U N T I T L E D 2 3 S E P T E M B E R - 1 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4M OATA Z N AS R

U N T I T L E D 2 3 S E P T E M B E R - 1 4 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4M OATA Z N AS R

exhibition by

in collaborarion with

U N T I T L E D M OATA Z N AS R

Out beyond ideas

Of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

There is a field.

I’ll meet you there. Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century

Text by Fatenn Mostafa

This quote from 13th century Persian jurist, theologian, Sufi and mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi perhaps sums up best the thread ty-ing the entire artistic repertoire of Alexandria-born, Cairo-based multi-media artist Moataz Nasr. Bringing forth engaging univer-sal works, Nasr borrows and is deeply inspired by his native coun-try, Egypt and by Sufism. Sufism, defined by scholars as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, has always fascinated Nasr. This en-during attachment to Sufism is reflected in Nasr’s approach to and production of art. The spiritual and the worldly come into play at times forcefully, at others subtly, in his works, to help us search for the Alchemy of Happiness – alluding to one of the trea-tises of influential Persian Islamic thinker, Imam Al Ghazali.

“I am an optimist at heart and I seek the positive in my surround-ing – be they people or the environment I live in. Hope is always reflected in my work, no matter how grim the situation may be.” While Nasr claims to provide hope through his work, he doesn›t believe in giving answers or providing solutions to achieve that happiness or peace of mind we all search for, because he is ada-mant that it is not the artist’s role. Instead he compares himself to a gadfly – a fly that bites animals to keep them awake or a person who annoys the status quo. The gadfly analogy was first used by Socrates, a classical Greek philosopher, to describe himself and by Plato, Socrates’ ‘best disciple’ to defend Socrates as “the gadfly of Athens; all day long and in all places, always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.” Gadflies

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keep people awake, persistently stimulating and upsetting their thoughts to know more about themselves, to pursue goodness and to question things.

A self-taught artist, Nasr started in Egypt with a conventional media - painting - back in the early 1990s. After winning numer-ous local awards, his work soared dramatically in volume and in-ternational recognition and broadened to include video, perfor-mance art and installations. For over a decade, Nasr exhibited his versatile multi-media works across the four corners of the globe. The irony however is that this international recognition did not resonate in his native country, as Nasr remained absent from the local art scene for over a decade. Untitled, his upcoming exhi-bition at ArtTalks Gallery in Cairo, represents a milestone in the artist’s career – an impassionate desire to return as an artist to his native land, Egypt and a return to his artistic roots: abstract painting. Twenty-five new paintings will be exhibited in the up-coming solo show, deriving from years of subconscious accumu-lation of turmoil, revolutions, peace, wars, travels, international successes, homesickness and pent-up emotions.

Moataz Nasr compares abstract art with jazz improvisation. It starts randomly and spontaneously until you find harmony in the painting. Nasr intuitively starts with a line, a spot, a circle, a color, randomly spreading these across the wooden board. La pièce de résistance is when he seeks harmony amongst all these random elements. His starting point, be it a line or a dot, comes from a visual memory of a microscopic detail he saw in his surroundings. He compares all he sees to different walls. For example, a red dot in the middle of a myriad of grey buildings in a street catches his loop and turns out to be a red nightgown hanging to dry in a Cairo balcony. Cairo is full of such walls, rich with history, energy, and layers of colors. Many other cities give him that same inspiration given their unparalleled richness such as Aleppo, Damascus, Istanbul, Napoli, and Marseilles. Yet Cairo remains his main muse with its people, culture, flow of knowl-edge and chaos. It is the ultimate multi-layered city reflected in and imposing itself on his abstract paintings. And despite a hia-tus of over a decade, his return to abstract painting interestingly continues to utilize that same earth colors palette that he kicked off his career with, reminiscent of the colors of Cairo, despite all that the victorious city has gone through. Moataz Nasr was born in 1961 in Alexandria (Egypt). He lives and works in Cairo. After studying economics, he decided to change direction and take a studio in Old Cairo. This self-taught artist

M OATA Z N AS R B I O

gained local recognition marked by many prizes before break-ing into the international art scene in 2001, notably winning the Grand Prix at the 8th International Cairo Biennial and in 2002 winning the Biennale Prize of Dakar Biennale, Senegal.

