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NOSTALGIA | A journey among the Christians of the Middle East
Linda Dorigo

The exhibition consists of thirty-two silver gelatin prints and witnesses the three-year journey of photographer Linda Dorigo and journalist Andrea Milluzzi in search for the remaining Christians of the Middle East.

Linda Dorigo pursued journalistic studies obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in communication sciences. She has been focusing on the Middle East since 2009, combining social and anthropological reporting with a slow–photojournalism approach, looking at faith, religions and ethnic minorities. Linda lived in Beirut between the years 2011 and 2014 developing her project “Rifugio” Christians of the Middle East, that was published by Schilt Publishing in 2015. She has contributed to Le Monde, L’Espresso, Die Zeit and Al Jazeera among the others.

Bedu
Farah Foudeh

‘Bedu’ addresses issues of identity and representation by studying the earliest Orientalist Western portrayal of the Bedouin man. Within this context, the Bedouin man was constantly performing for the voyeuristic gaze. Portrayed as immune to time, development and modernity. She collaborated with the Bedouin men of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan to create an inclusive and reflective body of work. It is a performative play with the viewer’s vision of the man, the desert and the relationship between both. This dance within the landscape, hopes to emphasis the preformative role that plays into the photographic process, and its limitations as a representative medium.

Lagos born, Farah grew up in Nigeria, later moving to cities like Amman, Washington DC, NYC and is now based in Barcelona where she completed a Masters in Photography and Design. Farah uses photography as a tool to study our understanding of the world and its impact on perceptions and prejudices. She is inspired by the earliest use of the photographic medium, and its use in the portrayal of events and regions. She aims to push the boundaries of the viewer’s understanding of photography as a representational medium by working in performative ways that address the presence of the lens and question its role

Oummaah; Cry For Me Motherland
Eman Haram

Through a series of photographic images, elliptically assembled, this body of work aims to highlight the connection between colonialism and the willful violence against children, women and wanton desecration of the land. Working with new material, or intervening with old photographs with the intent to bring to the forefront, a living past which needs to be re-presented, re-narrated, re-imagined and not relegated to the archive as a foreclosed history. “Oummaah” is an ode for stoic motherland, bleeding from an interminable and cruel colonial siege

Born in Damascus, Syria to Palestinian parents from Haifa, Eman Haram is an interdisciplinary artist of multiple identities and places of belonging. She grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and later moved to the United States where she studied and worked in various cities for two decades. Her works is a meditation on systematic erasures, personal and collective loss, and the existential predicaments resulting from the unspeakable and violence of colonial machination of dispossession. Her work has been presented at Contemporary Istanbul, Casa Arabe - Madrid, Aleppo’s 8th. International Women’s Festival, Dar Al Kalima, Bethlehem - Palestine, Darling Foundry and Oboro new media centre in Montreal. She works from Atelier Circulaire, one of the oldest print studios in Montreal, and currently lives between Montreal and Amman.

Oummaah; Cry For Me Motherland
Serge NEGRE

When nineteenth century photographers arrived in Palestine they came looking for images they had often already constructed in their imagination: an Orient as seen and represented by a West, at the time eager for the greedy for exotic and loaded with religious significance. Today appreciation for old photographs is universal. It is not due to a market for nostalgia but also stems from a need to verify with images the visible traces of the upheavals of the last century. In Palestine, surely more than elsewhere, the changes of the past century have been more dramatic than those witnessed over the previous twenty centuries. Photography enables us to become familiar with the political knowledge of the country. The chrono-photo-fusion pictures are undeniably witnesses of the past, and give way to me more contemporary approach which focuses on the inhabitants who make up the country to-day.

Serge NEGRE , is a French photographer and founder of the Espace Photographique Arthur Batut, and displayed more than on hundred photographers works. He is involved in research of 19th century photography, especially his forerunners who photographed the Middle East. He has participated in Polar expeditions with Dr. Etienne, as a specialist in satellite communications, and kite aerial photography. He has been involved in the Middle East since 1972, first as a nurse for refugees in southern Lebanon and since then in Palestine. To this day he continues to deepen and enrich his knowledge of Palestinian society. He is research associate for the Photographic Library of the Ecole Biblique et archéologique Française de Jerusalem.

Walls
Maheder Haileselassie

I imagine walls as a canvas to a fragmented narrative that explores into my understanding of family, history, prestige and nostalgia in an urban context reflecting on the complexity of the notion of home, identity and state of being. Our walls can show the ambivalence created in our minds in a fast moving and transformative age. In one way, this originates from a strong sense of belonging, tradition, religion and pride. In another, information, globalization and a sense of longing for what is on the other side of the fence to create one’s own imaginary utopia resides. In a physical sense of Home, walls are boundaries, territory marks and securities against outsiders. It’s the idea of forming what’s private and what’s public. It’s also the idea of creating a boundary and at the same time a desire of claiming an ownership and belonging.

