MOJEH speaks to Mohamed Abla about The Silk Road, the first exhibition at Tabari under the gallery's new name, after years as Artspace Dubai.
The article opens with the history of the Silk Road, the network of routes formalised under the Han Dynasty and named Seidenstrasse by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, which carried ideas and culture as well as silk, spices and gold. Abla's exhibition presents abstract works exploring folktales from North Africa, the Levant, Asia and the Indian subcontinent, drawn from his research into that history.
He explains that the idea grew from an earlier exhibition, Tales For Reem, a set of stencil and collage mono prints made for his granddaughter. For The Silk Road he chose fairy tales he sees as symbolic of the problems Egypt has faced since 2011, though he says being an artist in Egypt has become easier. "You have to play. You have to be joyful," he tells artists. "The important thing is the idea, and what's behind that idea."
MOJEH describes the gallery as one of the first commercial art galleries in the region, dedicated to modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art. Abla says he had worked with the team for more than ten years: "They're very active and they have many ideas, and I really like to work with them." The Silk Road ran from 10 October to 24 November 2017.
