The exhibition BOUND NARRATIVES: A Photobook Library at Museo Novecento

From 7 October to 2 November 2022 at the Museo Novecento, BOUND NARRATIVES is an exhibition curated by Roï Saade that brings together a curated selection of Photobooks made from and about South West Asia and North Africa by a wide variety of talented authors and artists.

Museo Novecento – Piazza di Santa Maria Novella 10
7 October / 2 November 2022
(hours: Mon/Sun | 11:00am / 8:00pm – Thursday closed)

_ Opening with artists and the curator: Friday 7 October – 6.00pm

BOUND NARRATIVES: A Photobook Library brings together a curated selection of Photobooks made from and about Southwest Asia and North Africa by a wide variety of talented authors and artists.

Through this exhibit, the Photobook is presented beyond its classic definition. The selected work includes documentary projects, diaries, academic research, essays, archival images, sketches, and more, attesting to the evolution and extensive scale of the medium.

Within the exhibition space, five Photobooks and their authors are highlighted in conjunction with the 2022 Middle East Film Festival theme An Abstract of Home.
The selection includes Disquiet Days, a book that charts photographer Bruno Boudjelal’s 11-year inquiry into his origins, his identity, and his unknown family in Algeria. Abandoned Dwellings: A History of Beirut in which Gregory Buchakjian undertakes an artistic project and a research devoted to abandoned dwellings. Ahmed Mater’s book Desert of Pharan charts the city Mecca’s origins to its more recent history, a study of the site’s recent transformation. Zanjir, a conversation imagined between the artist Amak Mahmoodian and the Persian princess and memoirist Taj Saltaneh and Hello Future, a culmination of Farah Al Qasimi’s photographic, performance and film practice, unified within her keen focus on surface and texture, and the revealing visual influences of the splashy and florid.

Bound Narratives emphasizes the importance of sharing the myriad of perspectives from local and diasporic communities, on the power of subversive narratives, and self-representation. It aims to build channels with creative practitioners and book enthusiasts and enhance public access to Photobooks by creating a space to exchange ideas on books and photography while advocating for the importance of preserving work that contributes to the arts and cultural memory.

Ultimately, the project promotes the printed book amidst a world driven by technology and uncertainty.

BOUND NARRATIVES at Cinema La Compagnia.
From 4 to 9 October, the foyer of the cinema will also host a focus dedicated to the Bound Narratives exhibition with two photographic books: “Picture An Arab Man” (2022) by the Iraqi photographer Tamara Abdul Hadi, and “West of Life” (2018) by Tunisian photographer Ziad Ben Romdhane.
_ Saturday 8 October – 11.30 am: presentation of the books with Tamara Abdul Hadi and Ziad Ben Romdhane and and book signing to follow.

Project and exhibition curated by Roï Saade.
In collaboration with Museo Novecento Firenze
Set design production by Archivio Personale