Originally trained as a Civil Engineer, Maheder Haileselassie is a photographer born and based in Addis Ababa who is currently focused on telling contemporary stories intertwined with the past. Her inspiration of telling stories comes from a spark of ideas that has to do with memories, experience, history and identity of herself and other people she engages with every day. Maheder is part of “Women Photograph” and her work has recently been published in a book Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. She recently founded Center for Photography in Ethiopia (CPE), a learning and conversation platform for Ethiopian Photographers. She is a contributor for @ everydayafrica on Instagram. Maheder has also been accepted to numerous programs including The NewYork Times portfolio review and World Press Photo Masterclass East Africa.

Acrobatics
Hicham Benohoud

Sitting on the terrace of a cafe located on the mythical place Jemaa el-Fna in Marrakech, my hometown, I saw a group of acrobats performing in front of tourists for a few dirhams. Once their show ended, I approached to ask them if I could photograph them, not in a public space, but at home, with their family, in their intimacy. Thus was born the series “Acrobatics”

Born in Marrakech in 1968 Former art teacher in Marrakech, he left teaching to join the gallery Vu in Paris as an artist. In 2004, he taught photography at Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts Tourcoing. Throughout his artistic career, he has developed a photographic approach based on staging. He has participated in several exhibitions at the Center Georges Pompidou, the European House of Photography and the Institute of the Arab World in Paris, the Aperture Foundation in New York, the Mori Museum in Tokyo, the Tate Modern in London, etc. He has also participated in several international fairs.

Town Houses
Momen Malkawi

The old town houses of my city Irbed in the north of Jordan holds the memories of the families that lived in it through many years. My project aims to archive the heritage of the old houses in Jordan starting from my city Irbed.

A civil engineering student and photographer based in Irbid, Jordan. Through his photographic works, he documents the urban heritage of his hometown Irbid. Momen is currently working with MedeArts, a local platform of artists aimed at raising awareness on the local culture and arts. Malkawi’s photographs are regularly exhibited at Fann o Shai Café and Art Gallery in Amman among other spaces.

Desiring Shelter: Syrian Refugee Camps Under the Shadow of Advertisements
Marwan Tahtah

From the depths of the newly established Syrian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley and North Lebanon, this project captures the transformation of tools of desire into shelters of necessity and portrays how Syrian refugees are attempting to alleviate some of their current tragedies by appropriating splashy advertising banners for luxurious items. The results are modest shelters draped in sensual and vibrant images starkly contrasted by the occupants’ daily drive to survive. As opposed to common representations of blatant suffering, the photographs subtly invoke the profound chasm between “classes” and the power of human adaptability under extraordinary circumstances.

A professional photographer who’s been working for Lebanese newspapers for more than 17 years. Besides his own projects, he has also worked on projects managed by the ICRC, Goethe-Insitut and other organizations. Marwan’s work has been on display in many photography exhibitions in Beirut & Paris Berlin. In June 2016, he received a Master Diploma in Photography from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, France.

Zoo
João Castilho

The artistic summons of animals, intensed in the field of contemporary art, has no other reason: Animals, in their particularity, carry a little of the human mystery. In the Zoo series, João Castilho photographed wild animals in domestic environment. Animals were transported to these spaces, which would establish the crossing of the borders between the human and the nonhuman.

The works of João Castilho are inspired by literature, philosophy, and popular culture. In present and duringhis own history, he has oscillat - ed between the personal and collective memory. In the last fewyears, he has done a lot of work about animal issues.He regularly participates in important exhibitions such as: L’AutreVisage, Casa do Brasil, Brussels, Belgium (2017), 10th Mercosur Biennial (2015), 19th VideobrasilCon - temporary Art Festival (2015), Elége du Vertige, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2012); Mythologies, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2012). He is the author of several photo books such as Zoo (2017), Trop - ical Hotel (2013) and Submerged Landscape (CosacNaify, 2008).

THERE IS LIFE IN LIMBO
ROCÍO VILLALONGA

There is Life in Limbo is part of a work in progress emerged almost accidentally during my car trips through Jordan while enjoying the artistic residence granted to me by the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. The snapshots, taken between 2016 and 2018, analyze old uninhabited buildings calling the border space as Limbo. There is Life in Limbo gives name to this photographic work of abandoned houses in uninhabited territories, but at the same time is an experience; complex experience in which the subject lives an intense phantasmagoric trance related to space, whether it is the one that abandons, the one that goes through, the one that yearns or the one that arrives.

