1. Conferences and debates

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Syria: The impossible revolution (ARABIC)

Published at 58 24,,, 18 2018

04.17.2018. Syrian political opposition leader Yassin Al-Haj Saleh presented his work at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid. This is a compilation of texts which the author has been publishing since the beginning of the insurrection in his country. Along with the author, the event included speeches by Santiago Alba Rico, a Spanish writer, essayist and philosopher, and Naomí Ramírez Díaz, the book’s translator and publisher. The event was presented by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Politics Coordinator. The work which we are presenting, published by Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, is a compilation of texts which Yassin Al-Haj has written since the insurrection in Syria, when that process began on March 15, 2011. Though not well-known in Spain, Yassin Al-Haj is one of the most important intellectuals among Syrian dissidents. “Someone might think that this book talks about Syria and its defeated revolution, about the Assad dictatorship and the Near East, about imperialism and the Kurdish question (Chapters 10, 11 and 13 are quite interesting and controversial), on Jihadism and violence. But it is more than that. This book speaks about us all. One of the theories that Al-Haj Saleh has upheld in recent years is that Syria reveals and represents a universal destiny, and therefore it is impossible to think about Syria, and even less so about the globalized world, without thinking about our common fate. This is why every time we produce a discourse to forget, negate or avoid Syria, we are really just doing damage to ourselves.” Santiago Alba Rico Yassin Al-Haj Saleh spent sixteen years in jail for his Communist militancy. Since the year 2000, after finishing his studies in Medicine, which he was forced to give up because he was imprisoned, he has been writing a book of stories about his experience in jail, as well as The Syrian Question, published in France by Sindbad-Actes Sud. He regularly contributes articles to the newspapers Al-Hayat, Al-Quds al-Arabi and Al-Jumhuriya. In 2012, he was granted the Prince Claus Award of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the social impact of his writings, though he was unable to collect the award since he was living underground in Damascus. He is currently an associate researcher at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. His wife, Samira Khalil, the author of Diary of the Siege on Douma in 2013, has been missing since she was kidnapped in December of 2013, along with Razan Zaituneh, Wael Hammada and Nazem Hamadi. More info: http://en.casaarabe.es/event/syria-the-impossible-revolution

ALL VIDEOS IN THIS CATEGORY

Conference: "Tea with Nefertiti"

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, the co-founders Art reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial platform based in Munich and New York, talk about their critically acclaimed exhibition Tea with Nefertiti, currently on show at IVAM, Valencia after a successful run at Mathaf, Doha and IMA, Paris. Through discussing the curatorial premise and methodology behind the show, they highlight the ways through which an artwork acquires different meanings and agencies when it travels through time and place. Through employing the Nefertiti bust as a metaphorical thread, and by interrogating the contested history of Egyptian Museum collections from the 19th century onwards, Bardaouil and Fellrath explore how an artwork can become a tool for the writing of much-contested narratives that serve as frameworks through which an image of another culture can be imagined and consequently fixed. More info: http://en.casaarabe.es/news/tea-with-nefertiti-the-creation-of-images-of-culture-through-the-arts

Published at 36 12,,, 14 2014
Conferencia: "En primera persona", por Afif Safieh [V.O inglés/español]

Ponencia inaugural de la Semana de Palestina en Casa Árabe, a cargo de uno de los diplomáticos palestinos más experimentados. Afif Safieh ha servido en las tres capitales de mayor importancia política: Londres, Washington y Moscú. Musa Amer Odeh, embajador de Palestina en España, y Eduardo López Busquets, director general de Casa Árabe, presentan el acto.

Published at 36 12,,, 14 2014
Ministerial Debate Forum on the Future of Tourism in the MENA Region

Casa Árabe and the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) organize a Ministerial Debate Forum on The Future of Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA according to its acronym in English) with the cooperation of Casa Mediterráneo, as well as the support of IFEMA and Fitur 2014. The forum brings together the Tourism Ministers of the countries which receive the most tourism in the region and will be devoted to analyzing the future prospects of the tourism industry in the region. The official opening is presided over by the State Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Gonzalo de Benito Secades, the General Director of Casa Árabe, Eduardo López Busquets, and the Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization, Taleb Rifai. More: http://en.casaarabe.es/news/ministerial-debate-forum-on-the-future-of-tourism-in-the-mena-region-

Published at 36 12,,, 14 2014
Conference: "Microfinance in the Arab World", by Tawfiq Nassar

Conference given by Tawfiq Nassar. Since the earliest experiments carried out in the 1970's to provide small loans to people or groups with few economic resources (usually excluded from the traditional financial system), micro-loans have grown exponentially and have now become a sophisticated industry. However, experiences in the Arab region vary greatly from one country to the next. In terms of products, scale and inclusiveness, microfinancing still has a great deal of potential to be developed in this area. More: www.casaarabe.es/noticias-arabes/show/microfinanzas-en-el-mundo-arabe

Published at 34 12,,, 14 2014
Conference: "New Art Market Scenarios: The Emerging Scene in Saudi Arabia

What characterizes the emerging art scene in the Gulf region? What place does Saudi Arabia hold, and more specifically the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah, in its development? In what direction are the artists, collectors and managers who work in the region looking? Taking advantage of the special moment provided by the ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair and the exhibition by Ayman Yossri in Madrid, Casa Árabe and Madrid's Sabrina Amrani Gallery are organizing a round table discussion with role-players who have first-hand knowledge of this cultural reality, which is not commonly experienced within our country's art scene. Visual artist Ayman Yossri converses with collector Basma Al Sulaiman, the founder of Basmoca, Saudi Arabia's first virtual art museum, and with Sara Raza, an art curator and expert on art from Central Asia and the Middle East, with a great deal of experience in the Gulf region. More: en.casaarabe.es/news/new-art-market-scenarios-the-emerging-scene-in-saudi-arabia

Published at 34 12,,, 14 2014