Sometime in the middle of the 1970s, a glistening, barrel-chested, tri-colored robot of Japanese provenance entered the lives of Lebanese youth. Wing-like protrusions emerged from his incongruously teeny head like a set of bull's horns. His arms were Herculean, substantial enough to hurl any enemy into a distant abyss, while his robot hands seemed always […]

The musician Maya Arulpragasam calls Muammar Qaddafi her style icon. Certainly no more than five feet tall, she appears a bit like the lovechild of Lionel Richie and Wonder Woman. Or Benazir Bhutto and Michael Jackson? A mass of dangly, actress-y black hair covers most of her forehead, while two thick strands of henna-stained brown […]

The first thing you notice about Banu Cenneto�xlu is her seriousness. Even as she smiles her shy smile, her eyes show her reticence. She wants to know what the interview is going to be about; the way she asks makes it seem there is a wrong answer. She is a control freak, she will later […]

Artist Johan Grimonprez and author Tom McCarthy became acquainted at a 2005 screening of Grimonprez's film Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1998), a montage documentary about the rise of skyjacking, set to excerpts of Don DeLillo's novel Mao II. McCarthy, who had recently published his acclaimed novel Remainder, was on the post-screening panel, and Grimonprez was in the […]

Berlin-based artist Michael Stevenson is perhaps best known for elaborate installation works that take historical events as their point of departure. He has constructed a replica of the MONIAC, a curious six-foot-tall hydraulic computer designed in the 1940s to demonstrate the flow of money within a national economy (in this case, Guatemala's); a locally produced […]

Daniyal Mueenuddin lives and works on a farm in Punjab, and it's done wonders for his writing. While headlines warn of Pakistan's imminent implosion, Mueenuddin, the son of a Pakistani father and American mother, has carved out an idyllic life for himself, writing in the mornings and overseeing the planting and harvesting of mangoes, sugarcane, […]

James Thornett established the Baghdad Country Club in the Green Zone in 2004. It quickly blossomed into one of the most popular watering holes in this corner of the former axis of evil, providing Western amenities of the liquid variety to thirsty members of the coalition of the willing to drink. Thornett, a Brit who […]

For as long as there has been a United Arab Emirates, Zaki Nusseibeh has been by the side of its leader. He became the translator and interpreter for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president of the UAE, three years before the federation was established in 1971. The scion of an ancient Jerusalem […]

The setting for our encounter could not have been more English. Alexander Siddig lives in a farmhouse in a small village in Sussex, just over an hour from London. In the summertime the locals, including a sprinkling of rock musicians and film stars, play cricket on the village green. In his spare time he has […]

LETTER

PREVIEWS

INTERVIEWS

CAMP

Murtaza Vali

JOHAN GRIMONPREZ & TOM MCCARTHY
Alexander Provan

BANU CENNETOGLU
Michael C. Vazquez

MOHAMED MOUSSALLI
Zeina Maasri

MOHAMED MAKIYA

Guy Mannes-Abbott

ETEL ADNAN
Lynne Tillman

SONALLAH IBRAHIM
Ahmed El Attar

OMAR SLEIMAN
Lana Daher

LAWRENCE WEINER
Babak Radboy

TONY SHAFRAZI
Bidoun

HAMPTON FANCHER
Gini Alhadeff

M.I.A.
Negar Azimi

SAMANDAL
Negar Azimi

MOHAMMED MRABET
Sean Gullette

ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
Pedro Reyes

JOHN WILCOCK
Zach Hooker

GHIDA FAKHRY
Shumon Basar

EXHIBITIONS

EXPOSURE AND 4
Jim Quilty

EMIRATI EXPRESSIONS
Antonia Carver

TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED
Sam Thorne

TUNING BAGHDAD
Clare Davies

SHARJAH BIENNIAL
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

THE OTOLITH GROUP
Rayya Badran and Ghalya Saadawi

LANDSCAPE. CITYSCAPE.1
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie

IRAN ON PAPER
Jinoos Taghizadeh

BOOKS

AZAZEEL
Youssef Rakha

OSAMA VAN HALEN
Alexander Provan

SHORT TAKES