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All Entries from the TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam Category

The TASWIR Exhibition -  as explained by Curator, A.S. Bruckstein ÇoruhJanuary 27, 2010

Merit Fakler, video artist, worked with A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh, curator of TASWIR - Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam, in filming an explanation of the exhibition I’ve spent the last 3 months photographing in Berlin ...

TASWIR - Curator’s Desk from Merit Fakler on Vimeo.

Oleg Grabar, Historian and ArcheologistJanuary 27, 2010

I had the pleasure of hearing Oleg Grabar speak recently.  This was taken at TASWIR - a ha’atelier event, inside the Martin Gropius Bau museum, Berlin.  Low difficult light - no problem for my exquisite Canon EOS 5D Mk II, using the telephoto lens here, handheld.

TASWIR - Human WritesJanuary 22, 2010

I wanted to post another of Merit Fakler’s excellent films of the Berlin exhibition - TASWIR.

This event was extraordinary for so many reasons and the video gives you a small taste of the discussion ... with Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh from Birzeit Universität, Ramallah, Amnon Raz-Krokotzkin from Ben-Gurion Universität, Beer Sheva, Gabriele Brandstetter from Freie Universität Berlin and A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh from ha’atelier, Berlin.

Merit Fakler, Video Artist - TASWIRJanuary 17, 2010

It is rare that a photographer is in a position to choose her colleagues and so I truly appeciated the privilege of working with Merit Fakler, the video artist on this project titled TASWIR, during these last 3 months in Berlin.

Merit’s work continuously stunned and delighted me.  Our assignment was to record the project - the people, the art, the rooms and the workshops.  We found ways to work with and around each other…

TASWIR - this week’s Events.January 11, 2010

Wednesday I’m photographing The Role of the Museum in the Study and Knowledge of Islamic Art – The Past and the FutureMschatta-Saal (Zutritt über den Haupteingang des Pergamonmuseums, AmKupfergraben, 10178 Berlin).

Oleg Grabar (Princeton) is a scholar of Islamic Art and Architecture whose Research has had a profound and far-reaching influence on the field.  His books include Epic Images and Contemporary History: The Illustration of The Great Mongol Shahnama (1982); The Mediation of Ornament (1992); The…

The TASWIR Project - Ha’atelier Platform for Philosophy and Art, BerlinJanuary 05, 2010

This is the project I’ve been involved in since late October, 2009. 

The brainchild of curator, Dr Almut Sh. Bruckstein, the word TASWIR is the Arabic, Persian and Ottoman-Turkish term for mapping, visualizing, describing and outlining.  The exhibition has placed classical objects, usually labelled as ‘Islamic art’, in the context of contemporary artist positions in graphics, drawing, painting, photography, video and installation following a narrative parcours which ha’atelier…

The Martin Gropius Bau, BerlinDecember 09, 2009

This is the place where I spend a lot my Berlin-time.  And just so you know, the restaurant is staffed by the loveliest people serving the most excellent food (the potato soup is my favourite but the pasta was exquisite that time too) and the gift shop has an incredible selection of books, often with a good selection on special.

The Martin Gropius Bau was in west Germany but only just.  If you look at…

Can you imagine how interesting this discussion was ...December 05, 2009

Palestinian author and Cultural Studies scholar Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh from Birzeit University in Ramallah and Israeli historian Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin from Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva, discussed with others, the performance installation ‘Human Writes’ (2005) by William Forsythe and the portraits of Palestinian martyrs by artist Taysir Batniji

The context was, ‘Human Rights’ as an act of writing, the nomadic existence of the Palestinian art scene, the loss of language and memory, the…

And now for the grind ...December 04, 2009

And so it goes that I have been all but locked onto this laptop, processing photographs from Berlin.

I make myself go out at least once a day, even if it’s just to the supermarket.  My companion is New Zealand’s National Radio ... brilliant interviews!  I found Judith Binney’s interview on her book, Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1821-1920,  deeply interesting.

A friend attended the Ali Kaaf, ArtistNovember 10, 2009

I was fortunate to not only meet Ali Kaaf but photograph him too.  And it was a pleasure.

Ali is exhibiting work in the exhibition TASWIR: Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam, in the Martin-Gropius-Bau from November 4 till January 18, 2010. 

TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam. The Opening, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin 2009November 10, 2009

I found this group really rather beautiful and couldn’t resist photographing them as they sat there on the stairs inside the Martin Gropius Bau here in Berlin.

TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam. The Opening, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin 2009November 10, 2009

I loved the way this woman’s hat matched in with the colour of my photographs here in this shot.

TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam. The Opening, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin 2009November 10, 2009

TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam. The Opening, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin 2009November 10, 2009

The opening was superb.  Here’s a small taste ...

TASWIR – Pictorial Mappings of Modernity and Islam.  The Opening, Berlin 2009November 10, 2009