The artist has participated in many important international art events, including the Venice Biennale (2003), the Seoul Biennale (2004), the Sao Paulo Biennale (2004), the Yokohama Triennale (2005), the Canarie Biennale (2008), the Lubumbashi Biennale (2010), the Thessaloniki Biennale (2011), Çanakkale Bienali (2012), La Otra Bienal de Arte di Bogota (2013) and group events such as Arte all’Arte (San Gimignano, 2004), Africa Remix (Dus-seldorf, 2004; London, 2005; Paris, 2005; Tokyo, 2006; Johannes-burg, 2007), Ghosts of Self and State (Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2006), a solo exhibition at The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan, 2006, and last but not least at Château de Blandy-les-Tours in 2011.

The most recent solo show are: The Tunnel, Galleria Continua/ Beijing, China; Collision, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE; Hidden Landscape, Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway; 2012, Tectonic Shift, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, France, 2013.

The most recent group shows to which he has contributed in-clude: MidEast Cut, Exhibition Center, Algiers, Algeria, 2008; Made in Afrika, National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya, 2008; Taswir, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2008; 21st Century: Art in the first Decade, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, 2010; Time After Time: Actions and Interactions, San Francisco, USA, 2012; La belle et la beste, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bor-deaux, France, 2012; Arab Express, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Ja-pan, 2012; Turbulences II, Boghossian Foundation / Villa Empain and Espace culturel Louis Vuitton (Paris), Terms and Conditions, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Every Day Matters, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Pen to Paper, Al Madad Foundation with Athr Gallery Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Soudi Arabia; The See Is My Land, MAXXI, Roma.

Born in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1961.He lives and works in Cairo.

Solo Shows

2013The Journey of a Griffin, Villa Pacchiani Centro Espositivo, Santa Croce sull’Arno Harmonia, Centro Espositivo per le Arti Contemporanee SMS, San Michele degli Scalzi, PisaTectonic Shift, GALLERIA CONTINUA / Le Moulin, France

2012Collision, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAEMoataz Nasr / Hidden Landscape, Akershus Fortress, Oslo, NorwayThe Tunnel, Galleria Continua / Beijing, China

2011In a Nutshell, Selma Feriani Gallery, London, UKMoataz Nasr -The Maze (The People Want the Fall of the Regime), MAP, Mobile Art Production, Gothenburg, SwedenRéactions en chaîne, Château de Blandy-les-Tours, Blandy, FranceThe Other Side of the Mirror, Galleria Continua / San Gimignano, Italy

2008A Memory Fills with Holes, Galleria Continua, San GimignanoCairo walk, Sultan Gallery, Sabhan, Kuwait

2006The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Darat al Funun, Amman, JordanEntrapment, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy

2005The Echo, Touchstones Art Gallery, Rochdale, UK

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2004Falaki Gallery, The American University in Cairo, EgyptTownhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt

2003Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, EgyptFranco Riccardo Gallery, Napoli, Italy

2002Franco Riccardo Gallery, Napoli, Italy«Espace-La Bodega» Gallery, Cairo, Egypt

2001Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt

2000Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, EgyptEgyptian Cultural Center in Paris, France

1999Al Ahram House Gallery, London, UKAkhnaton Gallery, Centre of Fine Art, Cairo, Egypt

Group Shows

2014The sea is my land - artisti dal Mediterraneo, Triennale, Milan, Italy Heaven, Hell, Purgatory – The Divine Comedy from the Per-spective of Contemporary African Artists, MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, GermanyArab Contemporary - Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

2013The See Is My Land, MAXXI, Rome, ItalyTerms and Conditions, Singapore Art Museum, SingaporeTHE WAVE Culture Festival, Sdr. Nissum, Humlum, Nørre Snede and Vorgod-Barde, DenmarkTappeti estremi, da Timbuctù all’Arte Contemporanea, Fondazione 107, Turin, ItalyVideo(works), Athr Gallery, Jeddah, UAEIn peace and with compation. 5th Caravan Festival of the Arts, Cairo, Egypt; London, UK Métamorphose, FITE - Festival International des Textiles

