Resurgent Nahda: The Arab Exhibitions in Mandate Jerusalem
Overview
Resurgent Nahda examines the 1933 and 1934 Arab Exhibitions in Mandate Jerusalem, highlighting the city’s role in asserting a regional Arab Nahda and fostering economic, cultural, and artistic exchange amid post-WWI geopolitical fragmentation. The book emerges from Nadi Abusaada’s seven years of research, including an award-winning 2019 essay in the Jerusalem Quarterly and two exhibitions he curated at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah (2022–2023) and Darat al-Funun in Amman (2024). Featuring six essays, an interview, and primary materials—archival documents, crafts, and artworks—the book explores Jerusalem’s connections with Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, and Beirut, tracing the journeys of artists, craftspeople, architects, and journalists who shaped this pivotal chapter in modern Arab history.
Edited by Nadi Abusaada.
Texts by Nadi Abusaada, Nisa Ari, Wesam Al Asali, Samira Badran, Nadine Nour el Din, Kirsten Scheid, Sary Zananiri.
About the Authors
Nadi Abusaada
Nadi Abusaada is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut. His work focuses on the material histories and visual cultures of the modern Arab world. Nadi holds a PhD in architecture from the University of Cambridge. He has also held various academic fellowships including the ETH Zürich Postdoctoral Fellowship at ETH Zürich and the Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Islamic Architecture at MIT. Besides his writings, Nadi has also been involved in research-based curatorial work. He has curated and participated in a number of exhibitions around the world including in Ramallah, Amman, Zurich, Venice, Dubai, and Montreal.
Wesam Al Asali
Wesam Al Asali (Syria/Spain) is an Assistant Professor and Director of Materials and Methods at IE School of Architecture and Design in Spain. His work connects architecture with heritage crafts and environmental design. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and was a Global Fung Fellow at Princeton University. As the co-founder of IWlab and CERCAA, Wesam's research and practice have been recognized with honors such as the RIBA President’s Medal and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.
Nisa Ari
Nisa Ari is Associate Professor of Art History at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts. She regularly publishes on Palestinian art in the late-19th and early-20th centuries and her research has been supported by numerous fellowships, including the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Mellon Foundation/American Council for Learned Societies, and the Palestinian American Research Center. She earned her Ph.D. in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture program at MIT.
Nadine Nour el Din
Nadine Nour el Din is an independent scholar, researcher, curator, and art historian. She holds a BA in Visual Arts from the American University in Cairo; an MA with Distinction in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy from Goldsmiths, University of London; and an MA with Distinction in History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Her research focuses on the arts and cultural production of the Arab world and wider region.
Sary Zananiri
Sary Zananiri is a cultural producer and theorist exhibiting and publishing widely in Europe the Middle and Australasia. Zananiri’s research focuses on how visual culture can shed light on modern transformations of identity formation. Zananiri was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Leiden University, a Visiting Scholar at Dar al Kalima in Bethlehem, an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens and is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts at Monash University.
Samira Badran
Samira Badran, a Palestinian visual artist born in Libya. Her father, artist Jamal Badran, significantly influenced her artistic journey. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cairo (1971–76) and later specialized in painting and etching at Florence's Accademia di Belle Arti (1978–82). Now based in Spain, her work explores personal perspectives on the Palestinian context under Israeli settler-colonial occupation. Samira combines a variety of disciplines and techniques, such as drawing, painting and animation. Her works have been exhibited globally.
Kirsten Scheid
Kirsten Scheid is Professor of Anthropology and Art Studies at the American University of Beirut. Her book, Fantasmic Objects: Art and Sociality from Lebanon, 1920-1950 (Indiana U Press, 2022) earned honorable mention for the Fatima Mersnis Book Award in studies of denger, sexuality, and women's lived experience. She recently curated "Partisans of the Nude: An Arab Art Genre in an Era of Contest, 1920-1960" at Columbia University's Wallach Gallery and "Jerusalem: Actual and Possible," the 9th edition of the Jerusalem Show, with Jack Persekian, at Al-Ma`mal Contemporary Art Foundation. She was the Clark/Oakley Humanities Fellow in 2019-2020, and her research has been supported by the Palestinian American Research Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, and the Barakat Trust, among others.
Technical Details
- Publication Date:
- Friday, November 1, 2024
- Language:
- English and Arabic
- Format:
- Softcover
- Dimensions:
- 24 x 17 cm
- Weight:
- 0.5 kg
- ISBN:
- 978-614-8035-65-4
- Number of Pages:
- 260
- Publisher:
- Kaph Books
- Categories:
- Art Books
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