FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: David Strauss 718.592.9700 x

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: David Strauss 718.592.9700 x 145 [email protected] QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART AND ARTEEAST PRESENT TARJAMA/TRANSLATION, AN UNPRECEDENTED EXHIBITION FEATURING THE WORK OF 27 ARTISTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, CENTRAL ASIA AND ITS DIASPORAS EXPLORING PROCESSES OF CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC TRANSLATION May 10 – September 27, 2009 Queens, NY, April 14, 2009 – The Queens Museum of Art (QMA) and ArteEast are proud to present Tarjama/Translation, an exhibition featuring an influential subset of recent artwork from the Middle East and Central Asia and its diasporas as a complex and dynamic translational undertaking, on view at the QMA from May 10 through September 27, 2009. Featuring work by 27 emerging and established artists including Lara Baladi, Yto Barrada, Emily Jacir, Farhad Moshiri, Khalil Rabah, Michael Rakowitz,Wael Shawky, and Mitra Tabrizian, as well as newly commissioned pieces by Esra Ersen and Almagul Menlibayeva, Tarjama/Translation focuses on the common yet complex theme of cultural, artistic and critical translation in contemporary art. Tarjama/Translation is organized by ArteEast, and curated by Leeza Ahmady and Iftikhar Dadi, with assistant curator Reem Fadda. “The best contemporary artists are perhaps also the greatest translators; they create significance by transforming experience, perception and thought into acts and materials of communication,” notes exhibition co‐curator Leeza Ahmady. “By scrutinizing everything at hand, material, culture, society, belief, criteria, science, etc., they use everyday phenomena as material for translation, reading between the lines, probing the obvious, and burrowing through the camouflage of appearances to contemplate cultural specificity and universal relevance.” “Translation has usually been understood primarily as a language‐based operation‐indeed the now superceded English word dragoman (based on the Arabic word for translation, tarjuman) was the official title of a native speaker of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish assigned to European diplomats and traders during the Ottoman era,” observes curator Iftikhar Dadi. “Although language and text remain salient, Tarjama/Translation, p. 2 the exhibition also visually engages with the complexities of our present era that is saturated with intense mediatized visuality. In this exhibition, translation is understood as being multivalent, from the specificities of textual and visual manoeuvres to the larger sense of revealing fissures of the self, community, site and temporality. Tarjama/Translation thus foregrounds how contemporary artists negotiate the continued dislocational force of modern historical formations and track newer dilemmas engendered by globalization.” Gülsün Karamustafa, The City and the Secret Panther Fashion (video still), 2007. DVD,13 mins. Courtesy of the artist The terms Middle East and Central Asia are deployed in Tarjama/Translation, not as essentializing labels, but as dense nodes in historical and contemporary transnational exchange networks. By reshuffling the pertinence of geographical boundaries through the multivalent practices of translation, this unprecedented exhibition features artwork examining the different ways of engaging with people, objects, images, and ideas traveling across geographic spaces, media, histories, and personal contexts. “Tarjama/Translation is another important milestone in ArteEast's dedication to presenting contemporary arts from the Middle East to international audiences,” Livia Alexander, Executive Director of ArteEast. “Tarjama/Translation approaches a central pre‐occupation and a common theme with broad significance in the region and its diasporas, rather than highlighting the region as its main thematic.” Tarjama/Translation, p. 3 “The Queens Museum of Art has always valued the collaborations that have brought eye‐opening exhibitions to our diverse public,” said Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art. “With Tarjama/Translation and its related programs, we hope to further our goal of utilizing the arts to promote cross‐cultural understanding, in this case presenting the complexities of the Middle East and Central Asia.” Yelena Vorobyeva & Viktor Vorobyev, from Kasakhstan, Blue Period series, 2002‐2005, color photos, 20 x 30 inches. EXHIBITION SAMPLER In a scroll that rolls down from ceiling to floor, Pouran Jinchi has painstakingly transcribed only the accent markers of an entire chapter from the Qur’an. By consciously and deliberately excluding the letters of the Arabic script, Jinchi contemplates ritual and absence as a medium for translation. The work also metaphorically refers to the experience of millions of people in the world who are able to recite God’s words, but without understanding Arabic, the language in which the Qur’an is written. Farhad Moshri is one of the foremost Iranian artist to galvanize the international art market with million dollar prices. More importantly, he is also