This text was submitted as a proposal to the apexart INTL25 Open Call
"Staging the Body in Contemporary Arab Art: Power, Portrait, and Performance" is an exhibition set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, aiming to explore the evolving role of photography in shaping and reclaiming the image of Arab subjects. From early orientalist depictions in the 19th century to hyper-contemporary art today, this group show traces a fundamental shift in power: one from Arab bodies captured as seemingly passive subjects in early photography, to Arab artists working as the active agents of their own representation. The project features artists from Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and beyond. It addresses themes of early orientalism, shifting identity, and complex power dynamics through photography, video, print and/or digital art: mediums that fundamentally shaped the way we see and experience the world like no other. This exhibition examines the image"s historical role, from photography to video, in objectifying Arab bodies while highlighting how contemporary Arab artists reclaim agency and subvert and redefine self-/portraiture, performance, or AI-driven experimentation.
The exhibition has four main thematic sections. "Orientalism and Historical Context" focuses on ways Arab subjects were captured in the 19th- and 20th-centuries, from staged to unstaged exoticised depictions at markets, in harems, in front of the Pyramids, or mugshots from colonial criminal archives. Secondly, the part "Contemporary Reclamation and Subversion" shows how Arab artists portray themselves and their communities, thereby challenging imposed and false narratives. A central part of this shift is part three, namely "Gender and Identity," where the works in the exhibition explore fluid masculinities and femininities, emphasizing the role of image-making in obscuring as much as revealing. Lastly, part four, "Speculative Futures in Visual Art" presents the ultra-contemporary ways in which artists from the Arab world explore portraiture through lens-based media and digital means. This includes augmented and AI-generated images that push the boundaries of the representation and the performance of the self in the digital age, from selfies to fictitious personalities staged exclusively for the internet.
At its core, "Staging the Body" is both a reflection on the past and a bold statement about the present and future of Arab self-representation in the aesthetic regime of power. Situated in Casablanca (a metropolis where colonial photography, cinematic fantasy, and contemporary artistic production intersect), this apexart exhibition firmly reclaims the visual narrative of the Arab body. In this city, where orientalist imagery once shaped western perceptions, Arab artists from the entire region are reimagining their own portrayals through photography, performance, and AI. "Staging the Body in Contemporary Arab Art: Power, Portrait, and Performance" is a dynamic dialog that brings together history, technology, and artistic agency, reshaping how Arab bodies are seen, staged, understood, and embodied.
"Staging the Body in Contemporary Arab Art: Power, Portrait, and Performance" is an exhibition set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, aiming to explore the evolving role of photography in shaping and reclaiming the image of Arab subjects. From early orientalist depictions in the 19th century to hyper-contemporary art today, this group show traces a fundamental shift in power: one from Arab bodies captured as seemingly passive subjects in early photography, to Arab artists working as the active agents of their own representation. The project features artists from Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and beyond. It addresses themes of early orientalism, shifting identity, and complex power dynamics through photography, video, print and/or digital art: mediums that fundamentally shaped the way we see and experience the world like no other. This exhibition examines the image"s historical role, from photography to video, in objectifying Arab bodies while highlighting how contemporary Arab artists reclaim agency and subvert and redefine self-/portraiture, performance, or AI-driven experimentation.
The exhibition has four main thematic sections. "Orientalism and Historical Context" focuses on ways Arab subjects were captured in the 19th- and 20th-centuries, from staged to unstaged exoticised depictions at markets, in harems, in front of the Pyramids, or mugshots from colonial criminal archives. Secondly, the part "Contemporary Reclamation and Subversion" shows how Arab artists portray themselves and their communities, thereby challenging imposed and false narratives. A central part of this shift is part three, namely "Gender and Identity," where the works in the exhibition explore fluid masculinities and femininities, emphasizing the role of image-making in obscuring as much as revealing. Lastly, part four, "Speculative Futures in Visual Art" presents the ultra-contemporary ways in which artists from the Arab world explore portraiture through lens-based media and digital means. This includes augmented and AI-generated images that push the boundaries of the representation and the performance of the self in the digital age, from selfies to fictitious personalities staged exclusively for the internet.
At its core, "Staging the Body" is both a reflection on the past and a bold statement about the present and future of Arab self-representation in the aesthetic regime of power. Situated in Casablanca (a metropolis where colonial photography, cinematic fantasy, and contemporary artistic production intersect), this apexart exhibition firmly reclaims the visual narrative of the Arab body. In this city, where orientalist imagery once shaped western perceptions, Arab artists from the entire region are reimagining their own portrayals through photography, performance, and AI. "Staging the Body in Contemporary Arab Art: Power, Portrait, and Performance" is a dynamic dialog that brings together history, technology, and artistic agency, reshaping how Arab bodies are seen, staged, understood, and embodied.
Adham Hafez is an award-winning artist, curator, theorist, and founding artistic director of New York Arab Festival. Based in New York and Cairo, his practice for 20 years spans Arab art history, performance, digital materialities, and the Anthropocene.
Alexandra Stock is a Saudi-based curator and cultural producer with two decades of experience across the Arab world. Her project "Occupational Hazards" won an apexart NYC Open Call.
Alexandra Stock is a Saudi-based curator and cultural producer with two decades of experience across the Arab world. Her project "Occupational Hazards" won an apexart NYC Open Call.
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.