Art_Africa_2016_03_

POSITIONING PIECE

ARAB TERRITORIES / NADIRA LAGGOUNE

ARAB

TERRITORIES

by Nadira Laggoune

“How can one be Persian?” Montesquieu wrote in his Persian Letters in 1712,

ironically on the subject of European ethnocentrism. Centuries later, the question

has become: “How can one be Arab?”

In conventional perceptions of what it is to be ‘Arab,’ we find commonplace indicators

of what ‘Arabism’ is, such as the lifestyle and traditions, religion, the desert, family,

women, the veil and fundamentalism. Used in their essentialist sense, these ‘criteria’

are rather reductive and contain as many questions as they do misunder-standings.

As a result of these misunderstandings, there is topical and persistent confusion that

consistently assimilates the image of the ‘Arab’ and the ‘Muslim.’ This amalgam –

that marks the representation of the Arab world in the Occident – often refers to a

homogenous block that is unchanging and prey to fanatical passions. More than that,

on the international art scene, this amalgam sometimes extends to Muslim countries

in general. Exhibitions that are placed under the label of MENA (Middle East and

North Africa) may include Iranian and Turkish artists who do not speak Arabic,

nor belong to this language group, however, in the exhibitions of African art, ‘Arab’

artists are included (Egyptian, Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan) who are simultaneously

‘African’ in identity.

If the link between all the groups that constitute ‘the Arab world’ is that of language, a

shared history and a common civilisation, this linguistic heritage and cultural history

does not exclude diversity.

‘Arab identity’ or ‘Arabism’ (as they say ‘Europeanism’ for Europe) is constituted

by different elements that are combined to construct a complex identity. From this

point of view, belonging to this identity is not uniform. Rather, it is plural because

there are other affiliations that take an important place for some within this identity,

such as the Amazigh in North Africa, or the Kurdish people who are spread across

numerous Arab countries. Kurds are Iraqi, Syrian or Turkish, but above all they are

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