critically acclaimed for his masterfully ironic works that employ the amalgam of traditional Iranian art forms with those of consumerist globalized popular culture, prevalent in his country and in the Iranian diaspora. In collaboration with Shirin Aliabadi, Farhad Moshiri has re‐edited scenes from Iranian soap operas in their video titled: “Tehran TV Disoriented”. Moshiri excerpts scenes from various contemporary Iranian shows, pasting them along side scenes from shows of prior decades. The result is a humorous and uncanny telenovella‐collage, conveying how such seemingly innocent melodramas have become potent indoctrinators of social etiquette in society. Esra Ersen’s I Am Turkish. I Am Honest. I Am Diligent addresses her interest in the way identities are shaped and transformed in different contexts, especially within populist and nationalist power structures. Her presentation in New York showcases her work with a group of pupils in Gwangju, Korea. Tarjama/Translation, p. 4 This project entailed that the children wear Turkish school uniforms for a week, and write down their experiences, while Ersen videotaped their various activities and interactions. The students’ notes were then transferred directly on to their uniforms. For Tarjama/Translation, Ersen further translates the transformation of identity experience from Gwangju to New York viewers (and school groups from Queens) by exhibiting both the uniforms and video footage. Lara Baladi, Sandouk el Dounia (detail), Collage made in 2001, Tapestry made in 2008, woven tapestry from collage of 4 x 6 inch color photographic prints, 260 x 316 inches. Courtesy of the artist. In a series of mostly silent short videos, Rahraw Omarzad and other members of Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA) contemplate a variety of topics related to societal conditioning, including the effects of standardized education on the individual psyche. For Tarjama/Translation, the curators have installed CCAA’s humorous and perplexing videos on a monitor inside a recycled security booth. Only one person at a time may enter the small booth to view the works. This spatial restriction and manner of presentation refers to the dire circumstances in which artists produce works in Afghanistan. It is also a celebration of these artists’ creative and intellectual stamina to overcome those limitations to create poignant responses to war, loss, and recovery that speak equally of trauma and hope, paradise lost and found. Tarjama/Translation, p. 5 FEATURED ARTISTS Ayad Alkadhi, Iraq, b. 1972 Rabih Mroué, Lebanon, b. 1967 Nazgol Ansarinia, Iran, b. 1979 Rahraw Omarzad, Afghanistan, b. 1964 Hamdi Attia, Egypt, b. 1964 Khalil Rabah, Palestine, b. 1961 Lara Baladi, Egypt, b. 1969 Khaled Ramadan, Lebanon, b. 1964 Yto Barrada, Morocco, b. 1971 Michael Rakowitz, USA, b. 1973 Esra Ersen, Turkey, b. 1970 Solmaz Shahbazi, Iran, b. 1971 Khaled Hafez, Egypt, b. 1963 Wael Shawky, Egypt, b. 1971 Emily Jacir, Palestine, b. 1970 Mitra Tabrizian, Iran Pouran Jinchi, Iran, b. 1959 Alexander Ugay, Kazakhstan, b. 1978 John Jurayj, USA, b. 1968 Sharif Waked, Israel/Palestine, b. 1964 Gülsün Karamustafa, Turkey, b. 1946 Dilek Winchester, Turkey, b. 1974 Bouchra Khalili, Morocco, b. 1975 Yelena Vorobyeva & Viktor Vorobyev, Almagul Menlibayeva, Kazakhstan, b.1969 Kazakhstan, b. 1959 & 1959 Farhad Moshiri, Iran, b. 1963 Akram Zaatari, Lebanon, b. 1966
EXHIBITION‐RELATED PROGRAMMING In conjunction with Tarjama/Translation, ArteEast has scheduled a full slate of public programs to be presented with the Queens Museum of Art, the Asia Society, and Chelsea Art Museum throughout the run of the exhibition. These events include: a New Video Art showcase at the Asia Society on May 17 featuring work by Tarjama/Translation artists Esra Ersen, Gülsün Karamustafa, Mitra Tabrizian, Farhad Moshiri, Rahraw Omarzad, Alexander Ugay, Akram Zaatari, and others; a Central Asian Cinema Series at the QMA, taking place on the last Saturday of each month (May – September) and exploring the development of self‐determining national cultures in the immediate post‐Soviet independence era of the 1990s; and a June 11 screening and panel discussion with curators and artists at the Chelsea Art Museum. Details on these and other public programs related to the exhibition can be found at www.arteeast.org, www.queensmuseum.org, www.asiasociety.org and www.chelseaartmuseum.org. EXHIBITION CATALOGUE ArteEast has published an extensive 80 page catalogue including: forewords by Livia Alexander, Executive Director, ArteEast, and Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of Queens Museum of Art; critical essays by curators Leeza Ahmady, Iftikhar Dadi, Reem Fadda, and Salah Hassan; and artist entries contributed by William Wells, Negar Azimi, Hammad Nasar, Shiva Balaghi, and others. Tarjama/Translation, p. 6 ABOUT THE CURATORS LEEZA AHMADY Born in Afghanistan and raised as a young teenager in the United States, Leeza Ahmady is an independent curator, educator, and administrator. As a noted specialist in art from Central Asia she has presented at various international forums including the Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, and Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong. Most