2024 has been a very special year for Casa Árabe, since our efforts have been acknowledged with three different awards: the Cultural Personality of the Year given by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award institution in the United Arab Emirates, Arab League Acknowledgment and the 2023 Gold Medal granted by the Spanish-Arabic Intercultural Circle (CIHAR).

However, we have done more than just receive awards. In 2024, Casa Árabe announced the second edition of its Friendship Award, which went to Professor Emeritus of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Waleed Saleh Alkhalifa, on this occasion, as well as the Arabist and translator Federico Arbós, who received the Honorary Posthumous Award.

We also had a winning project in the “Nur 2024” call for curators, which we presented for the fourth year along with PHotoESPAÑA. It went to the project “Paisajes efímeros del sol” (“Ephemeral Landscapes of the Sun”). The proposal, conceived by Analía Iglesias and Irene Díaz, included work by nine young photographers from Africa and the Middle East on the topic of “perpetual motion.”

This was not our only exhibition, though. “Disturbance on the Nile: Modern and Contemporary Art from Sudan” brought to Spain a group show of eleven Sudanese artists, men and women from different generations never before seen together in our country. Curated by Rahiem Shadad and António Pinto, the exhibition formed part of one of our “Country Focus” events this year, on Sudan, In their works, they showed off Sudan’s cultural effervescence as of the 2018-2019 revolution. Throughout the year, we also devoted analytical lectures, plays and concerts to this African country, as well as film screenings at our two venues.

Our other “Country Focus” in 2024 was on Jordan, a mosaic-like country where history, tradition and modernity converge. To it we dedicated the exhibition “Faces and Traces of Jordan” with photographs by Ghassan Sela and sculptures by Anees Maani. We also took a closer look at its cinema with screenings in Madrid and Cordoba, and its music, with a magnificent concert by the Amman Chamber Orchestra.

We have also connected with Jordan through our Palestinian embroidery project or tatreez, which we devoted to the Diaspora in 2024, present in this and other countries where the Palestinian community has found refuge. Like the previous year, we organized workshops to learn how to embroider in the style of this traditional technique and we are producing a collective work to which you can contribute from home, as well.

The project on embroidery is proof that Palestine still holds an important presence within Casa Árabe’s programming, both through analysis and the direct testimonials from its protagonists. Gazan journalist Wael Al Dahdouh, physician and politician Mustafa Barghouti, writer Liana Badr, illustrator Mohammad Sabaaneh, screenwriter Nadine Naous, filmmaker Dima Hamdan, historian Ilan Pappé and poet Mosab Abu Toha are some of the personages who have accompanied us. Along with them, we have approached the reality of Palestine with events such as the screening of the documentary dedicated to the tragedy at the Al Shifa Hospital, the theatrical performance by the Basta Theatre collective, the monologue “Foot,” a play by playwright Ismail Khalidi and directed by Samy Khalil, and a performance by the group 47 Soul, all within the framework of the second edition of Casa Árabe’s Secret Garden event.

With the arrival of the good weather, our garden was once again filled with culture, music and entertainment thanks to the events of Casa Árabe’s Thousand and One Nights at the Book Fair and The Secret Garden, which filled Madrid’s evenings with comedy and concerts in a refreshing program. Performances by Yazan Ibrahim and Blanca La Almendrita, Raquel Lúa, Fetén Fetén, the Algerian singer Neila Benbei, the Madrid urban artist Delarue, Alice Wonder, the Palestinians 47 Soul, the indie band Rufus T. Firefly and Dollar Selmouni are just a few of the performers who have gathered in our garden for yet another year.

Inside the Casa Árabe building, activity has never stopped bustling. Our rooms have been filled with exhibitions, including “Water Journeys,” in which architect Sara Kamalvand discovered the underground water networks that wind through Madrid’s subsoil. Also related to water culture, “The Nile Is More Than a River” presented the results of an artistic residency that María Primo completed in Luxor, Egypt to examine the life of this great river and the threats to its ecosystem. In the last quarter of the year, we looked at the most recent history of our country through the exhibition “On Exodus and Wind: Spanish exile in the Maghreb (1936-1962)” to get a better look at one of the most unknown groups of exiles. Another discovery was the exhibition “Al-Andalus Mathematics Tours” which, first in Cordoba and then in Madrid, revealed the interesting relationship between mathematics and architecture, a new way of looking at our Moorish heritage through the lens of history and art from that era.

Because education remains one of our fundamental goals, through the courses at our Language Center, we offer classes to all those interested in learning the Arabic language and its dialects, both in person and online so they can learn from anywhere, thus giving them the chance to approach the Arab world through its language. Also through the conferences in the Aula Árabe Universitaria program, the sixth edition of which began in 2024, we offer university students and the general public the opportunity to learn more about current affairs, history, culture and other topics from national and international experts. In much the same way, we also do this through our conference series Semblances of Cordoba: the Umayyad Era in the First Person, and Mosques in the Mediterranean Area, which have allowed us to learn more about our history and heritage in interesting sessions.

Books are another fantastic way to get a closer look at other latitudes. This year, we have had the opportunity to meet with numerous authors and learn more about their works. Experts such as Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio, José Abu Tarbush and Luz Gómez, writers such as Amin Maalouf, Rima Bali and Abdelfattah Kilito, are some of the people that have passed through our auditorium. As every year, we have been present at the Madrid Book Fair, with a stand and many signings to delight all readers. And we must not leave out the sessions held by our Reading Club, in which we have discussed authors including Najat El Hachmi, Albert Camus, Kamel Daoud and Abdellah Taïa, and that in 2025 will return with new sessions. In the last quarter of the year, we welcomed the new Casa Árabe Bookshop. This literary space now offers an improved service, with extended opening hours, an updated editorial catalog and a specialized bibliographic collection.

At our headquarters in Cordoba, we have also lived moments to remember. Undoubtedly one of them was once again the celebration of Ramadan, which on this occasion we celebrated with a sampling of Arab food in the Alcázar Viejo neighborhood, and through the quintessential Cordoba Festival of Patios, thus combining two cultural traditions and two festivities, showing our commitment to diversity and coexistence.

2024 has been a year for strengthening our ties with the city of Barcelona, where our initiatives have been welcomed with open arms. Casa Árabe was presented institutionally at Barcelona’s City Hall, where our General Director also held a meeting with institutions from the local network of associations and civil society. During the Mercè festivities, we participated in a concert by Palestinian performer Marwan, who drew crowds by the thousands.

Outside Spain’s borders, Casa Árabe continued to work on its international outreach, having been acknowledged as the Cultural Personality of the Year, an award granted by the Sheikh Zayed Book Prize institution in the United Arab Emirates. This is not the only country we visited in 2024, however: we also went to the Hay Festival in Arequipa, Peru, the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Mexico), and the Salon International de l’Edition et du Livre (SIEL) in Rabat, Morocco, just a few of the literary events we attended with our cultural projects. Furthermore, our General Director was invited to speak at the seminar “Diasporas of Sepharad and Al-Andalus” at Columbia University (United States) and at the conference on The Thousand and One Nights at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. And through the calls for financing with European funds, Casa Árabe is taking part in initiatives like Creative Europe/Culture Moves Europe, which, in conjunction with the Goethe Institut, will facilitate the artist-in-residence programs for creators Salima Hamrini and Nasri Sayegh at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba so that they can explore the legacy of Al-Andalus still present in the city. This will begin in 2025, however.

Up to now we have listed the most relevant things to have happened at Casa Árabe in 2024. You can take a look back at these and other activities on our YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify channels.

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