May 2014. Setting up the exhibition Unedited History: Iran 1960-2014, at the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, (then at MAXXI, Rome). Unpacking surrealistic, iconoclastic collages by Bahman Mohassess (1931-2010) with a view to presenting them as the …
February 2017. Display at the Tate Modern, London (UK): Iranian Photobooks: from Revolution to War. I was honoured to present these “photobooks” published in Iran between 1979 and today, in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern. The display includes …
How is it possible to resign yourself to watching Baghdad and Iraq pass from being the cradle of mankind to the grave of history, from the Mesopotamian dream watering its land to the conflicts of the last few decades, relentlessly burning it? How do artists of all backgrounds (Iraqis, but not only) set forth on the trails of a heritage that is, if not erased, at the very least riddled with missing spaces? In this tragic context, how are we to re-think the fate of the national heritage, when the museum-city has seen its vestiges first moved to European museums, and then reduced to ashes?
December 2016. Exhibition Au-delà de la forme (‘Beyond Form’), Richard Serra and Mehdi Moutashar, Palais du Tau, Reims (France). A meeting of two outstanding artists in an unexpected context, on the initiative of the collector Didier Moiselet who, to his …
October 2016. A retrospective exhibition of works by Faouzi Laatiris, Catalogue déraisonné, Mohamed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rabat, Morocco. In the process of hanging the poster of the exhibition on the façade of the museum which, for …
December 2016. Galerie Atelier 21, Casablanca, Morocco. In the company of artist painter Mohammed Abouelouakar who only exhibits once every 3 or 4 years, a real hermit whose paintings (here “playing cards”) revive old Sufi tales and other pagan or …
December 2016. Collections of classical art from the São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil. A very dear art historian colleague who is staying in Brazil sent me this photo via WhatsApp. The paintings seem to be floating, released at last …
October 2016. Café Naderi, Tehran, Iran. I have come on a pilgrimage to hang out in the Lalezar district, the mecca of the Tehran artistic bohemian set. This was the café of choice for several generations of writers and painters, …
<font style="line-height:24px"September 2016. The exhibition Traité de Paix, San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian, in the Spanish Basque Country. A palpable hit, this multi-faceted exhibition curated by Pedro Romero, in which Velázquez and Marcel Broodthaers rub shoulders, and 17th century maps …
September 2016. Tehran Bazaar, Iran. A dear friend sent me this photo via WhatsApp. A shower of fluorescent colours on an underwear boutique which, from a distance, could be mistaken for a fairground sideshow. Anyway, fans of “Special Envoy” and …