The Womb Art Project

Dates:

22 May 2008 - 31 Jul 2008

The Womb Art Project

In the coming July, a group of 30 British and Arab artists will start creating the first building blocs of the Womb, a monumental installation that mixes art and multiculturalism and will address the question surrounding the eruption of the human consciousness in the womb before we become differentiated from each other by culture and religion. The aim of the Womb is to engage the public in the inter-civilisations dialogue.

Recent political turmoil has isolated the 500,000+ strong British-Arab communities Arab communities and cast doubt over their characters and values and in the absence of any direct experience of contemporary Arab cultures, the British public is unable to make up its mind on the basis of direct experience. The perspectives that a project such as ‘The Womb’ and the contemporary Arab art exhibition parallel event, to take place in Liverpool, bring to bear are all the more important.
Arab artists will also conduct workshops open to public free workshops.

The opening ceremony of the public exhibition in Liverpool that will take place on 14th July will feature a visual performance by Fatma Charfi, an internationally acclaimed Tunisian-Swiss artist (www.fatmacharfi.com)

The next creation phases of the Womb will take place gradually in the capitals of culture during the period 2008-2012 and will involve hundreds of artists from around the globe. The complete installation will be exhibited in London in 2012 as part of London Cultural Olympiad.

The Viewer Experience

Upon entering the womb, the viewer regresses to the foetal state and is invited to an ‘initiation’ journey through the world of consciousness, where our differences are a uniting factor and not a reason of conflict (as often emerges from the real life differentiations).

After his 're-birth', the viewer will have his 'foetal' memory refreshed through a video projection of the enlightenment journey of his ‘alter egos’ who are still inside the womb that will also feature audio and video special effects that simulate the real-world environment.

The Womb is an inclusive art project that once completed will have up to 600m2 of artworks and will be the artists call for peace and fraternity among nations. This project is being made possible thanks to the support of our patrons, the participating artists and the Blackie art organisations that is providing us venue for the workshops and exhibitions

ABOUT the CURATORS and THE ARTISTS

The Womb is curated by Lotfi Kaabi and Nada Shabout. Nada Shabout was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the oldest of three children born to a Palestinian mother and Iraqi father. Shabout was trained in architecture at the New York Institute of Technology,. She has also earned BFA fine arts, MA and PhD in the Humanities with a concentration in art history and criticism from the University of Texas at Arlington, 1999.[2] She wrote her dissertation on "Modern Arab Art and the Metamorphosis of the Arabic Letter." A book based on her dissertation "Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics," was published by the University of Florida Press, 2007. Currently, Nada is a visiting professor at the Massashusets Institute of Technology and is a founding member and first president (2007-2009) of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey (AMCA). Born in Tunisia, Lotfi Kaabi has lived and worked in several countries including Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, France, USA, Spain, Germany and Slovenia. He received a M.S, PhD in digital imaging, MBA, B.S Economics. Lotfi worked at the UCLA and other universities in the field of medical imaging, space technology and remote sensing before founding several IT start-ups. During the last 5 years, he became interested in the art as he founded “Regard” art gallery, curated several artists and published an art critique supplement. In 2006, he moved to the UK and founded MetaConcept that aims to organise art events and to offer the SMEs with site specific art installations that reflect their corporate values.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Most of the British Artists who are taking part of this installation belong to the Liverpool based Red Dot Exhibitions collective of artists.

Colin Serjent , established Liverpudlian art photographer, manages Red Dot Exhibitions collective of artists and Nerve Magazine, he has been staged or involved in numerous exhibitions in the UK, USA, Belgium and Germany (www.abstractway.co.uk)

Pui Lee - is a practising artist, who works using an interdisciplinary approach, including: sculptural installation, video, drawing & printmaking. She has had considerable success to date having exhibited both nationally and internationally too.

Mary Fitzpatrick- M.A in Fine art and painting, Mary has a long experience in art photography, she worked on themes of loss and trauma in Ireland, Kuwait and Palestine and exhibited extensively in the UK, Ireland, USA, Serbia, Germany and Australia.

Katriona Beales, M.A Fine Art, Katriona is a mixed media artist interested in the dialogue created by the spaces in between disciplines; she exhibited in Liverpool as well as in the Middle East and Ireland. Jon Nash- Graduated in photography and digital imaging, Jon is a painter who finds inspiration through nature and people, the ideas and images are my vehicles of communication. Neil Warburton is artist and designer, he holds a creative position at bd2, a well established design agency in Wigan UK. Neil has exhibited in Liverpool, Wigan, London and Bristol.

John O’Neill- painter and graphic designer, John explores themes like the male identity, shifting values and modern culture in post industrial towns and cities (www.johnoneill-art.com).

