Sumac Space launched in October 2020 as a non-profit platform presenting contemporary art from the Middle East* through digital programs and critical writing. Devoted to the Middle East and its thriving contemporary art scenes, we work with artists, curators, and research bodies who address contemporary urgencies in the context of the challenging socio-political circumstances of the region.
Alongside exploring our programs, such as online and in-situ Exhibitions, Sumac Space invites viewers to explore its digitally-accessible Artists’ Rooms and Dialogues, the core pillars that shape and define the entirety of Sumac Space.
Artists’ Rooms are digital architectures curated entirely by artists themselves that enable audiences to delve into each creative’s thinking process and research, beyond actual artworks. We believe that art practice is so much more than final works and therefore our aim is to disclose what is formative and proliferates artists’ practice on different levels. If Artists’ Rooms is primarily a space for viewing and contemplating relations between different artifacts and subjects, Dialogues is a place for being vocal. Here, authors and artists get together in conversations, interviews, essays and experimental forms of writing. We aim to create a space of exchange, where the published results are often the most visible manifestations of relations, friendships and collaborations built around Sumac Space.
We believe in the work of art in re-imagining and shaping our pasts, presents, and futures, asserting that they must have a public place for their research and diverse forms of expression. As we progressively build a community of artists, curators, researchers, and writers gravitating around the region, we welcome diverse voices to actively participate in forming Sumac Space. We propose collaboration and the fostering of a sense of shared and collective ownership, not as mere themes or theoretical concepts, but as unconditional ways of working.
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* The geographical term Middle East is not neutral; rather, it is a Eurocentric word with colonial origins.
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- Artist’s Room session, 2021
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- Home Page of Sumac Space, 2021
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- Dialogues session, 2021