Extraordinaires, Hue, Vietnam100 3, Art Hotel Gran Paradiso, Sorrento, ItalyEvery Day Matters, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen Turbulences II, Boghossian Foundation / Villa Empain with the collaboration of Espace culturel Louis Vuitton (Paris), Bruxelles, BelgiumPen to Paper, Al Madad Foundation in collaboration with Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaCadavre exquis, suite méditerranéenne, Marseille Provence 2013 Capitale européenne de la culture en Pays d’Aix, Musée Granet Place Saint Jean de Malte 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France

2012Long Live Free Art!, ArtTalks Egypt, Cairo, Egypt Mirages d’orient, Collection Lambert, Avignon, FranceEncounter: The Royal Academy in the Middle East, Gallery 1&2, Doha, QatarIn Spite of it All, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE La belle et la bêste, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, FranceSystem and Patterns, MGLC - Mednarodni graficni likovni center / International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, SloveniaFictions and dissentions, III Uluslararası Çanakkale Bienali / International Çanakkale Biennial, Çanakkale, TurkeyPar Nature, Centquatre, Paris, FranceMétamorphose, FITE - Festival International des Textiles Extra ordinaires, Musée Bargoin, Clermont-Ferrand, FranceWhere is the Time?, Foundation IZOLYATSIA - Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Donetsk, UcrainaMediterraneo: incontri o conflitti?/The Mediterranean Region: Bonding or Fighting?, Palazzo Gargasole, Gagliano del Capo (Lecce), ItalyRadici, Memoria, Identità e Cambiamento nell’arte di oggi, Palazzo De Sanctis, Castelbasso, ItalyNeon. La materia luminosa della luce, Macro, Rome, ItalyArab Express, The Latest Art from the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JapanRevolutionary Bodies, L’animal a l’esquena, Celrà/Girona, SpainDAK’ART 2012, 10e Biennale de l’art africain contemporain, Dakar, SenagalIntrecci, Museo delle Trame Mediterranee, Gibellina (TR), Sicily, Italy Moataz Nasr-Loris Cecchini, Studio Carlotta Pesce, Bologna, Italy

Aboard the Heart of Gold, VII Bologna Art First, Palazzo d’Accursio (Piazza Maggiore), Bologna, ItalyHistories of Now: Six artists from Cairo, Museum School and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2011Recistance, DARB1718, Cairo, EgyptDancing on the Edge, Amsterdam, NetherlandsThe Maze (The People Want the Fall of the Regime), Hors Les Murs, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, FranceMachine-RAUM, Vejle Art Museum, Spinderhallerne and Bryggen/Urban space, DenmarkA Rock and a Hard Place, Old Intersections-Make it New, III Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA), Thessaloniki, GreeceThe Mystical Self, Video Art Project, Veneto Regional Archive for Video Art, Verona; Visual Container e [.BOX] Videoart project space, Milano, ItalyRevolutionary Bodies, Isola dell›Asinara (Sassari) and Berchidda, ItalyResistance, Amsterdam, Holland

2010Fames:Family Vaudeville, DARB1718, Cairo, EgyptSphères 3, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, Boissy-le-Chatel, France21st Century: Art in the first Decade, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, AustraliaTime After Time: Actions and Interactions, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, USAHiwar, DARB1718, Cairo, EgyptRencontres PICHA, Biennale de Lubumbashi, LubumbashiTime after Time, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, USACommon Sense. We are less Greek than we think, St. Michael, Eppan-Appiano, ItalyMiraggi, Castelli in terra di Brindisi e Taranto, Brindisi, ItalyMOATAZ NASR-DARB1718, GEO-graphics. A map of ART practices in AFRICA, past and present, Bozar, Brussels, BelgiumIdoles, Galleria Continua / Le Moulin, FranceUn peu, beaucoup, passionnement…, Galerie Alice Mogabgab, Beirut, LebanonBARAKAT/The gift, Stuxx Gallery Chealsea, New York City, USAHiwar / Discussion, La Marsa Nessim, TunisiaIl piacere del collezionista, Finstral, Unterinn am Ritten, Bolzano,

ItalyAfrican Marketplace, International Film Festival, Rotterdam, NetherlandsLight/Sound/VideoNight, Finstral, Unterinn am Ritten, (BZ), Italy

