Janna-Mirl Redman

http://www.unige.ch/lettres/meslo/unites/arabe/enseignants/redmann/

Competing Visions of "Arab" Art:

My doctoral dissertation analyzes the biographies and works of artists whose "country of origin", as listed in the Documenta database, is part of the Arab League. As an example of a major art-world institution, Documenta has claimed to represent "world-art" since its inception in 1955. My central questions regarding the "Arab" artists who have thus far participated in Documenta concern two aspects:

Within which curatorial concept have they been exhibited?
How can the portion of their work considered for Documenta be situated within their oeuvre as a whole?

Background:The nation state continues to be one of the most prevalent categories when organizing and categorizing artists. Moreover, with the advent of globalization, art world discourses became obsessed with identity politics. To this day, many 'ethnically non-Western' artists hardly stand a chance of unmarked recognition. They must constantly deal with the ascription of an hyphenated identity irrespective of their nationality, place of residence or what I want to call their "artistic socialization". Especially "Arab" and "Middle-Eastern" artists have been called upon as "cultural ambassadors" on behalf of the critics of the US-led War on Terror since 2001.

Compliance and antagonism, however, are not the only solutions to maneuvering in this hegemonic discourse. As a third strategy of dealing with these demands, "agonism" (Chantal Mouffe) is conceptualized as a struggle between agents on a shared, politically charged field. My work emphasizes an agonistic struggle played out in the field of contemporary art exhibitions - not only chronologically, in competing curatorial visions, but also between artist and curator.

Methodology:Research for this dissertation draws on a broad range of sources, including published monographs, catalogs, articles and art criticism as well as archival sources and interviews. Case-studies of documenta X (1997) and dOCUMENTA 13 (2012) trace the changing networks and art-world discourses on which curators and artists alike could draw for their work. I will situate the individual artistic works on display during these two exhibitions both within the framework of the curatorial concept as well as within the oeuvre of the respective artist.

Mirl Redmann studied Arabic Languages and Cultures with minors in Archaeology and World Art Studies in Leipzig, Cairo, Berlin and Leiden (BA Leiden University 2009). In 2012 she received her MA in Religions and Art in the Cultures of Asia from Bonn University. Her master's thesis provided the historical, theoretical and methodological framework for a research interview with the Egyptian photographer Osama Dawod reflecting upon his positioning in the international art-world. The thesis was published in 2013 by EB Verlag Berlin under the title: Case-study und Makrotheorie: die Global Art Theorie am Fallbeispiel von Osama Dawod.

Sub project A
From Modernization to Globalization: The contribution of the Visual Arts to the creation of a 'New Middle East'