AMMAN- In its 8th consecutive year, the Image Festival Amman presented the Jordanian art scene the biggest photography exhibition it has ever witnessed. With a theme like Wandering piloting this year’s edition, the Image Festival hosted more than 25 different exhibitions, 3 photography workshops and 3 artist talks across 30 days.
This year, artmejo was present at the Image Festival as a media partner. Throughout the month we met up with many artists and attended a lot of exhibitions. Here is a recap of what the Image Festival had to offer:
Josef Koudelka – Gypsies:
Exhibition view
It its first exhibition in Jordan, Magnum Photos highlighted the works of Czech-French photographer Josef Koudelka in his infamous Gypsies series. The exhibition was considered one of the Image Festival’s highlighted shows and was hosted at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.
Mimo Jodice – Mediterranean:
Exhibition view
Mediterranean is a photography series by Italian artist Mimo Jodice that highlights Italian archaeology and sculpture. The series calls for building bridges through a shared cultural heritage between the Mediterranean.
Fakhri Al Gazal – A Trip to Redeyef:
Exhibition view
The town of Redeyef in Tunisia is the main protagonist in Fakhri Al Gazal‘s series. The series took four years in the making after Al Gazal took part in a 2012 residency program organized by the Tunisian platform SIWA. The series narrates the story of a town which once held a condensed military and rebellious nature and what has become of it, a ghost town inhabited by roaming figures, floating in uncertainty.
Paola Farran – The Things We Leave Behind:
Exhibition view
The Things We Leave Behind is an ongoing photography project by multidisciplinary artist Paola Farran. In it, she captures the residue of humans in the places they inhabit. From cigarette butts, to plastic forks flipping viewers off, each snap is paired with a fittingly hilarious title that is both sarcastic and thought provoking.
Bashar Tabbaa – Stars and Stone:
Exhibition view
Bashar Tabbaa presented a series showcasing Jordan’s archaeological sites and historical ruins under the night time’s stars. Tabbaa has been exploring night photography and expanding this series since 2014.
Salem Bouchagour – Bedouins:
Exhibition view
Bouchagour in this series photographs portraits for the Bedouins of the Algerian desert. To him, their faces are reflections of the desert’s harsh environment.
Thilo Remeni – Forgotten Life – The Story of Nisreen:
Exhibition view
The Swiss photographer Thilo Remeni documents the story of Nisreen, a single mother of four living in the troubled city of Hebron. The series showcases different aspects of the family’s daily life under constant harassment, oppression and restraints of movement.
International Women Photographers Award – Edition 2019:
Exhibition view
The goal of IWPA is to promote women photographers around the world and act as a global platform. IWPA, through its annual award, intends to bring to light the work, talent and vocations of women photographers of all nationalities. The annual exhibition travels to major cities and capitals across the Middle East and Europe in order to show the work of the awardees to a large and international audience.
Samah Arafat – Chasing Sunsets:
Exhibition view
Samah Arafat chases unique daily sunsets to capture the beauty of the bewitching Golden Hour.
Juvenile Center for Girls – I Wander in My Dream:
Exhibition view
Lubna, Nisreen, Madleen and Shahed, wander daily in their dreams from inside the juvenile center. Their dreams take them to the future, and carry their hopes to leave for a better life. Through photography training and documentary photography workshops, the girls turned their dreams into visual scenes reflecting their nostalgic thoughts for a future that is safe and near.
Mira Khlaif – A Walk Through Fontainebleau Forest:
Exhibition view
Mira Khlaif found herself wandering in the middle of the Fontainebleau Forest near Paris. Exhibited on the old Ammani walls of Villa Kawar, Khaif‘s project is a brilliant breeze of fresh air.
Fadli Hadji – Lost in the Land of Touareg:
Exhibition view
Fadli Hadji‘s project finds the people of an Amazigh tribe called the Touareg as its protagonists. The series captures the tribe’s daily lifestyle in the harsh Sahara Desert.
Ziad Naitaddi – Untitled Morocco:
Exhibition view
In Untitled Morocco, the young Moroccan photographer Ziad Naitaddi searches through his lens for the deepest reflection of the human soul. In a series of black and white photographs, Naitaddi expresses the dark yet fleeting moments in life.
Mohammed Zakaria – Sakan:
Instituto Cervantes
Exhibition view
In Sakan, Zakaria inquires about the ways his truest self is manifested in a physical habitual environment. It is a serene, motionless and tranquil walk through the photographer’s private home.
