Imagining the Book, 2005: Above, Below & In the Sahara Desert

Due to the success of Imagining the Book 2002 in achieving its aims and generating creative energy among its participants and viewers, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca, announced that Imagining the Book would be the first Biennale organized in the Bibliotheca to concern itself with the book as an artistic and abstract concept and in doing so attempt to bridge the conceptual gap between visual and written knowledge.

For centuries, artists of all kinds looked to the Sahara Desert for inspiration, discovering that the desert carried more than just symbolic and poetic meaning: its cultural, geo-political, and historical implications remain on the contemporary artistic agenda. The second round of Imagining the Book, with its new biennale status, attempts to address issues of personal, national, and collective identity by creating a multicultural environment where such issues can be interpreted visually and conceptually. Imagining the Book 2005 invites African and international artists to participate in this event. Artists who live in their countries of birth and whose cultural insight is closely related to the African continent will represent their art alongside artists from the African and Arab diasporas, whose art represents the vision of those who have managed to partially or fully integrate into the cultural fabric of another continent. Although Imagining the Book aims to be an international exhibition, it does focus on artists of African and Arab origin, diasporas included. The decision to spotlight this particular area seems a logical step for the following reasons:

• The Sahara Desert can be seen as a place where one group of cultures stops and another group takes off. By focusing on the whole of the African continent, the biennale aims at creating an environment where ideas about the relationship between the north and south of the continent can be addressed. Residents of North African countries are not familiar with contemporary sub-Saharan African art. If they are exposed to such art, it is usually through an intermediary channel.
• The African continent is very diverse in climate, general ambiance, and environment. There is a desire to discover how African art – northern or sub-Saharan – is affected by its specific environment.
• Some artists of the African and Arab diasporas have been able to partially or fully integrate into the societies of other countries. The results of such integration are usually expressed in the art produced by these artists. Imagining the Book 2005 aims to demonstrate the rich and varied results of cultural blending and individual cross-cultural analysis through the art of artists of African or Arab origin living abroad.  

Mohamed Abou El Naga
General Commissioner of Imagining the Book