Dr. Aïda Kaouk
Curator
Canadian Museum of Civilization
The first of its kind in Canada, The Lands within Me is an important exhibition
that assembles the work of 26 Canadian artists of Arab origin. It looks at the immigrant
experience and at métissage, or cultural intermixing, a theme explored through
the work, the life experiences and the words of the artists.
The exhibition does not attempt in any way to emphasize the "exoticism" of the work
produced by Canadian artists of Arab origin. The variety of works presented attests primarily
to the unique character of each artist. In other words, the works are presented not as examples
of "ethnicity," but as expressions of a social experience where the individual and the universal
are brought to the fore - one and the other, and not one without the other.
What the artist seeks to express with images, words and objects is often an identity
constructed from multiple belongings and an "I" that has been culturally blended. This is all
the more evident among artists of Arab origin, who have come out of multiethnic societies marked
by several great civilizations.
A place of choice for the expression of hybrid imaginary worlds, migrant art bears witness
to a reality that increasingly defines our world today. The Lands within Me
invites us to broaden the way we look at others, who may differ from us in their ethnic
origins, but who resemble us in their métissage and in their human condition.
When ethnic and religious belonging are being used - with devastating effects - for political
ends, when questions of identity and métissage become the order of the day in
social discourse, it is important to be aware that cultural identities in the contemporary
world are at once multiple and complex, and that cultural hybridity is a reality of our time.
It is with this awareness that the exhibition The Lands within Me was created
as a chant d'amour, a love song to the culturally interwoven worlds of the imagination.
Dr. Aïda Kaouk
Curator
Canadian Museum of Civilization
A curator and researcher at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Aïda Kaouk
is also in charge of the Museum's South-West Asia and Middle East Programme.
She is particularly interested in groups originating in this region that have
established themselves in Canada.
Dr. Kaouk holds a Ph.D. in the sociology of culture from the École des hautes
études en sciences sociales de Paris, and she continued her training at the
University of California in Berkeley, winning several prestigious research grants
along the way, including Fulbright and Ford Foundation grants. She has worked in
university research environments in the Middle East, France, the United States and
Canada.
Aïda Kaouk devotes much of her work to issues related to immigration,
cultural identity, social relationships and minority groups, as well as to arts
and culture practices.
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