Jean-Michel de Tarragon – Wandering in the Middle East:
The French Institute
Exhibition view
Jean-Michel de Tarragon presents in 28 rare and some previously unpublished images taken during the Dominican Fathers of Ecole Biblique’s many field trips. Those trips took place all over the Near-East, from historic Palestine, through Transjordan and, in the South, to the Negeb and Sinai.
Karsten Kronas – Searching for Mr. X:
Duke’s Design Center
Exhibition view
When the photographer’s phone got stolen, and through its dropbox interface, Karsten Kronas began receiving every photograph the unknown Mr. X snapped using the device. Slowly, Kronas was introduced to Mr. X’s face, his family, as well as his community. The theft of his telephone initiated the beginning of an interesting journey in the photographer’s career, which is documented in this series of work.
Oqba Faraj – Birds Migration:
Dante Alighieri Societa
Exhibition view
To photographer Oqba Faraj, Wandering is proportional to freedom in flight. Faraj documents the migration of flocks of different breeds of birds to Jordan.
Siniša Vlajković – Genius Loci:
Exhibition view
Genius Loci showcases social landscapes that are the result of a sequence of haphazard Friday road trips Siniša Vlajković took around less familiar corners of the United Arab Emirates. These trips had one goal in common: searching for the unfamiliar places that were once full of life.
Tariq Dajani – Hikāyāt:
Exhibition view
In the latest series by artist Tariq Dajani, Hikāyāt presents a series of hand-crafted photogravure prints combined with handwritten Arabic writings by poets Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim, and mystics from Rumi and Gibran. Hikāyāt is dark and evocative, but harbours spiritual warmth through its intense development process as well as the artist’s use of private family photographs.
Collective exhibition Wandering – Home:
German Jordanian University (SABE)
Exhibition view
In this collective exhibition, 8 Jordanian and German photographers experiment in their own individual projects the juxtaposition of the theme Wandering – Home. The exhibition takes place within the framework of the Goethe-Institute’s programming.
M’hammed Kilito – Cinema Camera:
Exhibition view
Having been inspired by Hakim Belabbis‘ 2008 docu-film These Hands, M’hammed Kilito set out to find the Moroccan film’s real characters and photograph them in front of his camera. In his project, Kilito wonders what happened to these people in the 10 years time after the film’s release.
The Newspaper:
Mehrath for Arts and Culture
Shoman Foundation
Exhibition view from The Newspaper’s Madaba exhibition at Mehrath for Arts and Culture
The Newspaper is one of Methrah for Arts and Culture‘s projects, formed by three youth from Madaba, each creating a character: Abu George – The Christian, Abu Issa – The Villager and Abu Mousa – The Educated, who showcase the social interactions and clashes amongst, bedunism, ruralism and modernism.
Ed Kashi – Abandoned Moments:
Exhibition view
In Abandoning Moments, American photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator Ed Kashi presents unique moments in time that can only be captured and documented through photography. The series of work materializes the magical mixture of spontaneity and serendipity.
Elsie Haddad – The Sand Along the Way:
Exhibition view
The Sand Along the Way is an ironic photography series by Elsie Haddad showcasing Human intervention in the middle of Earth’s harshest biomes, the desert. In her escape from citylife, Haddad reached the desert only to find reminders of what she left behind.
Marwan Tahtah – Perfect Homes for Leaving:
Exhibition view
Marwan Tahtah set out to document the accumulation of clutter collected by refugees within the diaspora camps. These objects were adjusted and repurposed to new tasks to accommodate the family’s current living situation and need.
Mohammed AlSanani – Cities of Beauty:
Exhibition view
In Cities of Beauty, Mohammed AlSanani captures the beauty of the two cities Ibb and Sana in the eyes of their people.
Pedro David – Route Root:
Exhibition view
Route Root is the documentation of a quest conducted by Brazilian photographer and artist Pedro David in search of real representations of his nostalgic childhood memories. While on one hand the artist discovered that these memories do not exist beyond his imagination, on the other, his quest ended with the publishing of Route Root as a book.
Rocío Villalonga – Uprooting Memories:
Instituto Cervantes
Exhibition view
Uprooting Memories is a photographic project by Spanish artist Rocío Villalonga that she describes as: “a visual poem”. It is set up of different 8mm films taken by Villalonga‘s father in the 1960s in different cities like, Montevideo, New York and London. The photographer builds a discourse with this material and shapes images of the films in which the images overlap, merge and dialogue, and screen them with three analogue projectors.
