Interview with Syrian artist Safwan Dahoul and Ayyam Gallery managing partner Hisham Samawi during the "Repetitive Dreams" exhibition at Ayyam Gallery London.

A talk hosted by Ayyam Gallery between acclaimed Lebanese artist and architect Nadim Karam and The Financial Times Architectural Critic, Edwin Heathcote, at Ayyam Gallery London, 20 February 2013. Karam and Heathcote discuss the role of public art in the urban environment in relation to several of Karam's ambitious international public art projects from around the world. The talk coincided with Karam's exhibition, 'Shooting the Cloud' at Ayyam Gallery from 25 January - 9 March 2013.

In the modern world, cities have become a densification of time and space, animated by transportation and communication networks. For Karam, public art is a key way to provide these cities with pockets of relief; his sculptures and installations are acts of whimsy that counter the cold utilitarian nature of so many modern environments, injecting life into these urban public spaces while playfully interacting with their heritage and culture.

Palestinian Artist Khaled Jarrar does a live performance piece in Germany where he stamps people's passports with a stamp of Palestine that he has created. Entitled Live and work in Palestine.

"Sisyphus,at this moment, has the face and the tongue of an Arab"
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji

Graphic and Art Installation Artist AKL Profile, December 2012
Artedits/Massod Vadiee; Music/Johnny farmer arab spring, emchy ala remshy/lebanese, Torabyeh Ghorbah; FT Husam Abed; Sound and Graphics/Heriknaz Sibirian; Created/Arden Zahedi-Bogucka

Born in Baghdad in 1960, Sadik Alfraji studied at the Institute of Fine Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Iraq, from which he graduated with a diploma and degree in plastic arts, respectively. In 2000 he pursued a High Diploma in Graphic Design from the CHK Constantijn Huygens in the Netherlands, where he is now based. Having participated in exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the US since the 1980s, his work is housed in the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art in Iraq, The National Gallery of Fine Arts and the Shoman Foundation in Jordan, the Novosibirsk State Art Museum in Russia, and the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum in Romania.

SISYPHUS GOES ON DEMONSTRATION
Animation/video installation 2012
"You are to suffer, to carry your burden and the weight of your existence on your back forever. And on this rough road you are to travel. You walk, with blackness round your eyes blocking your entire vision, and a hole in your head preventing you from knowing. You are not to learn, to see or to understand. You are to travel the path Sisyphus, this is your fate and this is how you are destined to exist. Note 1: We are all Sisyphus. Note 2: Sisyphus, at this moment, has the face and the tongue of an Arab. Note 3: Sisyphus can go on a demonstration and cry out loud against his destiny."

Middle Eastern collectors are becoming increasingly influential in the global art market, and it's the young collectors who are driving the growth. But while interest in buying art is growing, what's it like to make a living from art in a region known more for its petro-dollars than its artistic profits?
That’s a question Nima Abu Wardeh put to a special panel of guests in the latest in the latest Middle East Business Report summer debate.
The guests were Hisham Samawi, Managing Partner of Ayyam Gallery, Isabelle de la Bruyere, Director of Christie's Middle East, and Saeed Khalifa, an artist from the UAE.