Join us at our fourth Friday Hangout, this time co-hosted by artist and curator Abed Al Kadiri!

The Friday Hangout brings together people interested in Arab culture for an online chat over their lunch breaks, wherever they may be. We’re a very sociable bunch, and we’ve been missing our lunchtime hangouts while working from home, so we thought we’d extend an invite to others who may be feeling the same.

We’re delighted to be joined by artist and curator Abed Al Kadiri this week. Born and based in Beirut, he will be tuning in via Zoom to chat about his artistic work and tell us about his latest project with Dongola Books, the artist’s book publishing house which he co-founded and directs. We had the privilege of hosting the UK launch of their first book, The Distance is Always Other, back in 2018.

Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project invites artists in cities around the world, currently on lockdown in their homes and studios, to speculate on our present and shared future through the creation of their own artist’s books, hand-made and sent to them by Dongola. A compilation of the completed work will be published as a limited-edition book by Dongola upon the project’s completion and will hopefully be exhibited in the future.

As well as his work with Dongola Books, Abed has also recently curated legendary Sudanese print-maker Mohammad Omar Khalil‘s 2020 exhibition Homeland Under My Nails at the Mosaic Rooms, whilst also continuing to make his own award-winning paintings. His work focuses on the deprivation of the freedom in society by analysing contemporary issues of violence, cultural heritage migration, and belonging, and he was recently featured in the Art Newspaper talking about his documentation of the Lebanese Revolution. From 2006-2015, Abed held various positions apart from his painterly practice, including being the director of CAP Kuwait from 2012-2015, establishing it as a leading non-profit art institution in the Middle East.

Join our chat on Friday by signing up via the contact form below! Please sign up in advance to ensure you receive the login info.

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