The exhibition, entitled Whose Gaze is it Anyway?, is part of the ICA’s Arab film festival Safar, which opens later this month, and presents a series of rare film posters from the archive of collector Abboudi Bou Jaoudeh.
The identity for Safar, shown in the brochure above, was designed by consultancy Smack, which worked with the Arab British Centre in 2012 to set the branding guidelines to be used for each year of the biennial event.
His collection in Beirut is one of the most comprehensive archives of Arab film memorabilia, and includes Arab film posters and cultural magazines published from the 1930s to the present day, according to the ICA.
Accompanying the archive posters will be a new work by Sophia Al-Maria, who has designed a poster and sketchbook for her as-yet-unmade rape revenge film Beretta, which is set in Cairo.
As well as printed materials, the exhibition will also feature video works including Maha Maamoun’s 2009 film Domestic Tourism II. The work uses historic film footage of the Egyptian pyramids to explore how images of the monuments have been used in the global tourism industry, acting, as the ICA says, as ‘as a nostalgic symbol for a flawed modern country’.
In Disco, Raed Yassin’s 2010 video piece, the artist turns to his ‘disco addict’ father, a fashion designer who left the family to pursue a career starring in Egyptian horror films. The ICA says, ‘The interplay of image and text explores a generation’s fascination with celebrity, forging a story about abandonment, voyage, longing and stardom.’
The show has been curated by Omar Kholeif, curator at the Whitechapel Gallery,
Whose Gaze Is It Anyway? runs from 2 September – 5 October at the Fox Reading Room, ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Safar: The Festival Of Popular Arab Cinema runs 19 – 25 September.
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