- Artists
Veil: Introduction
Veil is a major international exhibition that examines one of the most powerful symbols in contemporary culture. Twenty artists and film-makers address the question of the veil in all its complexities and ambiguities, challenging any single or fixed cultural interpretation.
Veil spans the spectrum of contemporary visual arts practices, with an emphasis on lens-based work; on one level, the project is an exploration of the roles of photography, film and video as contemporary tools for addressing notions of the veil. This emphasis is underpinned by the inclusion of historic and contextual work. Gillo Pontecorvo’s ground-breaking documentary style film The Battle of Algiers (1965) is shown alongside the work of lesser known twentieth-century figures, such as French psychiatrist and photographer Gaëtan de Clérambault and the French military photographer of the Algerian War, Marc Garanger.
The curators for this project have selected and commissioned works from a wide cross-section of international artists who challenge an exotic voyeuristic positioning.
Artists include Faisal Abdu’Allah, Kourush Adim, AES art group, Jananne Al-Ani, Ghada Amer, Farah Bajull, Samta Benyahia, Shadafarin Ghadirian, Ghazel, Emily Jacir, Ramesh Kalkur, Majida Khattari, Shirin Neshat, Harold Offeh, Zineb Sedira, Elin Strand and Mitra Tabrizian.
Curated by Jananne Al-Ani, David A. Bailey, Zineb Sedira and Gilane Tawadros, this is the first project to address the question of the veil from the vantage point of contemporary visual art practice.