Program for
January - April 2010

Darat al Funun

Exhibitions

Why did you leave the forest empty?
photography by Ahlam Shibli (Palestine)

Girl Splendid in Walking
drawings and videos by Doa Aly (Egypt)

The State of Ishmael:
Jus sanguinis
installation by Raed Ibrahim

January 12 - April 27, 2010

Download program in
Arabic and English
PDF (950k)

Previous Programs

 Wael Shawky & Youth Salon 10-12/09
 New Media Art - Jordan 4-7/09
 Mona Hatoum 10-12/08
 60 Years 6-7/08
 Art Now in Lebanon 3-5/08
 Lens on Syria 12/07-2/08
 Spirituality & Modernity 9-11/07
 A History of European Art 5-7/07
 A History of European Art 1-5/07
 A History of European Art 9-11/06
 Out of the Desert 5-7/06
 The Wall & the Checkpoints 2-4/06

Tuesdays at the Darat

Main Building at 6 pm

Saturday, 16/1/2010
Talk by Ahlam Shibli
Info on Ahlam Shibli's exhibition at Darat

Tuesday, 26/1/2010
Talk Sibylle Omlin on the
work of Raed Ibrahim
Sibylle Omlin is a critic in residence at the Darat through the Prohelvetia program. Born 1965 in Switzerland, she studied art history, German literature and history at Zürich University. Omlin has published books and articles on contemporary art with a concentration on performance, new media, conceptual art and politically engaged art. She curates shows and performance festivals in Switzerland and Germany.


Tuesday, 2/2/2010
Presentation: the studio

“the studio” is a new creative space located in the heart of Amman
combining a gallery as well as a printmaking studio. Founded by four
young Jordanian artists, “the studio” was established to provide a
home for Printmaking and other visual arts in a practical environment.


Tuesday, 9/2/2010
Understanding and Misunderstanding. What art can do to it?
Talk by Sibylle Omlin

By deconstructing some pictures that western artists have of Arabic
nations and vice-versa, by deconstruction of some works of Arab
artists about the European world, this talk is about the preconceived
image we have of each other when we are involved in cultural exchanges. What can we understand by works of artists from each other? Edward W. Said argued that a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Asia and the Middle East in Western culture had served as an implicit justification of domination and imperialism. There are probably false and romanticized images by Arabs of the western culture as well. Through putting together and ripping apart words and images, I would like to enter in a world of discourse on misunderstanding,
hoping that it may lead to some understanding.


Tuesday, 16/2/2010
The Hues of Palestine in Palestinian Stories
Lecture by Dr. Faisal Darraj

Film Screenings
Main Building @ 6pm

Tuesday, 23/2/2010
The Adventure of Photography
150 Years of Photographic Image
Part I - film screening

Tuesday, 2/3/2010
The Adventure of Photography
150 Years of Photographic Image
Part II - film screening

Cinema Can Offer No More
A series of classic masterpieces that influenced visual artists

Tuesday, 9/3/2010
Battleship Potemkin
film by Sergei Eisenstein (Russia) | 1925 | B&W/Color | 69’

For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 masterpiece has remained
the most influential silent film of all time. Engraved with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship’s loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable – mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailor’s revolt become the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar’s Cossacks. When ruthless
White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema
history is born.


Tuesday, 16/3/2010
Un Chien Andalou
film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali | 1929 | B&W | 17’
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
film by Luis Buñuel | 1972 | Color | 102’


Tuesday, 23/3/2010
Our Cosmos
Artist’s lecture by Shigeru Takato
in collaboration with Goethe Institut
The lecture is on three photographic series of Shigeru Takato, “The Moon” project, “Television Studios” and “Our Elusive Cosmos”. Although all three series are separate projects, they are strongly related in the way that the photographs attempt to uncover the unnoticed and blind side of the world we see today. Our world is mystified by unknowns as well as by our own perceptions. The lecture explains how the series started and developed, it delivers stories of the artists experiences during the course of the projects with the world and beyond, “Our Cosmos”.

Tuesday, 30/3/2010
Stalker
film by Andrei Tarkovsky (USSR) | 1979 | B&W/Color | 155’

Deep within the Zone, a bleak and devastated forbidden landscape, lies a mysterious room with the power to grant the deepest wishes of those strong enough to make the hazardous journey there. Desperate to reach it, a scientist and a writer approach the Stalker, one of the few able to navigate the Zone’s menacing terrain, and begin a dangerous trek into the unknown. Tarkovsky’s second foray into science fiction after ‘Solaris’ is a surreal and disturbing vision of the future. Hauntingly exploring man’s dreams and desires, and the consequences of realizing them, ‘Stalker’, adapted from Arkady & Boris Sturgatsky’s novel ‘Roadside Picnic’, has been described as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

The Russian Director and writer Andrei Tarkovsky was born in the Soviet Union in 1935 and died in Paris in 1986. His seven feature films are internationally acclaimed, and many books and academic researches studied them in depth. Despite his international fame, the USSR only recognized Andrei Tarkovsky few months before he died with a retrospective screening of his films, five of which were made in the USSR. His feature films are: "Ivan's Childhood" (1962), "Andrei Rublev" (1969), "Solaris" (1972), "The Mirror" (1975) and Stalker" (1979). The documentaries "Voyage in Time" (1982) and "Nostalghia" (1983) were produced in Italy, while his last film "The Sacrifice" (1986) was produced in Sweden. His works are characterized by spirituality and metaphysical themes, extremely long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and memorable cinematography.


