abcad/Albareh Art Gallery has commissioned Kuwaiti-Dutch artist Mo Reda  to art direct as well as Curate its first edition of the “Artist leadership Program”, an initiative of abcad. Having mentored the artists for nearly 10 weeks as well as curating a series of exhibitions titled “Preludes”, Mo Reda will end this edition with a carefully curated exhibition that aims to tackle some of the needs of Bahrain’s contemporary art scene.

 

“Displacement” will open on March 27, 2013 in which 17 of Bahrain’s artists will present their own interpretations of the exhibition concept. This exhibition promises to be an important event that deserves to be closely followed by those interested in the development of independent contemporary art practices in Bahrain as well as the development of the local artistic talent.

 

“Displacement” is the result of a one-on-one mentoring project led by the curator. He began his work in mid-January 2013 with a group of artists that showed potential. The process in itself pushed these emerging artists further by challenging them to outreach and stretch their own creative process while confronting the concept of Displacement.

 

It is without a doubt that small-scale, personal initiatives such as this have the utmost meaningful impact on Bahrain’s emerging art scene.

 

Tamkeen and the Economic Development Board of Bahrain support this project.

 

The curator’s concept for the artists is as follows:

 

 

Description: This project explores/researches displacement and all its associated impacts such as identity, belonging, alienation, and the individual’s position in society.

Some of the questions participants will be asked to explore as a concept for their work are the following:

What is belonging and how is it related to alienation? What is displacement? Is this something caused by social/domestic interaction? Or is the individual by birth already estranged while society conditions the understanding of belonging and identity? What is identity? Does the sense of belonging to a place/time continue or stop by becoming displaced? Is displacement only physical? Can one be displaced internally? And in this case, what remains of the individual? Is belonging something that is related to a person externally or internally?

 

For further information, please visit http://www.albareh.com/ or contact programmes@albareh-abcad.com. More details can also be found by joining the “Albareh Art Gallery” page on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perry El Ashmawi
 

Somaya Abdulghani
 

Yasmine Sharabi
 

Yusuf Al Qattan
 

Zuhair Al Saeed
 

Mayasa Al Sowaidi