The Bluecoat and Open Eye Gallery present in collaboration with Zenith’s Arab Cities project:
 
New Ends, Old Beginnings
 
11 July - 3 September 2008

at the Bluecoat and Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool.
 

Featuring works by Can Altay, Ziad Antar, Lara Baladi, Cevdet Erek, Tarek Al Ghoussein, Chourouk Hriech, Randa Mirza, Michael Rakowitz, Hrair Sarkissian, Sharif Waked and Tarek Zaki.

The cities of the Arab region are incredibly diverse, from sites of ancient civilisations to some of the most youthful urban establishments in the world. Similarly, their heritage and contemporary cultures are varied and complex. While cities, such as Baghdad, struggle in the midst of war to protect their museums and architectural heritage, others like Cairo attempt to balance ancient history and 21 st century culture. Ancient cities, like Damascus and Beirut, have been overtaken by rapid development, and in the case of the latter, devastated by wars. Then there are cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi that are in the early stages of promoting a new urban cultural legacy by creating a space for the arts from scratch, adopting cultural super brands, such as the Guggenheim and the Louvre.

New Ends, Old Beginnings investigates the Arab region through artist's responses to the many layers of local and everyday cultures, a perspective that the world's media often overlooks or avoids making visible, preferring instead to present images that shock and manipulate viewers. Artists in the exhibition ask what aspects of a city's culture can and should be saved and shared? How can hundreds of years of history co-exist with current and future cultural practices? Can a newly created cultural hub ever be considered as authentic? An examination of heritage as physical, symbolic and traditional elements of urban reality also informs how these cities are perceived by those from outside. What does tourism mean for cities of the Arab region and how abstracted is the virtual tourism fed to us by the media?

The works included in New Ends, Old Beginnings reveal features of and issues pertaining to cultural heritage through the lens of the contemporary state of cities in the Arab region. Works have been commissioned and selected with reference to themes of heritage, cultural industry and tourism, as well as the possibility for art to communicate daily realities of urban life. Comprised of photography, video, sculptural installation and performance, the exhibition is presented across two Liverpool venues, the Bluecoat and Open Eye Gallery, and coincides with the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival (11 - 27July 2008).

Works include a new photographic commission by Lara Baladi incorporating traditional Arab rituals as inspiration and another by Can Altay based on research undertaken in Dubai, a Liverpool specific rendition of the work Return by Michael Rakowitz (initially presented in New York in collaboration with Creative Time) that looks to Iraq and its disappearing cultural heritage, Monument by Tarek Zaki that deals with the concept of creating a new and future culture alongside the conservation of its historical precedence in Egypt, and Jericho First by Sharif Waked , a work inspired by a touristic post card that references the political significance of archeology in this region. In addition, the exhibition also includes photography by Hrair Sarkissian, Tarek Al Ghoussein and Randa Mirza, drawings by Chourouk Hriech, a video by Ziad Antar, and a sculptural intervention by Cevdet Erek.

New Ends, Old Beginnings is curated by Istanbul-based November Paynter and produced in partnership between the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery and Zenith Foundation with funding from Arts Council England, The Culture Company, Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation and Henry Moore Foundation.

Admission to the Bluecoat and Open Eye Gallery is free.

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the Bluecoat
School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
telephone: +44 (0) 0151 709 5297
fax: + 44 (0) 0151 707 0048

Tickets & Information + 44 (0) 0151 702 5324 or www.thebluecoat.org.uk

Open Eye Gallery
28-32 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4AQ
Telephone: +44 (0)151 709 9460
www.openeye.org.uk