interview with Manal has been published on the Saudi Magazine Hadara.

Here is the link to the interview

Published! Palestine at the 2024 Venice Biennale for MEMO

By: Naima Morelli

26-04-2024

English, Interview, Middle East, News, Published, Reportage, Research, Visit

The "South West Bank" show at Palazzo Mora [Naima Morelli]

My first report from Venice. Besides the controversy around the closed Israeli Pavilion, in this article for Middle East Monitor I look at three shows representing different facets of Palestine at the 2024 Venice Biennale

Here is the link to the article

Published! Interview with artist Mandy El-Sayegh for MEMO

By: Naima Morelli

05-04-2024

Collection, Interview, Malaysia, Middle East, News, Published, Research

Malaysian-Palestinian artist Mandy El-Sayegh .[Photo Abtin Eshraghi. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi]

Middle East Monitor has just published my latest interview with Malaysian-Palestinian artist Mandy El-Sayegh.

Based on assemblage and cultural hybridity, the artist’s work uses artifacts from contemporary culture to speak of the current political climate.

Here is the link to the interview

Published! Desert X AlUla on Qantara

By: Naima Morelli

02-04-2024

Middle East, News, Published, Reportage, Research, Review, Visit

Art installation at the Desert X AlUla 2024 exhibition in Saudi Arabia

Over the past three years, there has been a shift in perception around the Saudi Arabian art scene, and at this year’s Desert X AlUla, artists benefitted from freer expression.

I have review the art festival for the German webmagazine Qantara.

Here is the link to the article

Published: Review of Mathaf Museum in Doha

By: Naima Morelli

16-03-2024

English, Essay, Middle East, News, Published, Reportage, Research

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha [Naima Morelli]

With shows that range from political stances to introspective research, Doha’s Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art proves itself to be one of the most authoritative voices for Arab narratives and the Global South in art.

Here is the link to the article

Published! Interview with Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan for MEMO

By: Naima Morelli

13-02-2024

Middle East

Artist Manal AlDowayan poses ahead of the opening of the exhibition 'The Future of a Promise' in Venice, Italy on June 1, 2011 [Marco Secchi/Getty Images]

I am just back from Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia, where artist Manal AlDowayan has two shows in the context of the Al-Ula art festival.

I sat with the artist asking her about her partecipation at the upcoming Venice Biennale, and about her work based on both tradition, community partecipation and women in Saudi Arabia.

Here is the link to the interview

Published! Nadine Khalil’s I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body on The Markaz Review

By: Naima Morelli

06-02-2024

Interview, Middle East, News, Published

In my interview with curator Nadine Khalil for The Markaz Review, we discover the artists on display in Dubai in the exhibition, I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body, on view at the Nika Gallery through the 24th of February, 2024.

Here is the link to the article

Published! Interview with director of Palestine Museum US for MEMO

By: Naima Morelli

01-02-2024

English, Interview, Italy, Middle East, Published, Research

Faisal Saleh, founder of Palestinian Museum, speaks during the inauguration of the facility in Woodbridge, Connecticut, April 22, 2018. [HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images]

“A few months ago, the director of the Palestine Museum US, Faisal Saleh, was in a room in Venice with members of the commission for the 2024 Venice Art Biennale. They tried to explain to him why his proposal for a collateral exhibition of Palestinian artists was rejected.

Saleh is not only Palestinian, but also very American in his ethos. So, he told me, when the Biennale spokesperson tried to convince him that art and politics have to be kept separate, he didn’t hesitate to tell them, ‘Well, I may not be as much of an expert on art as you are, but I do know that politics and art are intertwined. You can’t really separate one from the other.’ “

Faisal Saleh, director of the Palestine Museum US has started a petition to have a Palestinian-only collateral show at the Venice Biennale 2024. I spoke with him for Middle East Monitor.

Here is the link to the interview

Naima Morelli

Published! Interview with Mirna Bamieh on MEMO

Published! Rethinking Animals in Contemporary Art for The Markaz Review

Published! Interview with Dina Mimi on Middle East Monitor

Published! Arab pavillions at the Venice Biennale on Hadara

Published! Interview with Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan for Hadara

Published! Palestine at the 2024 Venice Biennale for MEMO

Published! Interview with artist Mandy El-Sayegh for MEMO

Published! Desert X AlUla on Qantara

Published: Review of Mathaf Museum in Doha

Published! Interview with Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan for MEMO

Published! Nadine Khalil’s I Can No Longer Produce the Limits of My Own Body on The Markaz Review

Published! Interview with director of Palestine Museum US for MEMO

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