As part of the opening event for the exhibition Pop Pop Art in North Africa, curators Najlaa El Ageli and Toufik Douib will hold a dialogue with several of the artists about some of the subjects that this exhibition has brought up, which have a great deal to do with the apparently irreconcilable differences between tradition and modernity.

The presence of these creators on social networks and in today’s media means their discourses and artistic creations get disseminated in a much faster way among the people than in prior decades, thus directly questioning the concepts of the canon and academia, all on the sidelines of the particular dynamics of the art market. However, this is no way means the work by such artists is less relevant. Quite the opposite: it once again brings up the need to reflect upon old concepts of the cultivated vs. the popular.

With the help of the curators, we will also become familiar with different viewpoints on current Arab societies and their taboos, globalization and consumerism, spaces of action for younger generations and today’s ways of building popular cultural identities. In conjunction with all of this, they will examine the way symbols and icons from popular culture and tradition are put into play.

Taking part in the discussion along with the curators will be artists Rasha Amin, Sarah Basma Harnafi, Ilyes Messaoudi, Ghita Benlamlih and Combo.

After their talk there will be an official opening event for the exhibition, accompanied by a music session with songs inspired by disco music from the sixties, seventies and eighties in the Arab world, put on by the Escuela de Oficios Electrosonoros (School of Electronic Sound Trades) and its collaborator Samir Elturky.