2009Taswir, Islamische Bildwelten und moderne, Martin-Gropi-us-Bau, Berlin, GermanyMacedonian Museum of Contemporary Art - Thessaloniki International Fair, ThessalonikiMade in Afrika, National Museum, Nairobi, KenyaAmnesia, Nairobi Arts Trust / Contemporary Art of East Africa (CCAEA), Nairobi, Kenya[un]defined09 - Merano Arts Festival, Caserma F. Rossi, Merano (Bz), ItalyReflections of Africa, MAMA - National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; The African contemporary art, Exhibition center, Alger, AlgeryTawassol – Contact, Artericambi, Verona, ItalyFestival International d’Art Video de Casablanca, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Ben M’Sik, Casablanca, MoroccoMediterranean, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, ItalyTraversées, Bab Rouah and Bab Elkbir, Rabat, MoroccoCoexistencias / Coexistences, II Bienal de Canarias, Centro de Arte La Regenta, Las Palmas de Gran CanariaMidEast Cut, The Danish Film Institute & Backyard Gallery, Copenhagen, DenmarkShoes, Ebdaa Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt

2008Al Madina, Ebdaa Art Gallery, Cairo Traversées, Darb 1718, Cairo (Egypt)Les Recontres Internationales de la Poto, Centre Cervantes, Fes, MorocoTraversées (Crossings), Grand Palais, Paris (France)11 atists from Africa Remix – fringe touring exhibition, Mbabane (Swaziland); The Cultural center of Maputo, Maputo (Mozam-bique); Alliance Francaise, Pretoria (South Africa); Alliance Francaise, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg (South Africa); The cultural center of Windhoek, Windhoek (South Africa).

2007Dans la ville et au-delà, Recontres Africaines de la Photographie

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de Bamako 2007, Paris, France11 artists from Africa Remix – fringe touring exhibition, Maseru (Lesotho); Durban (South Africa); Cape Town (South Africa).Machine-RAUM – a biennale for video art and digital culture, Vejle Art Museum and part of the Spinning factory, Vejle, DenmarkThe Sneeze, Durban Art gallery, Durban, South AfricaL’invention de la mémoire, Espace Jeumon, Saint-Denis la Réunion24th Memorial NADEŽDA PETROVIĆ, Čačak (Belgrade), SerbiaAFRICA REMIX, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South AfricaA.B.O., curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, Bologna Artefiera, Bologna, Italy

2006Another World. Bamako 2005, La Centrale Electrique/European Center for Contemporary Art, Bruxelles, BelgiumAFRICA REMIX, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SwedenUn autre monde – 6e édition de la photographie de Bamako, BnF, Paris, FranceL›image révélée : de l›orientalisme à l›art contemporain, Musee de la Ville de Tunis, Palais kheireddine, Tunis 3a Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006, JapanAFRICA REMIX, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JapanCross-Currents: Water as a Metaphor for (African) Identity?, Tufts University Art Gallery. Aidekman Arts Center, Talbot Avenue, Medford, USAGhosts of Self and State, Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University, Melbourne, AustraliaCCA 94th Annual Conference, CCA – College Art Association, Boston, USA

2005Forming with Light, Palace of Art, Opera House, Cairo, EgyptBamako Biennale for African Photography, Mali, Yokohama Triennale, JapanAFRICA REMIX, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France“Mediterranean Encounters”, Sicily, Italy 4x4, Artists Space, Broadway, New York, USAImagining the Book, Alexandria Library, EgyptSharjah Biennale, U.A.E., awarded the Grand PrizeLoose Your Identity, Kunstverein Kreis, Ludwigsburg, Germany Museum of Contemporary Art, Bahea, Salvador, BrazilFrench Cultural Center, Damascus, Syria

Prepared and participated in the art exhibition For Jerusalem in Hanager Opera House, Cairo, EgyptLa Bodega, Cairo, EgyptCairo International Biennale for Ceramics, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, EgyptNitaq Festival of Art, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt

199927th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, EgyptSmall Artworks at the Center of Art Cairo, Egypt

199826th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Akhnaton Center of Art, Cairo, EgyptThe First Show for Artists over 35 years and honored, Museum of Fine Arts (Hussein Sobhy), Alexandria, Egypt4th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics, Center of Art, Cairo, EgyptThe Days of Kom Ghorab, Cairo, Hanager Gallery, Egypt

Workshops

2012Meddance: incontri in movimento, Masseria Torcito, Cannole, ItalyHS_Projects, France