1966, Spain. Artist, doctor in Fine Arts and professor of the Miguel Hernández University. Her interdisciplinary artistic work moves in the field of installations, public art, photography and video, to address problems of a social, political and personal nature. she has been managing various public art projects for years, inserted in specific social environments. she made her first individual exhibition in 1987 at the Technological Institute of Bandug, Indonesia and with the Galeria Punto, Alba Cabrera, Art al Rec and Lamarra is present at fairs such as FIAC, ARCO, CHACO, Biennial of Havana, Miami, Art Cologne, Chicago, etc. His work has been exhibited in National Museums such as IVAM and MNCARS, as well as in Museums and Contemporary Art Centers of Asia, Europe and Latin America. It has more than 15 mentions and awards, as well as the Scholarship of the Academy of Spain in Rome and the one of the Casa de Velázquez.

Swapped at Birth
Ahmed El Khalidi

With this project ‘Swapped at Birth’ I have layered images, textures and abstract symbols to create collages to record my personal story memories of what ‘home’ means to me now. This work shows that home for me can be a physical or a psychological place that changes due to our circumstances, as a place of belonging, but also can also be a place of displacement and confusion. Our memories, such as our early childhood ones from Kuwait and Jordan, may be filled with gaps, unreliable and they can fade or get lost. I draw on these remnants for my work along with the new images that are embedded from Australia. I like to play with photos and language to explore the importance of those memories through words, sentences and visual short stories.

A photographer, graphic designer, illustrator and artist with over 20 years experience in graphic and digital media. He has worked on a number of projects ranging from online media, motion graphics, publications and illustrations in Sydney, Adelaide, Amman, London, Doha, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Ahmed has participated in International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2007 in Spain, Squiggle Art Gallery in Sydney, the International Salon of Contemporary Artists, Oeiras, Portugal in 2002, the Jordanian Art exhibition, at the National Art gallery, in March 2003 and the Graphic Art exhibitions held at the Darat al-Funun in 1995. Ahmed lives in South Australia.

Dead Man Walking
Djibril Drame

Dead Man Walking, photographed in Rufisque, Senegal, 2015. Set in Senegal, the artist’s home country, muses pose in front of old buildings made by settlers, faces is hidden by the white veil that Serigne Touba used to wear and African masks representing the ancestors. All this to show how important tradition is to our primordial identity in the era of globalization. Dead Man Walking portrays today’s subpar imitations of the past. Every religion, tradition & culture is transformed at man’s benefit. The African culture is warped from new ideas imposed on the old practices.

Djibril Drame is a visual artist, filmmaker, curator publicist, originally from Senegal, West Africa. He has over 12 years’ experience and is known amongst industry peers as “Gadaay” (GodEye). Drame, well connected in the art world, has participated and been featured many exhibitions and competitions worldwide including Germany, Ghana, Togo, Ethiopia, Spain, and Ivory Coast. Djibril’s work reflects the many aspects of Africa’s multifaceted history, and innumerable intertwined cultures, languages, stories, and lifestyles, and offers an alternative African narrative.

Home
Elena Yatsenko Bseiso

With this project ‘Swapped at Birth’ I have layered images, textures and abstract symbols to create collages to record my personal story memories of what ‘home’ means to me now. This work shows that home for me can be a physical or a psychological place that changes due to our circumstances, as a place of belonging, but also can also be a place of displacement and confusion. Our memories, such as our early childhood ones from Kuwait and Jordan, may be filled with gaps, unreliable and they can fade or get lost. I draw on these remnants for my work along with the new images that are embedded from Australia. I like to play with photos and language to explore the importance of those memories through words, sentences and visual short stories.

A photographer, graphic designer, illustrator and artist with over 20 years experience in graphic and digital media. He has worked on a number of projects ranging from online media, motion graphics, publications and illustrations in Sydney, Adelaide, Amman, London, Doha, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Ahmed has participated in International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2007 in Spain, Squiggle Art Gallery in Sydney, the International Salon of Contemporary Artists, Oeiras, Portugal in 2002, the Jordanian Art exhibition, at the National Art gallery, in March 2003 and the Graphic Art exhibitions held at the Darat al-Funun in 1995. Ahmed lives in South Australia.