Leon Jakeman, painter and installation artist (www.space13.co.uk).

Michelle Burrows Art photographer from Liverpool, Michelle works extensively on the theme of environment and global change (www.photofunk.co.uk).

Barbara Jones is a mixed media artist who works on the contemporary themes of war, AIDS. Richard Ashworth, artist who explores the use of new media, exhibited mainly in Liverpool; Jo Derbyshire, Liverpool based mixed media artist

Alice Lenkewicz completed a diploma in art and design, she’s a member of Red Dot Exhibitions collective of artists. The visiting Artists come from eight iArab countries, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and the UAE.

Mohamed Nabili, MA in Fine Art and Internationally acclaimed artist from Morocco, president of the Moroccan visual artists union, awarded for his achievements by the Moroccan King and by the French Academy of Arts. Nabili has exhibited in over 30 countries and is widely collected.

Hilda Hiyari, MA in Fine Art and full time artist from Jordan, Hilda has won several international awards; she works with mixed media and video installation. Hilda is collected by many museums and art institutions. she exhibits regularly in Jordan and held solo exhibitions is Dubai, Lebanon, USA, Egypt, Bangladesh.

Satta Hashem- Iraqi artist who lives and works in the UK since 2000, M.A in Fine Art from Russia (89) He has had a number of solo exhibitions, in Algeria, Syria, Russia, Sweden and the UK, Satta is represented in a number of collections, including in The British Museum permanent collections, and paintings in the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Kaleningrad, Russia, and many private collections.

Fatma Charfi,  MA Fine Art, PhD in Aesthetics from Sorbonne, acclaimed International installation and visual performance artist who was born in Tunisia, Fatma lives and works in Bern Switzerland. Fatma has had exhibitions in over 20 countries including Switzerland, Germany, USA, Belgium, Spain, France, Dubai, Tunisia and Senegal.

Mustapha Meskin, Graduated in Fine Art from Morocco. Mustapha is an award winner international art photographer. He has won several international awards including Exhibition winner of the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP) International photographic Art Exhibition, Manhattan (2007) The Amateur Photographer of the Year for 2006 by the International Society of photographers U.S.A, the 7th Al-Thani Prize for Photographic Art in Qatar (2005 ), the 2nd Prize of the National Photographic Competition organised by Photo Magazine and AGFA, Casablanca, Morocco (2004).

Gamal Ez, MA from the Dutch Royal Academy of Art, Gamal is an international artist from Egypt who lives and works in the Hague, Netherlands. Gamal has regular exhibitions in Europe and in the Middle East; he also received a number many Dutch awards and is represented in many museum collections;

Bassam Dahdouh, MA Fine Art from Damascus (81) and PhD Philosophy of Art from Cairo (98). Bassem is Damascus University faculty member, he participates in the Syrian Official Exhibition and has had solo exhibition throughout the Middle East; 

Tamara Nouri, Iraqi-British artist has a BA degree in Fine art, painting from Central Saint Martins, London, at present Tamara is a full time artist residing in Amman, Jordan and also works for SKIN Magazine as an art researcher. Tamara has exhibited in Amman, Dubai and Alexandria; Iteb Hreib, MA Fine Art, Iteb is a full-time artist painter who has exhibited in Syria, China, USA, Spain, Tunisia, Slovenia, UAE, Bulgaria and Lebanon;

Ahmed Bassiouni, Egyptian Multimedia and Visual Artist and MA Philosophy of Art. He works in the field of contemporary media arts mainly in video, sound and interactive art.;

Sarah Ayoub Agha, BA Fine Art, Sarah is Syrian artist living in Dubai; feminist, she scrutinizes gender dynamics examining the power struggle between the sexes and recognizes that subservience of the female gender is a prevalent dynamic in the Arab World;

Mohammed Hannon, writer and artist photographer, works as a freelance photographer for newspapers, magazines and press agencies in the Arab world and USA. Hannon has exhibited in Jordan, Syria and the USA;

Fouad Maazouz, Morocco. Trained graphic designer, Fouad is an established art photographer. He participated in many competitions, solo and group exhibitions. In 2006, Fouad Maazouz joined PHOTO4 Art Gallery in Paris. His last exhbition of Novembre 2007 was held in Bamako, Mali; Fatima Al Hajjaji, Morocco, Educated in Fine Art, Fatima has held exhibitions in several cities in Morocco since 1999.

For more information, Please call
Dr. Lotfi Kaabi
Tel: +44 (0) 7910 908 758
Email: lotfi@pax08.com
MetaConcept Ltd
The Gallery 16,
Moss Lane East
Manchester M14 4LB