Meeting with Sudanese artist Rashid Diab 

The General Director of Casa Árabe, Miguel Moro Aguilar, met with painter Rashid Diab and gallery owner, curator and artist manager Yafil Mubarak.

During the meeting, held in Madrid on March 12, they explored possibilities for cooperation to increase awareness about the complex situation currently being experienced in Sudan, as well as discussing potential strategies to help revitalize the relations between Spain and Sudan. 

Rashid Diab (Wad Madani, 1957) is an artist and theorist of Arab-African art. His work has been displayed in different places around the world, including the French Institute of Khartoum in 2022, the National Museum of Bahrain in 2019 and the Cairo International Fair in 2021. He has received awards at the Cairo, Abu Dhabi and Taipei Biennials, as well as being honored as an Ambassador for Peace in Japan in 2007. He received the “Climate Icon” as the Ambassador for the Environment from the British Council in Khartoum in 2010, and in 2013 he was decorated with the Cross of the Order of Civil Merit by then King of Spain Juan Carlos I. His work has been focused on the formulation of artistic structures straddling the Sudanese and African, building a bridge between two cultures, those of both Sudan and Spain. His creations reflect the harmony and color of his country. At Casa Árabe, his work was featured in the exhibition “Disturbance in the Nile: Modern and contemporary art from Sudan” (2024). 

Spain has maintained diplomatic relations with Sudan since February 20, 1964. Following the outbreak of armed conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF, led by former Vice President “Hemedti”) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF, commanded by General al Burhan) on April 15, 2023, the Spanish Embassy in Sudan was evacuated, and Spain has had no presence in Sudanese territory whatsoever since that date. As of September 2023, the Spanish Embassy in Sudan was temporarily relocated to Cairo, Egypt. The transition process has come to a standstill, and the country is mired in a civil war which continues to this day, there being no prospects for a ceasefire in the short term. The situation is especially dire in the capital city of Khartoum, as well as Darfur, a region ravaged by the conflict.

In the photo (from left to right), Karim Hauser (CA), Yafil Mubarak, Miguel Moro Aguilar (CA) and Rashid Diab.