Good practice when writing editorial is to keep your message brief, friendly, and to the point. 

So for the month of May, I will merely say what an honour it was to be invited to be the curator of Caravan Arts I AM exhibition which opened on the first leg of its tour in the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman last week.  The venue is truly stunning and the artworks by the 31 selected women artists looked amazing in the gallery. It was wonderful as well to see works from the Barjeel Foundation collection on view there at the same time.  

Next week, we travel to Venice, where we are proud to present the sculpture of Iranian artist Masoud Akhavanjam in PERSONAL STRUCTURES - open borders at the Palazzo Bembo in connection with the 57th Venice Biennale.  

And finally, I am delighted to be one of the jurors on the new award for Iranian artists announced by the Fondation Behnam Bahktiar.  

Enjoy your May.........

S.M.A.K. invites French-Algerian artist Kader Attia at the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Textile course at KASK/School of Art at Hogent, Ghent. With Repairing the Invisible the artist shows a new installation of old fabrics that he collected during his many travels to Africa.

Pafos2017, European Capital of Culture presents in Nicosia and in Pafos Terra Mediterranea: In Action, a project that includes a major contemporary art exhibition, an international conference and a series of parallel actions with the participation of a great number of artists from Cyprus and abroad.
The exhibition aims at detecting, investigating and presenting the reflections of contemporary artists on today's universal landscape of economic, political, religious, social, but also deeply existential crisis of identity, especially as viewed through "Mediterranean" eyes, from both a political and a poetic stance.

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Asad Raza at the Boghossian Foundation, Mondialité focuses on Edouard Glissant and his inspiring call for a global dialogue that does not erase local cultures. In our current moment, there is much to remind one of the international debates swirling around cosmopolitanism at the beginning of the 20th century.

Socle du Monde 2017 presents a wide range of works. Paintings, installation art, sculptures and performances - from colourless paintings, shit in a can and live chickens to art exchanges and a dancing light robot. The biennale celebrates Piero Manzoni by turning its gaze partly towards the past, partly to the future as it presents a carefully chosen selection of exciting artists.

This historic traveling exhibition explores the evolution and history of the Egyptian surrealists and their remarkable legacy, in both Egypt and international surrealist circles. The show documents a pivotal chapter of modernism from the late 1930s to the early 1960s and demonstrates the Egyptian surrealists' contributions to internationalism, anti-fascist global protest and decolonisation movements.

Launched at the National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan, I AM is an East-West contemporary peacebuilding exhibition featuring 31 premier women artists of Middle Eastern origin from 12 countries visually celebrating the rich, diverse and pivotal contributions that Middle Eastern women make to the enduring global quest for harmony and peace.

Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour returns to Bluecoat with a major solo exhibition of new work drawing on themes of science fiction, archaeology and politics. At its heart is an award winning film combining live motion and computer generated imagery that explores the role of myth in history, fact and national identity.

This GAA Foundation's exhibition shows the commonness and differences between Europeans in dialogue with works of non-Europeans. In addition, the exhibition stimulates a more conscious relationship from the spectator towards his daily surrounding aiming to increase the awareness of their own personal Existence as human beings influenced by a specific Culture within Time and Space.

Gain an understanding of the origins, escalations and human impact of the ongoing Syria conflict in Syria: A Conflict Explored, a season of exhibitions and events - part of IWM's new Conflict Now programming strand.