Continuing the IMA’s focus on the 1001 facets of Arab culture and its creativity, “Habibi, the revolutions of love” presents recent works on LGBT+ identities. These are all new ways of looking at things, expressing the social, personal and aesthetic questions that run through contemporary creation.
How are sexual and gender identities represented in contemporary art? How do they circulate? What aesthetic strategies do they deploy to describe and confront societies? Photography, painting, video, performance, literature, animation…: the floor is given to the artists, and to their singular narratives that outline their doubts and fragilities.
As in many other parts of the world, there are struggles in the Arab world to freely express one’s gender identity and sexuality. The popular uprisings of recent years have profoundly changed societies and have allowed for the amplification of LGBT+ activism. Artists, whether in the Arab world or in the diaspora, are participating in their own way in this movement. They question, testify and struggle by creating moving works, intimate or exuberant, of resilience or struggle, sentimental or political, that explore their identities but also their secrets, emotions, memories and dreams. In a world where the presence of LGBT+ people is not always accepted, or even sanctioned, the exhibition shows the territories explored by these artists: the intimate, every day, the relationship with the body, and the commitment.
Through these stories that play with rules and norms, it is also a question of individual emancipation, of the freedom of the body, of the freedom to exist in one’s difference and of the freedom to love. In this respect, the artists exhibited at the IMA go beyond genres and touch on the universal.
Artist: Khookha McQueer
This exhibition is called “Habibi, les revolutions de l’amour” – or Habibi, revolutions of love. For this ode to tolerance and freedom, the Arab World Institute gathers 23 artists: Soufiane Ababri Mohamad Abdouni, Salih Basheer, Chaza Charafeddine Darvish x MyKali, Léa Djeziri x Collectif SHIFT Fadi Elias, Raed Ibrahim, Jeanne & Moreau, Joseph Kaï, Kubra Khademi, Anya Kneez x My Kali, Tarek Lakhrissi, Sido Lansari, Camille Farah Lenain, Khookha McQueer, Mashrou’ Leila, Omar Mismar, Lalla Rami, SHANIDAFLAVA, Turtle White RIDIKKULUZ, Alireza Shojaian, Aïcha Snoussi and Khaled Takreti.
Curated by :
Elodie Bouffard, Exhibition Manager
Khalid Abdel-Hadi, Editorial Director of My Kali magazine
Nada Majdoub, Associate Curator
All year long, the Arab World Institute provides a rich program making Parisians and tourists more than happy. This major spot introduces Arab culture through fascinating exhibitions and experiences. This time, we are expected from September 27, 2022, to February 19, 2023, to discover LGBT+ creators from diasporas and the Arab world.
by Liviu Bulea
Liviu Bulea is a visual artist, curator and cultural manager. His practice is closely linked to LGBTQ+ rights, pollution and migration issues. Liviu is currently a PhD student at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj, RO.
