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The D/Art/2006 Festival features international video art programs
screenings, an exhibition of online works (d/Art/web) and works for mobile
technologies (d/Art/mob) art as well as a forum on cross platform/multi
form channels.
The Middle Eastern Video Project
The Middle Eastern Video Project is a one day event presented exclusively at
The Studio at the Sydney Opera House on the afternoon of Saturday the 15th
of
April 2006 and will be the centrepiece of this year’s D/Art/2006 Screen program.
This year our focus is on new work from the Middle East and we have
commissioned Australian born curator Tim Welfare to develop a new
international screen program for us.
In this year’s festival, for the first time in Australia, acclaimed Lebanese
filmmaker Akram Zaatari will present and talk about his work.
Akram Zaatari This Day 2004
Akram Zaatari (Lebanon)
Born: Lebanon (1966)
Akram Zaatari is a video artist and curator who lives and works in
Beirut. He is author of more than thirty videos, and video installations.
He is co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation (Beirut) through
which he developed his recent research-based work on the

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photographic history of the Middle East and the basis for a series of
exhibitions and publications. His video works includes In This House
(2004), How I love You (2001), Her + Him Van Leo (2001), Red
Chewing Gum (2000), Crazy of You (1997), All is Well on the Border
(1997), and The Candidate (1996)
This Day (81 mins) 2003
In a thoughtful, dreamlike montage, the Beirut-based video artist
examines archival photos, from portraits of Bedouins in the desert to
the bomb-rent sky over the Lebanese capital. The imagery moves
from an idyllic rural past, when the central conflict was between
camel and car, to the strife-ridden present of propaganda and urban
alienation. From his perch at the editing station, where he assembles
these layers of history, Zaatari wonders what truths are ultimately
captured in these photographs.
Akram Zaatari, This Day 2004

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Middleastalentime
Curated by Tim Welfare
“A fortnight after September 11 happened, my family and I moved to Beirut.
There was an unusual sense of arriving in the Middle East under the cloud of the
New York attacks. I found the ‘Paris of the Middle East’ in full voice, with the
sound of car horns, the call to prayer and the chatter of its people. I tried to
communicate in my broken Arabic, which in response was in fluent English.
There is nothing like arriving in a new city and hearing its voice.” Tim Welfare
Middleastalentime is a collection of screen works from the Middle
East and its Diasporas; including Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Palestine,
Afghanistan, Germany, USA, UK and Australia.
The 1990’s witnessed a generation of independent video makers
from the Middle East who used video beyond the conventions and
limitations of television. With no feature film industry as such, videos
are made on shoe string budgets. Many of the stories have an
unmistakable documentary form, as they explore new avenues of
storytelling which express the socio and cultural debate of the Middle
East. Also included is the work of screen artist in Diaspora; with work
primarily about the personal and political dimension of exile, and the
contradictory nature and concept of home.
Sharif Waked – Chic Point 2003

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Artists featured in the program include:
Rabih Mroué (Lebanon)
Khaled Sabsabi (Australia/Lebanon)
Sharif Waked (Palestine)
Hassan Khan (Egypt)
Walid Ra’ad/The Atlas Group (Lebanon/USA)
Jacqueline Salloum (USA//Palestine)
Shahram Entekhabi (Iran/Germany)
Raed Yassin (Lebanon)
Mariam Ghani (Afghanistan/Lebanon/USA)
Mahmoud Yekta (Iran/Australia)
Nooshin Farhid (Iran/UK)
D/Art/2006 is presented by dLux media arts in association with The Studio.
dLux media arts is one of Australia’s key screen and media arts organisation.
For further information please contact:
Jacqui Bonner Marketing and Management
Ph: 02 9331 2109 E: jb@jacquibonnermarketing.com
Or
David Cranswick, Director, dLux media arts
Ph: 02 9267 4333 E: director@dlux.org.au
www.dlux.org.au/dart06
www.sydneyoperahouse.com/thestudio