“Within this context, art was mobilised as a political medium, to bring the region together, celebrate Arab virtuosity and, more importantly, to actively redefine the place of Arab art within the world’s artistic terrain.”

Publication: “Baghdad’s Arab Biennial: Regional Subversions, Global Ambitions,” Third Text 33, no. 156 (January 2019).

Keywords: scholarship, peer-reviewed, research, art, exhibitions, biennale, biennial, First Biennale of Arab Art, institutions, networks, exchanges, solidarity, solidarities, nomadic, model, moving, rotating, capitals, culture, local, global, regional, Ba’ath, Ba’athist, politics, modernism, oil, embargos, wars, conflicts, violence, Cold War, post-WWII, 20th century, 1974, 1976, 1978, Arabs, Arabism, pan-Arab, pan-Arabism, meetings, gatherings, dissent, rebellion, protest, liberation, alternative, grassroots, intellectual, social, cultural, political, history, background, genesis, origins, integral, magazine, journal, Baghdad, Iraq, Iran, Damascus, Syria, Alexandria, Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, Rabat, Morocco, Tripoli, Libya, Southwest Asia, North Africa, Arab world, Third World

Image: Hashim Samarchi