Hajj: The Journey Through Art الحج :الفن في رحاب الرحلة

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About

A groundbreaking exhibition - Hajj: The Journey Through Art

By MACF (A museum Foundation) along with collaborators from their ongoing Cross-Cultural Art projects is on.

MACF collective’s interest is in working with transnational artistic and cultural networks of exchange at the scale of the local & global.

In this latest body of work & exhibition the curators and their collaborators stage dialogues between the Aboriginal handmade & the Muslim hand crafted works of art, through a series of visual, conceptual/sculptural gestures that are inspired by the labor that artisans and craftsmen undertake to transform material to become artistic yet spiritual, symbolic and iconic inspirations

Hajj exhibition features collaborative gestures undertaken in the last year by MACF which was founded by Islamic art Curator B.Hammoud. He’s working toward establishing a museum in Vancouver city. The exchange has met since fall of 2021 to begin forming a self-organized artisan vendor cooperative to create cross-cultural art installations.

Siting their art practice primarily within dialogue form, participating artists seek to analyze how popular informal forms of cultural art exchange, taking place between transnational communities, can be mobilized in defiance of solidifying political and spiritual boundaries—proposing an understanding of the border not as bifurcating line, but as a region expanding and contracting with the movement of artists and objects.

Event plans:

- Opening ceremony speech to address the local Indigenous people of the land.

- Performance by indigenous group

- Museum curated display of Hajj related artifacts

- Islamic Art installations

- Ethnography, photography & Hajj relics

-Traditional calligraphy islamic art

- Modern & contemporary islamic art

- Orientalist art (scenery of Arab world daily life)

- Calligraphy workshop & talk backs

- Sacred Islamic symmetrical geometry workshop

- IMAX produced documentary film

- Islamic sculpture art

- Miniature islamic art

- Calligraphy tools

- Group picture taking in custom made costumes

- Subject related collectable series of travel exploration books.

Related events:

-In conjunction with the Hajj exhibition the curators will be leading a tour in English, Arabic & French & possibly Spanish from 1:30 to 3:30pm daily for 4 days of the event.

-Possible (meet & greet) with artists from 10am-1pm.

-Canadian Muslims who took on Hajj in the past will be honoured by signing their names on a pilgrimage relic object specifically replicated by local community senior artisans to accommodate their names and crown their journey with their personal touch.

Participated Artisans will be present at the Hajj event only Sep - Oct from 10am to 5pm, and will collaboratively produce an altar for the event. Altares will be on view once finished Oct 20. See website for more information.

Support:

Hajj exhibition is a large-scale project commissioned by MACF Vancouver BC. The artists thank the founder of MACF, the City of Richmond, corporate and individual donors and local Muslim communities for their support of this project. These 3 elements - The city (Richmond), the pavilion (RAG), and the 6 main elements of the exhibitionCombined with individuals & dialogue make the event a fantastically rich experience.

Links

Organizer

MACF (Mihrab Art & Culture Foundation)

MACF:

A nonprofit organization, its art collection reflects the goals and diverse interests of the founder, a collector of cultural artefacts from around the world, an art ambassador to Canadian Muslim and non Muslim communities and a cultural leadership award winner 2017.

After many years of travel, Hammoud returned to Vancouver in 1995 with his wife to raise their children near family. He credits them for their support and for instilling in him the importance of history of Islamic Heritage & culture, examination and appreciation, qualities he hopes to pass on to his children and to the diverse audience through his curatorial work.

His goal is to represent the aesthetic aspect of Islamic culture through art & architecture and the historical aspect of science & technology in Islam and its contribution to today’scivilization.

His interest in history of art, architecture, culture, science, and nature ensures that these art objects combine to tell a rich variety of stories that connect them to people across cultures. During his 30 years history of traveling, the Vancouver-based Mr Hammoud ensured the collection becomes international in scope ranging from Safavid dynasty pottery in Persia to memluks glass in Cairo to the Abbasids manuscripts in Baghdad to the symmetrical geometry & arabesque in Andalusia. All in here in town as a compelling collection .

This collection exemplifies MIHRAB Charity vision, mission and values to “ encourage respect to each and every individual and his or her unique cultural heritage “while reflecting the rich cultural mosaic of our Canadian communities at large.

Collected and curated by Mr Hammoud, this art collection presented in multiple well organized events in elite spaces to celebrate our diversity and our connections, to unify rather than divide. Much of Mr Hammoud’s planned work has been oriented towards developing multifaceted cross cultural exhibitions to facilitate new opportunities for engagement by participants and audiences alike.

MIHRAB Art & Culture is always searching for new artefacts to fill in the missing part of Islamic heritage & culture stories, artifacts that capture our history as it unfolds. His art resources library is 35 years journey of collecting, organizing and preserving thousands of valuable subject pertains books to create an art history library in a permanent museum in central Vancouver.

The library goal/concept is to compliment the potential museum making the resources equally available for local artists, academics, art students, researchers, curators, and teachers.