‘Out of Kuwait’ Exhibition // October 17 – 24 at MoMA Kuwait

British Council, in partnership with Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, will celebrate the opening of Out of Kuwait, an exhibition on the 17 October 2012 at 19:00 at the Museum of Modern Art, Kuwait.

Out of Kuwait brings together the work of twelve Kuwait-based artists who have examined and reinterpreted the theme of landscape art during a one month artist residency programme called Landscapes Expanded. The exhibition presents the artists’ analysis of their everyday surroundings and comments on the social, political, and physical landscapes of contemporary Kuwait.

This unique opportunity was inspired by the best of Britain’s Landscape artists, whose work is seen in the British Council’s Out of Britain exhibition currently open at Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait. The programme has given artists living in Kuwait the chance to explore contemporary issues related to site, space and place in their field of work.

Landscapes Expanded was open to candidates from all creative and academic disciplines with the understanding that this would create a transdisciplinary forum for thinking and working. Each participant’s expertise and experience in their own field helped to inform the work generated by the rest of the group. For individuals outside of formal education this type of stimulating platform is rare. Residency participant Muneera Al Sharhan explains that the residency programme has exposed the participants to new methods of creating artwork and has helped them to meet other artists. Fellow participant, Lewis Chapman agrees and states, “If museums and galleries run more educational programs where artists can meet and work together and if local universities commit to supporting quality arts programmes, more meaningful and inspiring art will be produced. I hope this residency programme is the first of many in Kuwait.”

Landscapes Expanded is led by artist and curator Alia Farid Abdal, who explores personal perspectives of public space and constructed landscapes in her own art work and academic research. Participating in the programme are architects Aziz Al Humaidhi and Roa AlShaheen, architecture undergraduate Amani Adel Al Thuwaini, spatial designer Aseel Al Yaqoub, Religion, Literature and Arts graduate, Nima Algooneh, English Literature graduate, Zahra Al Mahdi, jewellery designer, Muneera Al Sharhan, painters Lewis Chapman and Eman Musallem, English and American Literature graduate Faisal Hamadah, journalist Naser Al Wasmi, and Middle East Studies graduate, Ceyda Oskay.

This initiative is part of British Council’s exhibition Out of Britain: 100 years of British Landscape Art. Out Of Britain is one of the largest cultural events the British Council Kuwait has organised in more than 50 years and is supported by a full month-long public campaign. As well as this artist residency, Landscapes Expanded includes a series of public lectures led by arts specialists from the UK and Kuwait, and an educational programme for schools.

Out of Kuwait will be open at the Museum of Modern Art, Kuwait from 17 – 24 October 2012.

For Map, please visit: http://ow.ly/etsMs