The Mosaic Rooms

In 2016-17, The Mosaic Rooms presented several cultural and artistic activities and events to the London audience. Below is a brief presentation of The Mosaic Rooms’ contributions.

Four exhibitions took place at The Mosaic Rooms this year:

Sea Change – Chapter 1: Character 1, In the Rough: Hajra Waheed, 11 March 2016–21 May 2016: This exhibition was the first showcase of works from the opening chapter of Hajra Waheed’s long-term project Sea Change. This visual novel is dedicated to reclaiming a sense of the personal and the poetic from the consequences of regional development, political upheaval and civil conflict.

In The Future They Ate from The Finest Porcelain: Larissa Sansour, 3 June 2016–20 August 2016: The first London solo exhibition of internationally exhibited artist Larissa Sansour offered a poetic and charged reflection on the politicization of archaeology in contemporary Israel/Palestine. The exhibition featured an acclaimed video piece, produced with financial support from The Mosaic Rooms/A. M. Qattan Foundation.

What Language Do You Speak Stranger?: Katia Kameli, 16 September 2016–3 December 2016: The first UK solo exhibition of French-Algerian artist Katia Kameli drew together both new and recent work. The exhibition took the audience on a journey exploring the power of storytelling, historical authenticity and national identity. It comprised two films and an installation, the development of which was supported by The Mosaic Rooms.

YAYA16: Pattern Recognition 20, January 2017–18 March 2017: The Mosaic Rooms worked with curator Nat Muller to present selected artists shortlisted for the AMQF’s prestigious Young Artist of the Year Award (YAYA) 2016. The artists were challenged to break loose from familiar representations of art created in the Palestinian context. The exhibited artists were: Inas Halabi, Somar Sallam, Asma Ghanem, Noor Abed, Majd Masri and Ruba Salameh.

The Mosaic Rooms hosted a number of book launches including This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World, with author and Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at SOAS, Jerry Brotton; About My Mother by distinguished French-Moroccan novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun, who spoke in conversation with his translator Lulu Norman and journalist Rosie Goldsmith; Bashir Abu-Manneh launched his book The Palestinian Novel: From 1948 to the Present and spoke in conversation with Razia Iqbal. Artist Corinne Silva launched her book Garden State which was produced with support from The Mosaic Rooms. Raja Shehadeh discussed his new book Where the Line is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine,reflecting on the personal impact of Occupation with Gillian Slovo.

Talks included a discussion on the destruction of cultural heritage and illicit trade of objects from Iraq and Syria with Benjamin Isakhan, Neil Brodie and Toby Dodge; Forensic Architecture and Forensic Oceanography launched a new report on the militarized border regime in the Mediterranean Sea as part of an event series curated by Tate curator Nada Raza; contemporary strategies and use of science fiction was the focus of a discussion between curator Amal Khalaf and artists Sophia Al Maria, Malak Helmy and Sarah Abu Abdallah. Academic Marina Warner and curator Omar Berrada reflected on storytelling and story-making and Dr. Christine van Ruymbeke discussed the six medieval Persian versions of the fables of Kalila wa Dimna. Curator Rachael Dedman presented a series of artist short sci-fi films and Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek presented her visual research into memory and place in the context of the ongoing Palestinian dispossession.

There were a number of performances in the past year. Artist and poet Himali Singh Soin performed in response to Hajra Waheed’s exhibition, a special one-on-one performance by Tania El Khoury in collaboration with Basel Zaraa, As Far As My Fingertips Take Me took place later in the year. Music events included the Yazz Ahmed Quartet performing music inspired by traditional Bahraini pearl divers songs, organized in partnership with Arts Canteen, and a late opening of vintage Arab music with DJ Chris Menist. Artist Quratulain Shams led a workshop on miniature painting techniques.

Film screenings included CAMP’s film From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf introduced by Professor Edward Simpson of SOAS and a screening of The Pan-African Festival of Algiers introduced by film historian and curator Olivier Hadouchi. A film programme ‘Crisis and Creativity: A Season of Contemporary Films from and about the Arab World,’ curated by Shohini Chaudhuri, was particularly well received. The season featured an evening of short films themed ‘Space and Memory in the War-Torn City,’ a screening of Open Bethlehem followed by a panel with director Leila Sansour and films on the subject of ‘Social Media as Archives of the Arab Uprisings.’

Three Supper Clubs took place in this period. A Post-Apocalyptic Palestinian Supper Club was devised by Larissa Sansour and Joudie Kalla with screenings of the artist’s films in-between courses. Omer Eltigani served a three-course dinner entitled The Sudanese Dining Experience. Dina Mousawi and Itab Azzam presented a special supper of Syrian cuisine, Recipes From Home.

The 2016 Edward W. Said London Lecture was given in May by award-winning journalist and author of critically acclaimed international bestsellers Naomi Klein. The lecture looked at how Said’s bold universalist vision might form the basis for a response to climate change grounded in radical inclusion, belonging and restorative justice. It was a sellout event at the Royal Festival Hall, held in collaboration with London Review of Books and Southbank Centre.

Internationally renowned academic and author Mahmood Mamdani presented the 2017 Edward W. Said London Lecture in March, examining the concept of revolutionary justice. He reflected on the question of justice in the postcolonial period, in the writings of Aimé Césaire on Haiti and of Nelson Mandela on South Africa. The lecture was held at The British Museum and was sold out.

Residencies included Benjamin Isakhan for his talk at The Mosaic Rooms; Katia Kameli for her exhibition and curator Nat Muller for the opening and installation of Pattern Recognition. Noor Ali Chagani, a Pakistani artist, arrived at the end of September to start his three-month residency as the first Jameel Prize resident. It marked the first sustained collaboration between The Mosaic Rooms and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Mosaic Rooms was once again part of the London Festival of Architecture, Open Garden Squares Weekend and Nour Festival and was also part of Qalandiya International London edition this year.