Guided Tour: History Is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary

Sun., Nov. 3, 1 p.m.
Admission is free * RSVP requested
Minnesota Museum of American Art

Take a tour through the M’s fall exhibition led by St. Olaf College Associate Professor Linda Mokdad. Co-presented with Mizna.

Linda Mokdad is an Associate Professor of Film and English, and the Director of the Film Studies program at St. Olaf College. She is co-editor, with Corey Creekmur, of The International Film Musical (Edinburgh University Press, 2012) and is currently finishing a book on post-9/11 American cinema (under contract with Rutgers University Press). Her teaching and research topics are diverse, and include everything from classical Hollywood to world cinema.   

About the exhibition: History Is Not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary presents the work of artists who address what can be termed the “Arab imaginary” as a strategy for examining various social, cultural, and political positions. Best understood through a framework that recognizes the so-called Arab world and its diaspora as multiform, made up of 22 countries with distinct histories as well as diverse ethnicities, languages, and religions, this exhibition explores and scrutinizes the ways in which the region has been historicized. Through painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, book art, installation, and video, featured artists make connections between contemporary geopolitics and the histories that inform them. Their works draw attention to the challenges of representation, including misunderstandings and missteps, and the limiting and problematic terms that are often used to define the region. History Is Not Here rejects the idea of history as a fixed category and looks to alternative imagery and approaches from which new “imaginaries” can be generated.

On view: September 12, 2019 – January 5, 2020