recently she curated The Taste Of Others, at Apexart in 2005, The Paradox of Polarity: Contemporary Art from Central Asia at Bose Pacia in 2007, and Parable of the Garden: New Media Art from Iran & Central Asia at The College of New Jersey Art Gallery in 2008. She is also Director of Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) at Asia Society, an annual citywide event showcasing artists from Asia at leading museums and galleries across New York City. IFTIKHAR DADI Iftikhar Dadi is Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art at Cornell University. His research interests include modern South Asian & Middle Eastern art and visual cultures, comparative modernities, and postcolonial theory. He is currently completing a book on modernism in South Asian art. Recent essays include “Shirin Neshat’s Photographs as Postcolonial Allegories,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (2008) and “Rethinking Calligraphic Modernism" in Discrepant Abstraction, ed. Kobena Mercer (MIT, 2006). He has co‐curated (with Salah Hassan) Unpacking Europe at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2001‐2002), and co‐edited Unpacking Europe: Towards a Critical Reading (NAi, 2001). Iftikhar is also an artist who collaborates with Elizabeth Dadi. Together, they have shown their work in numerous international venues. REEM FADDA Reem Fadda is a Ramallah‐based curator and art historian. Fadda was Director of the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA) between 2005‐07 and worked as Academic Director to the International Academy of Art – Palestine, which she helped found in 2006, as part of her approach in broadening the perimeters of curatorial experience towards education. She co‐curated and been involved in numerous projects on the contemporary Middle East, especially those pertaining to architecture, space and geopolitics, such as Liminal Spaces 2005‐08, and Decolonizing Architecture and Ramallah Syndrome, which will be showcased in the Venice Biennial 2009. She is the author of Palestinian Women Artists: The Land = The Body = The Narrative (2007). She received her MA in Curating from Goldsmiths College and was currently awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her PhD in History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University, where her research focus is contemporary aesthetic theory and practice of the Middle East. Tarjama/Translation, p. 7 EXHIBITION SUPPORT Major support for Tarjama/Translation has been provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts and the A. M. Qattan Foundation. # # # ABOUT ARTEEAST ArteEast is a New York‐based international nonprofit organization supporting and promoting artists from the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas by highlighting significant, provoking and groundbreaking work. Through an broad range of activities—including film screenings, exhibitions, educational programs, artist‐specific resources, an interactive virtual gallery and magazine, a resource‐
rich website, a virtual literary forum, and much more—ArteEast aims to elicit a broader and deeper understanding of the region's arts and cultures among an increasingly global audience as well as to encourage artistic excellence. Website: www.arteeast.org. ABOUT THE QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART The Queens Museum of Art was established in 1972 to provide a vital cultural center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the borough’s unique, international population. Today it is home to the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335 square foot scale model of the five boroughs, and features temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art that reflect the cultural diversity of Queens, as well as a collection of Tiffany glass from the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass. The Museum provides valuable educational outreach through a number of programs geared toward schoolchildren, teens, families, seniors and individuals with physical and mental disabilities. DIRECTIONS: The Queens Museum of Art is located in The New York City Building in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Car: Via the Grand Central Parkway, exit at Shea Stadium and follow signs to the Museum. Free parking. Subway: 7 to Willets Point/Shea Stadium and walk approximately 10 minutes through the Park to the Museum, which is located next to the Unisphere. Bus: Q48 to Roosevelt Avenue & 111 Street. South to Park. Q23, Q58 to Corona Avenue & 51 Avenue. East to Park. ADMISSION: Suggested donation: $5 for adults, $2.50 for students (with valid identification) and seniors. Free for children 5 and under. The first Sunday of every month is free for families attending Metlife Foundation presents First Sundays for Families programming. HOURS: The Museum is open Wednesday through Friday from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and from 12:00pm to 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday. The Museum is closed Monday, Tuesday and major holidays. Phone: 718.592.9700. Fax: 718.592.5778. Website: www.queensmuseum.org.