Full stop
Alaa bani Yaseen

Who of us didn’t think of the end, every thing around us has an end, happiness, illness, love, satisfaction, our lives and everything around it has an end. I see the end as a full stop that ends a paragraph. Considering the end in a Full Stop

As a daughter of father from a village in Irbid and a mother of Palestinian origins, this mixture influenced me in creating my cultural identity. I was born in December 1992. I dedicated myself to photography after receiving my bachelor’s degree in media studies. I worked as a photography instructor for girls in 2016, and my photographs were exhibited in a cultural space in Irbid. Documenting what is old in my society became my passion.

Dead Sea from 110 Years
Jean-Michel de Tarragon

THE DEAD SEA EASTERN SHORE, The exhibition presents a great collection of old images from the archives of the Biblical school of Jerusalem, taken through two navigation trips for the school with their students, one from 28 December 1908 to 7 January 1909; a second “cruise” in 1925. where the French hired a big boat for them, and went about two weeks all around the Dead Sea, stopping everywhere to survey the region.

Born 1945 in France. He became a Catholic priest in 1972. Since 1973 he is in East-Jerusalem as a permanent member of the French Ecole Biblique. He studied cuneiforms (PhD) and old canaanite languages, teached ancient history connected to the Bible. He participated in the archaeological digs of the Ecole Biblique since 1973, and became the assistant photographer of the archaeological activities of Ecole - in Jordan and in the Gaza Strip. Retired from active teaching, he is now full time in charge of the photocollection of the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. His scanned collection reached in 2017 the total of 25,000 scans of old photos of mainly Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Jean-Michel organized over twenty-five photo-exhibitions.

Soura wa Hikaya
ZAKIRA – the Image Festival Association

A project by Zakira – The Image Festival Association in partnership with UNICEF and aims to reach youth from vulnerable communities of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Iraqi origins living in Beirut proximity to provide them with photography, writing and social media skills to become ‘community reporters’.

Created in 2007, ZAKIRA (“Memory” in Arabic) is an NGO whose primary goal is to promote photography, and, more generally, the image in our society. Its objective is to enhance photographers’ work, to re-evaluate the importance of the image, to explore its impact and strength, and to create a circle of common interest open to all those interested in photography. Initiated by Ramzi Haidar and launched by ZAKIRA in 2007, “Lahza” (“Glimpse” in Arabic) is a project that brings together photographers, journalists, artists and volunteers from various walks of life along with the children of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

How to feel at home in São Paulo
Fernanda Fernandes, Malu Mesquita, Máximo Hernandez

A photography project about 3 person how are trying to feel comfortable in a city with almost 20 million of habitants. Each one of the photographers has a motivation to use the photography to get conextion between the following of fell yourself part of the landscape.

Fernanda Fernandes graduated in photography from the Escola Panamericana de Artes, in 2016. She is interested in using photography to represent herself and help her to understand the word.

Malu Mesquita graduated in Communication and photograph from the Escola Panamericana de Artes, in 2015. Her projects are about landscape, the life in the big cities and humanits.

Máximo Hernandez is from Spain but lives in Brazil from the last 30 years. He worked as business man and has always a Photography as a great passion. He specialized in Panoramas pictures, made deep research in application to has a great quality in that kind of images.

Tinned cities
Lola Barcia Albacar, Marinela Forcadell Breva

Tinned cities is a ten year project developed in up to 50 cities in four continents. Fotolateras travel around the world looking for several kind of light that each city offers. It’s a way of life, of thinking the light and the photographic process. They travel with almost 40 pinhole cameras and the chemicals for living the whole experience of being photographers.

Traveling female photographers, tireless travelers and passionate about the pinhole technique.The artists have held numerous exhibitions in several cities all around Spain (Valence, Madrid, Barcelona, Castellón, Almería, Segovia, Zaragoza), in London and in Italy. Besides, they have also imparted lectures and held workshops on photography in many cities worldwide.

TERRE(S)
Thomas Pesquet

From November 2016 to June 2017, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet was part of Expedition 50 and Expedition 51 as a flight engineer. During these six months, he dedicated part of his time observing the Earth from the International Space Station, and sharing his photos on social media platforms. These pictures depict the multiple facets of the Earth: from immense desert lands to teeming cities. From Space, Earth looks like a vessel on which borders are not visible. Beyond the beauty of Planet Earth, these photos also show the negative impact of human activities on our ecosystem. They bring to mind the necessity to protect our oasis of life.

Thomas Pesquet is a French pilot, aerospace engineer and astronaut. In 2009, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) and he was assigned in 2014 to the six-month Proxima mission to the International Space Station. During this mission he conducted over 200 science experiments and also photographed the planet hundreds of times. A selection of these spectacular pictures has been published in the book TERRE(s) which reveals the variety of landscapes and colors which make up our planet Earth.