2 Minutes of Cultural Displacement

Here's a brief, free, yet revealing sneak peak at the work of Turkish Artist and Filmmaker Gülsün Karamustafa, one of several artists whose work will be featured in LIVE CINEMA LIVE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiEHoxuHWXU

for those whose appetites remain unslaked nor slarn, here's an interview from her most recent exhibition in Vienna.

http://www.castyourart.com/en/2010/02/04/gulsun-karamustafa-interview-with-the-artist-at-the-tanzimat-exhibition/

Letters to Palestine Facebook Group

Join the Facebook Group for the "Letters to Palestine," and get involved in the experiences of Arabs outside of Palestine in the increasingly intimate venue of Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119566024749125&v=info

Letters to Palestine is a documentary film which will gather the voices of various Arabs who are sending their unread letters to the Palestinian people living under occupation in current day Palestine.
It will capture the stories which never had the opportunity to reach the homes and the families of the Palestinians living under occupation.
From young to old, the Arabs captured in this film will have the chance to send their love, their stories, their aching for Palestine to the homes, families and children of Palestine

I'm not sure if anyone who visits this blog will ever see this film, but I've directed you all the the facebook group because of the capacity for lively and intimate discussion. Just negotiating one's way through the information it presents is quite interesting to say the least.

Art History Graduate Lecture Series

Are you worried that although you're having a great summer, that you now have to begin worrying about what art history lectures you're going to attend in the fall? Well the University of Delaware has done all the worrying for you and has already coordinated an intoxicating brew of sexy, exciting young Art History Graduate Lectures that are guaranteed to blow your mind all over your face! (assuming it hasn't already been blown by the events it's been scheduling this summer)

With 3 outstanding scholars agreeing to to speak on their new research in contemporary art, this fall promises to be one of the best the University has ever had!

Jonathan Katz (who will speak on "The Sexuality of Abstraction," about Agnes Martin);

Kaja Silverman (who will be joining Penn in the fall, and who is currently working on the Norwegian artist Knut Asdam) and

Barbara London, Curator of Video & Media at the Museum of Modern Art.

The department couldn't be more tickled about this roster of speakers. In the meantime, we're doing all the work for you right here at UD's Live Cinema Live Blog which will be giving you detail up to the minute on exhibitions and upcoming events on The University of Delaware campus.

Ali Akbar Sadeghi

Ubuweb has just posted some beautiful animations by Ali Akbar Sadeghi!!!

http://www.ubu.com/film/sadeghi.html

Sadeghi has been artistically active since the 1950s. His style is a kind of Iranian surrealism, based on Iranian forms and compositions of traditional paintings, the use of Iranian iconography, and the use of Persian cultural motifs, signs and myths, full of movement and action, in prominent and genuine oil colors, in large frames, very personal, reminiscent of epic traditional Persian paintings and illustrations, with a conspicuous decorative style.

He is among the first individuals involved in the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and the Youth, and was among the founders of the Film Animation department of this institute. Films produced by Sadeghi have won more than 15 awards at International Film Festivals. Also, for his book illustrations he has won four international awards.

Damascus

Words from Inci Eviner

Hold

She cut her feet so that
She can hold them in her hands.
She cut her feet. It didn?t hurt.
There was a pair of white feet in her hands.
Her toes were folded in cotton pads.
"Unfold them" said somebody.
"Unfold them". It hurt.

1997

Germ

NYU Abu Dhabi?

New York University's Abu Dhabi campus pulled the curtain off their impressive class of 2014 yesterday, with admissions statistics on par with elite US institutions such as Yale and Harvard. While comparable to other prestigious Institutions of higher learning in the US, one student, Laith Aqel, hints at the unique significance of NYU Abu Dhabi:

"To me it represents a whole new paradigm of education. The whole international experience is invaluable. I don't think there has ever been a more diverse group assembled whether you're looking at the faculty themselves or the students. It feels like the world is shrinking. NYUAD will prepare me to be a citizen of the world, not just my country."

USA Today's International Correspondant Elizabeth Redden has a fantastic article on the context, significance and concerns of this exciting breakthrough in higher learning that can be found here

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-06-21-IHE-NYU-Abu-Dhabi21_ST_N.htm

BBC Middle East Business Report: Affordable Art in Dubai

People may have less cash to spend at the moment, but the recession didnt stop one bidder paying more than 2.4 million dollars for a painting in Dubai recently. But, if none of that art is in your price range, how about something more affordable. In Dubai, there's a growing arts scene that's attracting more and more people to invest in art. Once the domain of the wealthy it could now come with a cheaper price tag. As Katy Watson has been finding out.

see it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdyMbYMKEg

Rumor

Glory

Hair

40 Second Preview of Christodolous Panayiotou

Cyprus-born, Berlin-based Christodoulos Panayiotou is an artist who works across a range of media, including video, photography and sound installations, frequently enlisting the help of musicians and actors. As most of you may know, he will be coming to the University of Delaware next month to give a workshop and other activities TBD. In the meanwhile, here's a 40 second clip that I'm sure won't really clarify anything, but just some food for thought.

3...

2...

1...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCe_8hWwO0k

Panayiotou is represented by the actor Max Mackintosh who wears a fetching jumper covered in Rupert in the Bear motifs. He reads a whimsical piece outlining the thematic similarities between childrens classic Mary Poppins and Pier Paolo Pasolinis decidedly more adult film Teorema (1968), in which a mysterious young man arrives at the home of a bourgeois family and affects the lives of all within. In-between mini-critiques of each film, he picks up a guitar and sings songs from Mary Poppins, including Just a Spoonful of Sugar, emphasising its ornithological themes, and later Lets Go Fly a Kite a hymn, he says, to the aesthetics of resolution.

In Cairo, someone will hear you scream.

"Don't hate us because we hate you, hate us because we're off pitch." I don't know if the members of the newest faction of the Complaint's Choir is saying this or not... but... how about "WE ARE CRANKY HEAR US HARMONIZE!!!"?????? This is the first time the Complaints Choir has infiltrated an area with actually challenging life circumstances... None other than Cairo Egypt. For those of you unfamiliar with the Complaint's Choir:

Complaints Choir is a community art project that invites people to sing about their complaints in a choir together with fellow complainers. The first Complaints Choir was organized inBirmingham (UK) in 2005, followed by the Complaints Choirs of Helsinki, Hamburg and St. Petersburg in 2006. The project was initiated by artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. A video installation consisting of the documentation of the public performances of the four choirs were shown at Kiasma (Helsinki, Finland), S.M.A.K. (Ghent, Belgium) and Museum Fridericianium Kassel (Germany) among other venues. When the video clips of the choirs were distributed through online magazines and video sharing websites, the idea spread quickly to many other countries. To date additional Complaints Choirs have been organized in Bodø (Norway), Poikkilaakso primary school (Helsinki, Finland), Budapest(Hungary), Chicago (Illinois, United States), Juneau (Alaska), Gabriola Island (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), Jerusalem (Israel), Singapore, Breslau (Poland), Hong Kong,Philadelphia, and Tokyo (Japan).

Matt Bradley's great article about in "The National"

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100602/FOREIGN/706019870&SearchID=73392575132328

Mike Hannula's Article on the art of complaining

http://www.complaintschoir.org/texts/mika_hannula_article.html

Judge for yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG8jhC38hO0