Cool Middle East design and visual culture

I stumbled upon the website for the Khatt Network for Arabic Typography again today and it is even more interesting than I remember (with a lovely new interface).

"The Khatt Foundation is a non-profit cultural foundation dedicated to design research and cultural exchange between Europe and the Arab World/Middle East."

You can join and become a member of the community, post announcements, notices, thoughts, designs. Check out the news section for events, conferences, calls for submission, exhibitions. Learn about such things as Samandal Comics, a quarterly tri-lingual comics magazine, or "Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, a heartfelt tribute by some traditional letterpress printers in America to the literary and bibliographical heritage of Iraq, and its partial destruction."


The calendar section is especially worth visiting for detailed listings of events, including many photo, video/film and art exhibits. For example, here's an exhibit by Egyptian painter Huda Lutfi (a former professor of mine at AUC).

[Democracy is coming! 2008, Mixed Media, 45 x 35]

Also check out PhotoCairo04 put on by the Contemporary Image Collective in Cairo:

An international multi-disciplinary visual arts project in Downtown Cairo featuring a series of exhibitions, screenings, presentations, residencies, a workshop and a temporary publishing house.

Opening reception on Wednesday 17 December 2008
Symposia: 19-21 December 2008 | 9-11 January 2009

And here's a curious call for posters by Iranian artists for a roaming display in Berlin, after one in Istanbul, about "Urban Jealousy":