Philipp Zobel

›Arab style‹ as Emancipation. Huda Šaʿrāwī’s Cairene ceramics production El-Hoda (1924–1947) in the context of antinomies with glocalised concepts of tradition (working title)

ABSTRACT

In the second quarter of the 20th century, the factory El-Hoda produced ceramics in ›Arab style‹. They claimed cultural heritage and thus ›tradition‹ for national as well as socially emancipative contexts, against the British colonisation of the country and societal injustices. The visual appearance of these objects speaks to these topics, mainly characterised by the adoption of historical motifs, as do their discursive framings in narratives of cultural revival and their socio-cultural ambit of origin. For a long time, artistic projects like El-Hoda received little scholarly attention because, among other things, they are in between the disciplinary boundaries of ›Islamic‹ and ›modern‹ art histories, for they don’t fit into Eurocentric ideas of art between crafts / decorative arts and fine arts, or, conversely, they fit all too well into stereotypes about swana. Therefore, this PhD-project is a first attempt to systematically research the factory with its hitherto almost unnoticed production, in which men and women from poor families were trained and created works in series that were staged as decidedly ›Egyptian-Arab‹ in form and design. The project highlights these objects as aesthetic works within the developments of their time, as well as through them the socio-cultural agency of El-Hoda's environment and in particular that of her founder, the president of the Egyptian Feminist Union Hoda Šaʿrāwī (1879–1947). Almost unexplored until today, the ceramics contribute to the construction of a cultural heritage and thus design an Egyptian identity that produces intersectional inclusions and exclusions of Egyptian society. Among other things, approaches from art history and art sociology will be combined in order to grasp El-Hoda's ceramics in their socio-cultural conditions, with their cultural-political claim and in their art-historiographical dimension.

• »Bildliche Schrift bei Saloua Raouda Choucair. Kulturelles Erbe zwischen Adaption und Ablehnung,« in: Eothen. Münchner Beiträge zur Geschichte der Islamischen Kunst und Kultur, Bd. VIII, for the Association of the Friends of Islamic Art ed. by Max Leonhard und Werner Joseph Pich, München, 609–651.

• Status Mach Bewegung. Lust und Last körperlicher Aktivität, catalogue for the eponymous exhibition by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 09/11/2020–01/10/2021 in Kulturforum, Berlin, for the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin ed. by Frederik Grosser, Theresa Laudert, Silvia Massa and Philipp Zobel, Dresden 2020.
• Capturing Iran’s Past. Fotokunst – PhotoArt – Honar-i Akasi, catalogue for the eponymous exhibition by Museum für Islamische Kunst, 11/07/2019–01/26/2020 in Pergamon Museum, Berlin, for the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin ed. by Martina Müller-Wiener, Agnes Rameder, Margaret Shortle and Stefan Weber; coordination oft he publication for Museum für Islamische Kunst by Philipp Zobel, Berlin 2019.

• »Die Körperlichkeit der Gesellschaft oder die ›Dandies‹ von Isfahan«, in: exhib. cat. Status Macht Bewegung. Lust und Last körperlicher Aktivität, catalogue for the eponymous exhibition by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 09/11/2020–01/10/2021 in Kulturforum, Berlin, for the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin ed. by Frederik Grosser, Theresa Laudert, Silvia Massa and Philipp Zobel, Dresden 2020, 68–75.
• Collaboration with and responsible for the cultural historical and art historical contents of »TAMAM – The mosque communities’ education project with the Museum für Islamische Kunst « ( tamam-projekt.de )

• Sehnsuchtsort Garten. Persische Buchmalerei trifft Berliner Kleingartenidyll / The Garden as a Place of Refuge, Persian Illuminated Manuscripts Meet Berlin-Style Allottment Idyll, curated by Philipp Zobel, special presentation in the book arts cabinet of Museum für Islamische Kunst, 10/30/2021–02/20/2022 in Pergamon Museum, Berlin.
• Raum für Alle hat die Erde. Zeitgenössische Schrift-Kunst von Hassan Massoudy / There is a Place on Earth for Everyone. Contemporary Script Art by Hassan Massoudy, curated by Laura Beusmann, Deniz Erduman-Çalış and Philipp Zobel, special presentation in the book arts cabinet of Museum für Islamische Kunst, 02.07.–17.10.2021 im Pergamonmuseum, Berlin.
• Die Strahlkraft der Alhambra / Radiance of the Alhambra, curated by Philipp Zobel, special presentation in the book arts cabinet of Museum für Islamische Kunst, 25.03.–20.06.2021 im Pergamonmuseum, Berlin.
• Status Mach Bewegung. Lust und Last körperlicher Aktivität, curated by Stefanie Anton, Antje Becker, Gabriella Gaal, Frederik Grosser, Fatma Gul, Henriette Henning, Robert Hoffmann, Christopher Hölzel, Leonie Kircher, Silvia Massa, Freya Nagelsmann, Justine Tutmann and Philipp Zobel, exhibition of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 09/11/2020–01/10/2021 im Kulturforum, Berlin.
• Capturing Iran’s Past. Fotokunst – PhotoArt – Honar-i Akasi, curated by Martina Müller-Wiener, Agnes Rameder, Margaret Shortle and Stefan Weber, curatorial assistant Philipp Zobel, exhibition of Museum für Islamische Kunst, 11/07/2019–01/26/2020 in Pergamon Museum, Berlin.