Tuesday, 6/4/2010
Ivan's Childhood
film by Andrei Tarkovsky (USSR) | 1962 | B&W/Color | 96’

Andrei Tarkovsky’s prize-winning debut feature is an extraordinarily moving and powerful story of war and revenge. Determined to avenge his family’s death at the hands of the Nazis, 12-year-old Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment as a scout, where he becomes indispensable for his ability to slip unnoticed through enemy lines. But, as his missions become increasingly dangerous, it is decided that he must be removed from the front line. Ivan resists and convinces his commanding officers to allow him to carry out one last expedition. The film is a winner of 15 international przies including the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 1962.

Tuesday, 13/4/2010
Know Your Rights
Open talk on designer rights by Sajidah Abu El-Zai. In the context of launching Design Jordan's regional product design competition
Design Jordan launches its inaugural regional product design competition in its efforts to create a community that educates, nurtures, and promotes design in the Arab world. The competition, which will be judged by a diverse international high-profile jury, is open to professional and amateur individuals or teams of individuals from the Arab world. Aimed at amplifying the Arab region’s design sensibility, the competition seeks out designs or redesigns of everyday objects inspired by Arab culture. Design Jordan will research, develop, manufacture and strategically market the winning entry to regional and international retail outlets. Submissions will be accepted until 24 June 2010.

Darat al-Funun presents an open talk by Sajida Abu El-Zai, KADDB lawyer, to discuss designer rights, from copyright to patents, and how to retain full license for creative work. The talk will be followed by a session of Q & A on copyright as well as the design competition guidelines.

Design Jordan, a Jordanian design institution focused on creating positive social change through product innovation, is the result of the collaboration between KADDB and a group of local companies. The company creates innovative products inspired by the culture of the Arab World and adheres to international standards of safety and design.

Sajidah Abu El-Zai is a Legal Counsel at KADDB Investment Group. Abu El-Zai has worked on Jordan’s chapter in the “Protection and Enforcement of Domain Names in Jordan”, Lexis Nexus, February 2007 as well as Jordan’s chapter in the “Global Financial Services Regulators”, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Tuesday, 20/4/2010
Half Moon
film by Bahman Ghobadi (Iran) | 2006 | 113 min. | Kurdish/Farsi with English subtitles

Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. A majestic landscape and a sense of premonition pervade a journey informed by experiences of oppression, adventure and the transcendent power of music, and set against the backdrop of Saddam Hussein’s fall from power.

Tuesday, 27/4/2010
The Political and Social Conditions for Caricature and Cynical Writing
Open talk by artist Emad Hajjaj, and the writers Yousef Ghishan and Ahmad Hassan Al Zubi
Talk in Arabic


Saturday, 8/5/2010
The Movements of Words
paper by Adania Shibli

This paper traces how the constant fragmentation of Palestinian territory and subsequently redrawing its borders, are reflected in texts written by various Palestinian thinkers, writers and poets, between the years 1917 and 2009.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, control over what is now recognized as historical Palestine, or parts of it, has shifted almost every two decades, between different countries. The Ottoman rule of Palestine, which started four centuries earlier, came to a halt by the end of First World War, as British colonialism commenced. Then three years after the end of Second World War, and the creation of the state of Israel, control over Palestinian territory became divided between Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Then twenty years later, Palestine became under total Israeli military occupation, with a limited civic control by Jordan and Egypt. Twenty fives year later, in early 1990s, control over Palestine was again subject to changes, with some parts of the Palestinian territory becoming under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority whereby the major parts remained under Israeli occupation.

The present paper identifies some of the most influential authors that marked each of the periods of different rulers. Amongst these authors are: educator and writer Khalil Sakakini (Jerusalem, 1880-1953), writer and politician Emile Habibi (Haifa, 1921-1996), novelist and feminist Sahar Khalifa (Nablus, 1941-), poet Khaled Abdallah (Gaza 1970-), and poet Anas al-Aila (Qalqilia, 1975-). Other major writers which the paper also mentions are Ghassan Kanafani, Mu’een Besaiso, and Alaa Hlehel. The paper is particularly interested in tracing, on the map, the movement of the characters as depicted in various texts--be they novels, memoirs, or poems--, written by these authors. In so doing, it attempts to expound how such movements, are managed by these maps that in turn are affected by the shifting rule over Palestine. Furthermore, it tries to identify how the narrative structure of these text, in both their form and content, have been shaped by such maps and the reality they create on the ground with regards to the daily life of Palestinians.

Tuesday, 11/5/2010
ArabShorts.net
Project presentation in the presence of film Curator Orwa Nyrabia
in collaboration with Goethe Institut
A network of nine film curators from nine Arab countries has selected a wide range of exciting young Arab film productions in order to make the versatility and quality of independent Arab film-making visible. On ArabShorts.net each curator presents his or her films in their cultural context. The publica can see the films, read about the conditions of independent film-making in the Arab world, find all the information about the films and filmmakers. The project Arabshorts.net is funded by the Goethe-Institut Cairo, its concept was developed by the German film curator Marcel Schwierin.

Permanent Exhibition

"Dar Khalid"
A museum of images reflecting
Khalid Shoman's life and legacy.


Darat al Funun opening hours:

Saturday-Thursday: 10am - 7pm
Ramadan: 10am - 3pm

Darat Al Funun
P.O.Box: 5223, Amman 11183, Jordan
Tel: (962-6) 464 3251/2
Fax: (962-6) 464 3253
darat@thekhalidshomanfoundation.org
www.daratalfunun.org