Against Disappearance: A Series of Discussions about Cultural Heritage & Contemporary Culture

Paris-based arts manager and consultant, Jumana Al-Yasiri, is an expert in designing, curating, and producing residencies, festivals, and artists programs across disciplines. Working between the Arab region, Europe, and the United States, Jumana has contributed to the work of several regional and international organizations and initiatives, such as: Damascus Arab Capital of Culture 2008, the Young Arab Theatre Fund, Hammana Artist House, D-CAF, Moussem Nomadic Arts Center… From 2015 to 2020, she held the position of Middle East and North Africa Manager at Sundance Institute Theatre Program, co-leading the programme’s outreach in the MENA region and beyond. Member of the inaugural Fellows cohort at The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, she is also a regular panelist, writer, and translator. Her research and publications deal with stories of displacement and historical violence, postcolonial discourses in the arts, and the geopolitics of imagination. Hailing from Iraqi-Syrian origins, she holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Damascus Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, and an MA in Comparative Literature from the University Paris VIII. Jumana has recently served as a Programme Consultant on The Walk, a large-scale public art work by Good Chance theatre company, that will play across Europe in 2021.

Beirut-born British (Iraqi) architect, author and currently Professor at The American University of Beirut. Graduating from the AA School and the RCA in London, Damluji worked with Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in the 1970s and 1980s. After teaching at both the AA and RCA, Damluji established the RCA Asilah Studios in Morocco during the 1990s. 

Between 2001 and 2004 she was Advisor to the Chair of the Public Works Department in Abu Dhabi and in charge of the Technical Office.

In 2007 Damluji founded with colleagues in Hadramut, Yemen, Daw‘an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation, working on earth construction and building with local materials and techniques. The Foundation has been engaged in emergency and post-war reconstruction projects in Hadramut, with the Prince Claus Fund’s Cultural Emergency Response since 2008 to present.

Her publications include Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia (2018), The Architecture of Yemen (2007), The Architecture of the UAE (2006) and The Architecture of Oman (1998). An updated edition of her book on The Architecture of Yemen & Its Reconstruction will be out in 2021. She has curated several exhibitions in London, Paris and Madrid.  Damluji was elected Member of the Académie d’Architecture in 2017, received the Académie d’Architecture’s Silver Restoration Award in 2015 and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2012.

Rand Abdul Jabbar engages in a multi-disciplinary approach to creative output, oscillating across the threshold between design, architecture, and the visual arts. Throughout her process, she often borrows from and reconstructs the ephemera of place, history and memory, employing design, sculpture and installation as primary mediums of operation. Current research pursuits examine remnants of historic, cultural and personal narratives surrounding Iraq. Abdul Jabbar interrogates the fragility of Iraq’s tangible heritage, creating and composing forms that draw on artefacts, architecture and mythology. Simultaneously, she explores and contests with individual and collective memory to produce fragmentary reconstructions of historic events and past experiences. Her work has recently been exhibited at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Jameel Arts Centre, Rabat Biennale, and the Biennale d'Architecture d'Orléans (2019). She has contributed texts to the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Bayn Journal, WTD Magazine and Warehouse 421. Abdul Jabbar received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in 2014.

Hatem Imam is a visual artist and graphic designer. He holds a BFA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut (AUB), and an MA in Fine Arts from the University of Creative Arts in Canterbury, UK. He is the co-founder and creative director of Studio Safar, co-founder of the design and visual culture magazine Journal Safar, a co-founder of Samandal comics, and the artistic director of Annihaya record label. He has been teaching at the department of Architecture and Graphic Design at AUB since 2007.

Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music,” (the Wire) and “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune). An expert jazz trumpeter with a classical background, ElSaffar has created techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music that are not typically heard on the trumpet. He is also one of the few musicians in his generation to master the centuries-old Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur (Iraqi hammered dulcimer) player. As a composer, ElSaffar has created a unique microtonal harmonic language that merges the Arabic maqam modal system with contemporary Western harmony. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums and tours internationally with several ensembles, including his six-piece Two Rivers Ensemble and 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra, which combine elements of jazz, contemporary music, and Maqam. ElSaffar is a recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and United States Artists Fellowship, and is currently a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.

Jack Persekian is an artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is the founder and director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and Gallery Anadiel in Jerusalem. He previously held the position of Director and Head Curator of the Palestinian Museum (2012–2015); Founding Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation (2009–2011); Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial (2007–2011); Head Curator of the Sharjah Biennial (2004–2007); Founder and Artistic Director of The Jerusalem Show (2007–present), and Qalandiya International (2012-14). Jack Persekian currently lives and works in Jerusalem.

Farah Kaddour is a Lebanese musician and Assistant Artistic Supervisor at Action for Hope. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Musical Education (2014) and is currently completing her master studies at the Antonine university. Farah started studying music at “Beit el Musiqa” institute, where she chose Riq as her first instrument, then changed to Buzuq, and is now studying Oud. For the past three years she has been teaching principles of music and joined Action for Hope as a teacher of Buzuq, Music History and Music Theories. She also joined Assil Ensemble for Classical Arabic Music as an Oud player in 2014 and has participated in various festivals in Lebanon and abroad.  She continues to work with various music groups in Lebanon, performing classical and traditional music of the Levant and Egypt and recently took part in Akkar convoy.