Coming Full Circle > Jamm Debuts at Home

by Maha Majzoub

Since its launch not so long ago, art advisory JAMM has been making headlines with a string of exhibitions, events, and auctions that aim to promote cultural diplomacy across the globe. Headquartered in London’s Hanover Square, the independent consultancy has been trying to advance Arab and Iranian artists in the West, and Western artists in the East, encouraging further collaboration between the two. And it has been doing that with a lot more flavor and soul than similar endeavors with more or less similar scopes. The “Peace by Toby” event at the Athr Gallery in Jeddah, where celebrated Middle Eastern photographers donated works to rebuild schools devastated by the floods that ravished the city in January 2011, attests to the above. Its High Tea for collectors, patrons, and artists at the 2010 edition of Art Dubai is another tasteful example. And its most recent event in Kuwait was expected to be no different… perhaps with extra chunks of spicy and sassy.

Entitled “How I Learned to Stop Fearing and Love Exotic Art”, the exhibition ran from November 20 to December 10 at the Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) at the Life Center in the industrial district of Shuwaikh. While JAMM, which was co-founded by Kuwaiti Princess and former Middle East Director for Philips de Pury, Sheikha Lulu Al-Sabah, and former head of Christie’s Middle East, Lydia Limerick, has held two auctions in Kuwait, this was its inaugural exhibition in the Gulf nation.
The exhibition showcased 40 artworks by contemporary Arab and Iranian artists - both emerging and established. The line-up included Parviz Tanavoli, Hassan Hajjaj, Farideh Lashai, Halim Al-Karim, Katya Traboulsi, Shezad Dawood, Nargess Hashemi, and Farhad Moshiri. It featured artworks that incorporate text in its various forms - calligraphy, graffiti, quotations, poems, and at times just a single letter, says Sheikha Lulu. “The use of writing is a common theme in contemporary Arab and Iranian art. At the same time, the use of the Arabic language is one of the characteristics that render the art from this region as ‘exotic’ to outsiders. We wanted to play with this theme,” she explains.

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