Museum for Islamic Art presents latest exhibit by local artist Dor Guez

The exhibition is the third in a wide-ranging series titled “The Sick Man of Europe,” a phrase first used in the mid- 19th century to describe the Ottoman Empire.

By SHAWN RODGERS
Israeli artist Dor Guez (photo credit: URI GERSHUNI)
Israeli artist Dor Guez
(photo credit: URI GERSHUNI)
Starting this week, The Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem will be presenting a solo exhibition by internationally renowned Jerusalem-born artist Dor Guez.
The exhibition is the third in a wide-ranging series titled “The Sick Man of Europe,” a phrase first used in the mid- 19th century to describe the Ottoman Empire but has since been applied at one time or another to nearly every country in Europe and the Middle East.
Under this title, Guez examines the national and cultural history of nation-states that arose on the ruins of the empire. He does this through the personal stories of artists and intellectuals who ceased their creative activity in the wake of the traumatic events that befell their people.
In this exhibition, Guez tells the story of an Armenian composer he calls Hagop, whose family was expelled from the Turkish town of Kütahya to Jerusalem in the First World War, at the time of the Armenian genocide. The exhibition begins with a display of ceramics from the famous pottery centers of Iznik and Kutahya, which Guez selected from the Museum’s own collection.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a video work, in which Guez travels with the composer on his first visit to the holy places of modern Armenia, a country that occupies only a fraction of the region of historical Armenia.
The Sick Man of Europe: The Composer runs January 12 through April 8. For more info visit www.islamicart.co.il.