Slavs and Tatars

NOUVELLES VAGUES | Palais de Tokyo | June 21 - September 9, 2013

Palais de Tokyo, along with thirty galleries and art spaces throughout Paris, innovates once more to emphasize the emergence of the figure of the curator. At Palais de Tokyo, “Nouvelles vagues” (New Waves) is a large-scale event organized by 21 international young curators (hailing from 13 different countries), working individually or in groups, and selected by a jury from over 500 candidates. Curated by Adnan Yildiz, Slavs and Tatars are included in the group section titled 'A History of Inspiration' which is a conceptual attempt to investigate the epistemological relationships between two spaces of imagination, sky and screen, via two image references separated by five centuries: a 16th century miniature and a Microsoft wallpaper. By bringing them together, the exhibition promises to develop a methodological approach to the phenomena of curiosity and imagination, and in particular how our conception of the future can be seen as a history of inspiration.

Museum Off Museum | Bielefeld Kunstverein | September 7 – November 3, 2013

The Bielefelder Kunstverein presents a two-part exhibition titled Museum Off Museum. The exhibitions together with its accompanying programme, has devoted itself to the current interest among artists in the "museum" as a concept for reflection and space of opportunity within changing global circumstances. The exhibition provides examples of seven contemporary artistic positions that broach and extend the issue of central principles in museums´ practice, such as collecting, ordering, presenting and mediating.

Youssef Nabil

Matisse à Nice , Palm Trees, Palms and Palmettes | MUSÉE MASSENA, Nice, France | June 21 - September 23, 2013

After his trip to Saint-Tropez in 1904, Matisse’s painting was full of azure blue themes. They were structured around three principal elements: the window, opened to the outside, the shutters which were often associated with it, and the palm tree. In the wake of Matisse, other painters, starting with Picasso, Bonnard and Dufy succumb to the influence of the Mediterranean and incorporate into their paintings the now inescapable palm tree.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of its Musée Matisse, the City of Nice presents, for the first time, eight simultaneous exhibitions in homage to Henri Matisse and his work. Aside from works by Matisse, Youssef Nabil is showing alongside artists like Picasso, Duffy, Bonard, and contemporaries like Bill Viola in PALM TREES, PALMS AND PALMETTES.

Hayv Kahraman

Echoes: Islamic Art and Contemporary Artists | Nelson-Atkins Museum | August 31, 2013 - March 30, 2014

What is Islamic Art? How do contemporary artists respond to Islamic art and culture in their own work? This exhibition will explore these questions through a series of visual conversations that make connections across cultures, geography and time.

The installation will juxtapose historical objects and architecture with works by contemporary artists that employ traditional Islamic styles, materials and subject matter as their source. The artistic achievements of traditional Islamic art will be represented by works in the Nelson-Atkins permanent collection, including examples of calligraphy, ceramics, paintings, carpets and architectural forms.

Echoes is part of a city–wide collaborative project focusing on Islamic art and culture, featuring exhibitions, artists' residencies and public programming at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kansas City Artists Coalition, and the Kansas City Public Library.

Hassan Hajjaj

My Rock Stars: Volume 1 | VCUQatar Gallery, Doha | September 4 - October 24, 2013, Opening: 6PM

My Rock Stars: Volume 1 by acclaimed artist/photographer Hassan Hajjaj pays homage to traditional African portraiture, while celebrating present-day pop stars, unsung artists and personal inspirations in Hajjaj’s life.

The show first opened at The Third Line, Dubai in September 2012, is now exhibiting at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Iran Modern | Asia Society, New York | September 6, 2013 - January 5, 2014

Asia Society is organizing a landmark exhibition, Iran Modern, that will focus on Iranian art created during the three decades leading up to the revolution of 1979. Asia Society’s aim is to shed light on a period when Iranian artists were engaged with the world through the Tehran Biennial in Iran as well as exhibitions overseas, and when their work was collected by institutions inside and outside of Iran. The exhibition maps the genesis of Iranian modernism in order to argue that the development of modernist art is inherently more globally interconnected than previously understood.

The first major U.S. international loan exhibition on the subject, Iran Modern comprises over 100 paintings, sculpture, photography, and works on paper by the most noteworthy Iranian artists of the 1950s to 1970s, and provides a dynamic perspective on Iran’s rich culture and history for the public.

Ala Ebtekar

CYLINDR.US | Evenings, and part of Artists Drawing Club | Asian Art Museum, San Francisco| September 12, 2013

Artist Ala Ebtekar will work with a number of collaborators to present Cylindr.us, a night of events surrounding the exhibition The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning.

Cylindr.us is a project in seven movements, each exploring another facet of the exhibition. The night examines why, more than 2,500 years after the Cyrus Cylinder’s creation, the object remains so culturally significant, and how the legendary figure Cyrus the Great holds such strong influence on ideas about modern civilization. The project finds inspiration from the collaboration between the artist and Bay Area students.

Amir H. Fallah

Sense and Sensibility I Mt. San Antonio College Art Gallery, 1100 N. Grand Ave., Walnut, Ca 91789 | September 12 - October 17, 2013

This exhibition puts in focus the multi-faceted and versatile role of artists today (whether critics, curators, professors, teachers, dealers, consultants, or exhibition designers). The theme was driven further by the fact that such dual commitments to art are not always known to the wider public. Sense and Sensibility I (part one of a two part exhibition) draws its inspiration from, and opens communication about, today's "art professionals" and their commitments to their artistic communities, in order to build awareness of their public roles in society.

Tarek Al-Ghoussein

PHOTOQUAI 2013 - 4th Photography Biennale | Quai Branly, Paris, France | September 17 - November 17, 2013

For its 4th edition, the Photoquai photography biennale is settling on the banks of the Seine, in the garden of the musée du quai Branly, to present the unpublished works of 40 non-European photographers. This year, all the images presented relate to the human figure: landscapes, objects, fashion or architecture appear in the form of elements that accompany the human being.

Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Babak Golkar, Sahand Hesamiyan

The Blue Route | Villa Empain, Brussels | September 27, 2013 - February 9, 2014

This exhibition follows the traces of the Silk Road through the colour blue which, for many centuries, has inspired artists, craftsmen and poets, in East and West alike.

From the Mediterranean to China, this imaginary journey will involve the indigo of textiles, the blue ceramics of the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia, turquoise, lapis-lazuli and sapphire sculpture and jewellery, and paintings and miniatures, culminating in the famous China blue.

Abbas Akhavan

4th Athens Biennial | Former Athens Stock Exchange, 8-10 Sofokleous st. | September 29 – December 1, 2013. Preview: September 28

The Athens Biennale functions within an international network of large-scale periodic contemporary art events. It emerged from the intense cultural activity that makes Athens one of the most interesting places for contemporary art, and it aims to be an agent of constant change and innovation, provide a context for creativity and dialogue and constitute a wide platform for the designation and the critical engagement of local artistic production, as well as a forum of discussion and exchange with the international scene.

Ten Thousand Suns | Satellite gallery | September 13 - October 26, 2013

Ten Thousand Suns features works in sculpture, audio, video and performance by Rebecca Belmore, Tanya Tagaq, Luke Parnell, Guadalupe Martinez, Abbas Akhavan, Jamie Look, Ali Ahadi, Erin Siddall, Carlos Colín and Brianne Nord-Stewart. These artists investigate our past and present relationships to resource extraction, the body and land.

The exhibition brings together contemporary artists from British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Argentina, Iran and Mexico. Exploring effacement, memory and remembering this exhibition will consider the layered interconnections of policy with respect to resource-based development projects in Canada and globally, modern technology and artistic practice.