The Archive as Imperative: Methods and Approaches in the History of Art and Architecture in the Middle East and North Africa
7 September 2026 - 9 September 2026
University of Geneva, Uni Mail
Manazir joins the 6th Swiss Congress for Art History 2026 at the University of Geneva, with a panel highlighting archival practices in art and architecture of the MENA.
Manazir joins the 6th Swiss Congress for Art History 2026, University of Geneva, with a panel.
This panel examines how archives shape art and architectural histories of the Middle East
and North Africa. Often dispersed, fragile, censored, or destroyed, the accessibility of
archives defines the contours of research and the writing of fragmented histories. This reality
is further exacerbated today by conflicts and wars affecting the region, thus highlighting the
urgency of preserving multiple narratives through research as well as artistic and spatial
practices. In a region marked by intense transnational circulation, artists and architects use
archives—real or fictional—as material, method, and curatorial or discursive tools to
reinterpret the past and imagine new futures. Rethinking the archival turn that marked
regional art and architectural practices in the 1990s–2000s, the panel reassesses its
contemporary relevance in light of today’s shifting context. It invites reflections on the critical
potential of archives in tracing fragmented trajectories, analyzing heterogeneous actors and
networks, and in activating or transforming narratives.
Organized by Manazir, Joan Grandjean (Université Rennes 2), Laura Hindelang (Universität Bern), Dr. Silvia Naef, (Université de Genève), Nadia Radwan (HEAD – Genève)
Panelists:
Between the Brush and the Archive: Pan-Arabism and Fragmented Revolution: Through the Practice of Kuwaiti Artist Khalifa Al-Qattan Abdullah Al-Mutairi, Sultan Gallery (Kuwait) and al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art (Abu Dhabi/UAE)
The City as a “Living Archive”: Artistic Interventions and Collective Memory in Beirut Tamara Choukair Hilal, independent researcher and art worker, Paris/France
Activating New Forms of Documentation and Critical Spatial Imagination: The Case of Shu’un Filastiniyya Jumanah Abbas, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, Abu Dhabi/UAE
Counter-Archival Methodologies in Iraqi Vernacular Photography: Testimony, Remediation, and the Architecture of Memory Basil Al-Rawi, artist, Cork/Ireland
Archives of Radioactive Heritage: France’s Nuclear Colonialism in the Sahara Samia Henni, McGill University, Montreal/Canada
