Defying the destructiveness of time, the act of collecting has been considered through history as an act of salvation that strives to accommodate, appropriate and spread a certain knowledge through the collected object. The exhibition “An Uncanny Impulse” by the Arab Image Foundation (AIF) in Beirut aims to explore the act of collecting through the eyes of Mohsen Yammine, a Lebanese man who found himself compiling through the years a large collection of photographs from Tripoli and northern Lebanon. This collection made it very central for the Arab Image Foundation’s quest to understand the photograph as a surviving object without only favouring the cult of the past, the origins, the identity and the memory but rather use it as material for exchange, for the future. Curators: Clémence Cottard and Marc Mouarkech. The exhibition, organized by Casa Arabe to mark its 10th anniversary, aims also to underline the key role played by the Arab Image Foundation during its 20 years of existence, as a crossover between archival practices and contemporary photographic practices.

On the occasion of the official opening of this exhibition, on Thursday, June 1, we will be holding an event titled “The act of collecting through the eyes of Mohsen Yammine,” a conversation between Mohsen Yammine and the director of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, Marc Mouarkech. The talk will take place in Arabic, with simultaneous translation, and once it is over, the official opening event for the exhibition will be held.

At the same time as these activities, on these dates and until the month of September the Museu d’Art Contemporani of Barcelona (MACBA) is also hosting the exhibition “Akram Zaatari: Against photography. An annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation,” curated by Hiuwai Chuand Bartomeu Marí.
 
This exhibition shows us the perspective of Akram Zaatari, a founding member of the Arab Image Foundation who, along with other important artists from the region, played an essential role in its development. His artistic practice and archeological perspective (he digs into the past and allows new narratives to bloom, resituating them in contemporary times) are closely linked to the organization’s fate over the twenty years of its history.

The fact that the two exhibitions are coinciding in time in Madrid and Barcelona allows visitors to become more familiar with the role played by the Arab Image Foundation in Middle Eastern photography.

Image credit:
Untitled,
Camille El Kareh
Self Portrait, Zghorta, Lebanon
Ca 1920
Gelatin silver negative on glass
17.7 x 12.7 cm
Mohsen Yammine Collection
Courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut