The Babel 2002 Exhibition will have two titles: “Race-Face,” where The Al-Mansouria Foundation will present “Jinniyat Lar,” the work of Shadia and Raja Alem, and in the language-dialogue category, Al-Mansouria will enter the work “Dialetique” by Mahdi Al-Jeraibi.

The works of 32 international artists are from the 32 nations that will participate in the FIFA 2002 World Cup. They will focus on the subject matter of human faces, letters and language. The project “Race-Face” will show works that demonstrate artists’ impressions of people of nations other than their own. On one hand the viewer will see individual and diverse appearances of himself, and on the other would be convinced of homogeniety of mankind.

The “Language-Dialogue” project will feature the works of artists who are concerned with the concept of communication. The artworks that reveal both the homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of letters and language will be evidence that visual arts can function as another communication channel, and one that transcends linguistic limitations.

According to officials of Al-Mansouria, Babel 2002 attempts to examine artistic responses to humanistic ideology that FIFA 2002 World Cup advocates in the celebration of an event where the whole world acts in concert. Entering the threshold of the 21st century, the many nations in the world should be reborn as one “Global Village” while transcending their differences of race, ethnic background and language. It is obvious that the process of globalization intends not to opress individualities but to respect the uniqueness and difference of individual entities.

Babel 2002 aims to attest to the fact that differences among various races and language can be reconciled with one another and co-exist within the realm of contemporary art. This exhibition will indeed function as a “World Cup” of arts.

3321 is the number of a pupil who sat behind a desk. It is no longer just an abstract number after the disappearance of the person for whom it was. Instead, it has become the reminiscent memory of its transient holder.

In my experience with “Dialectics,” I started off from the philosophical representation of a concept, namely the sustainability of traces, to invoke a collective memory. I have inscribed my quest within the scope of a methodological research that aimed at celebrating content and not form, as the main focus in a work of art.

These boards are exhibited in the state they were when I first found them. Their original state reveals their identity, as old images revive the memory of those to whom they belong.

“It was only natural that Jinniyat Lar, a series of paintings by the Saudi Artist Shadia Alem, be brought to the attention of Al-Mansouria. We sought to multiply their message into two hundred copies to be carried to as many as two hundreds different destinations. We thought that the Jinniyat ought to reveal themselves in more than one language. We chose the writer Raja Alem, Shadia Alem’s sister who shared with the artist the same cultural and mythological background.”

We would like to create a new vision of art and its role in the lives of people with various intellectual, social and material capabilities.

Our objective is to test the public and its incentives and evaluate the possibility of enlarging the audience base with newcomers from various social groups:

• those who appreciate art but cannot afford to buy it for financial reasons;
• the youth whose artistic taste has yet to be educated and who require from us support and guidance to learn to appreciate Saudi art and interact with it.

What is most important is that our concept becomes a means to stimulate dialogue between the event and its viewers, and remains open to criticism and further development.

The participation of The Al-Mansouria Foundation in this major art exhibition fits in well with its aim of promoting Saudi art internationally, thereby creating an opportunity for the intermingling of local and international art. It will place Saudi artists in an international arena that is both advantageous and suitable for their work. In addition, it focuses an international spotlight on both the heritage of the country and its serious and talented individuals.

At the Europ’Art 2000 exhibition, Al-Mansouria presents the works of two famous Saudi artists: Abdullah Al-Shaikh and Taha Saban. The Foundation coordinated with professionals in the art field to select the best and most representative works of the two chosen Saudi artists, in order to present the best of Saudi painting. Al-Mansouria is also presenting an art book entitled Jinniyat Lar which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom. The book combines the artwork of Shadia Alem and the writings of Raja Alem.

“The work of Faisal Samra leads us at once to question the meaning of art. Art is nothing but an instrument of expression and knowledge, which is far different from the ordinary perception of reality that is provided by our senses. Art is precisely the medium of that other vision which the artist gets to realize through his work. This alternative perception can only be translated and conveyed by works of art. The work of Faisal Samra lies within the scape of that perspective. When the artist turns away from the objective representation of reality, it is only restored through the energy of his style and the intensity of his vision. The depth of this experience is such that we can hardly catch a glimpse of it.”
Brahim Alaoui