2002Close Up Workshop, 3 Egyptian artists with 3 Swedish artists, Townhouse Gallery, CairoWorkshop The Open Studio in Townhouse Gallery Cairo (10 Egyptian and 10 foreign artists)

2000Participated in the Fashion Design workshop at the University of Applied Arts, ending in a number of exhibition in the Gezira Arts Center, Townhouse, Zeinab Khatoun and the Goethe Institute in Cairo, Egypt

AFRICA REMIX, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

2004Museo del Cristallo, Colle, ItalyLa Forma delle Nuvole, ‘Arte all Arte 10’, curated by Achille Bonto Oliva and James Putnam, Montalcino, San Gimignano, Poggibonsi, Colle di Val D’Elsa, Siena, Buonconvento, ItalySneeze 80x80, Athens, GreeceCastello di Trani, Bari, ItalyLe Opera e I giorni, Triennale, Certosa di Padula, Italy25th Sao Paolo Biennale, BrazilMilly Pozzi Arte Contemporanea, Como, ItalyBosane Biennale, South KoreaAFRIKA REMIX, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, GermanyDak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal. Awarded the Ministry of Culture Prize

2003‘Miart’, Milano Art Fair, Milan, ItalyBologna Art Fair, Bologna, ItalyEspacio Arte Contemporaneo Camargo, SpainVenice Biennale, Venice, ItalyDisorientation, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany

2002Unplugged, Arts Electronica Festival, Linz, AustriaVideo Marathon, Chisinau, MoldovaGalleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea Premio Suzzara, ItalyDakar Biennale, Senegal. Awarded The Biennale Prize 2002You Can Touch, Espace Karim Francis, Cairo, Egypt

2001Intresecus-Extrincus, Studio Casoli, Milan, ItalyAmbiente: Le Area Non Protette, Palazzo Pretorio Sala del Consiglio Communale, Sandrio, Italy Cairo Modern Art Exhibition in Denhag, Holland8th International Cairo Biennale. Opera Arts Palace, Egypt. Awarded the Grand PrizeParticipated with Martin McInally in Al Nitaq Festival, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt

2000The Palm Tree, Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, Egypt… with Egyptian and Italian artists, Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt

Others

2013A Talk with Moataz Nasr, The Archive, Dubai, UAE

2009Global Art Forum, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar

2008Founded Darb 1718 - Contemporary Art and Culture Center, Fustat area, Cairo, EgyptARTIST TALKS CCCS, Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Firenze, Italy

2000Member of the Jury Board at the 15th Art Festival Sondrio, ItalyCommissary of the Egyptian Contemporary Art exhibition in Nikosia, Cyprus

1996/98Participated in Kom Ghorab Project in Old Cairo, Egypt

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U N T I T L E D 100 x 100 cmMixed media on wood U N T I T L E D 80 x 60 cm

Mixed media on wood

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U N T I T L E D 60 x 43 cmMixed media on wood U N T I T L E D 122 x 150 cm

Mixed media on wood

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U N T I T L E D 45 x 45 cmCollage, mixed media on card boardU N T I T L E D 70 x 50 cm

Mixed media on wood

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U N T I T L E D 22 x 30 cmPastel, work on paperU N T I T L E D 22 x 30 cm

Pastel, work on paper

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U N T I T L E D 22 x 30 cmPastel, work on paperU N T I T L E D 22 x 30 cm

Pastel, work on paper

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87 x 67 cmAcrylic on hard board

AL AhRAM INSTITUTION MODERN ART COLLECTIONEgyPTIAN MUSEUM Of MODERN ART COLLECTION 80 x 122 cmMixed media

U N T I T L E D 2 3 S E P T E M B E R - 1 4 O C T O B E RM OATA Z N A S R

8 El Kamel Mohamed Street Zamalek - Cairo, Egypt

+20227363948+201005550585

info@arttalks.comarttalks.com

Catalogue Published on the occasion

of the showMoataz Nasr

UNTITLEDSeptember 23 - October 14 2014

ArtTalks | Egypt

Graphic Concept & Realization

Omar Mobarek

TextsFatenn Mostafa

CoordinatorsCherine Chafik

Lisa LounisAynour Zeitoon

PhotographsBlink Photography

PrintingConcorde Press