Played out Between Different Readings and Understandings of East Versus

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Press Release 9 June 2010 played out between different readings and 2010); Where Dreams Cross: 150 years of Photography experience of Chinese, South Asian, Middle Eastern Rashid Rana, Paradoxes Perpétuels understandings of East versus West, questions from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at the and Iranian art. Described by Beaux Arts magazine as At the Musee Guimet, Paris traditions in both regions and points a finger at those Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2010); and Hanging Fire: ‘the golden girl of the art market’ Eglantine is known July 6 – November 15, 2010 that create the ‘rules’ that become the traditions of Contemporary Art from Pakistan at the Asia Society for her energy and good eye. tomorrow. For example, the exhibition will include one Museum (New York, 2009). Since 2006 Rana’s works of Rana’s first digital prints, I Love Miniatures, a historic have been appearing in the major auctions of The Musée Guimet was the creation of Emile Guimet This July, for their first-ever exhibition of contemporary Mughal portrait that is composed from a multitude contemporary art, where their prices have placed him (1836-1918), a Lyons industrialist who devised the art, the Musee Guimet in Paris will present Paradoxes of tiny images of commercial billboard adverts. Also among the six highest performing photographers at project of opening a museum devoted to the religions Perpétuels (Perpetual Paradoxes): a mid-career retro- included in this exhibition is an example from his now auction worldwide. of Ancient Egypt, Classical Antiquity, and Asia. Guimet spective of Rashid Rana, and the first ever exhibition of famous (and perhaps most subversive) Veil series, visited Egypt and Greece before traveling around the a Pakistani artist in Paris. where an overall image of a burkha-clad woman is Editors’ Notes world in 1876, stopping off in Japan, China and India. composed from a multitude of details of pornographic In the course of his travels he acquired extensive “In these uncertain times we have lost the privilege of scenes, indicating much to how the East exists in Arianne Levene and Eglantine de Ganay: A&E Projects collections of objects that he put on display in a having a vision of the world without questioning. Today, the mind of the West: as an oppressive religious A&E Projects specialise in contemporary art with a museum that was opened in Lyon in 1879. These each image, each idea, each reality carries at the same environment for women, in addition to being a haven particular concentration on the regions of China, collections were subsequently transferred to a new time its contradiction. Thus the duality within which for erotic possibilities. India and Iran. A&E Projects was born from both museum which he had built in Paris and which was we exist. It is this internal conflict that I depict in my Arianne and Eglantine’s desire to unite their individual inaugurated ten years later. From 1945, within the work, both in form and content, through geographical, The opening of Paradoxes Perpétuels will coincide skills and experience as art advisors and curators and framework of a massive reorganization of the French historical and political connotations.” with the exhibition of the art of Gandhara, an ancient their knowledge of the global contemporary art world. national collections, the Musée Guimet transferred its Rashid Rana kingdom that covered today’s region of northern and This is their second collaboration following the highly Egyptian pieces to the ouvre and, in return, received eastern Pakistan and that lasted from the early 1st acclaimed Made in Iran exhibition at Asia House the entire collection of objects from the Louvre’s Born in 1968 in Lahore, Rashid Rana is Pakistan’s leading millennium BCE to the 11th century CE. As such, (London) in 2009. Together, A&E Projects have worked Department of Asian Arts. contemporary visual artist. Though best known for his visitors will be able to see art from Pakistan spanning with some of Asia’s leading and most highly respected photography and digital imagery, Rana also works in a period of from the 1st millennium BCE to 2010. artists and collectors, from both a curatorial perspective sculpture and video. This exhibition will present over and in ensuring the placing of their works amongst the thirty works covering his entire oeuvre, and will be This exhibition marks the Musée Guimet’s first steps world’s top private and public art collections. integrated amongst two floors of the museum’s towards exhibiting contemporary art, and has been permanent collection. made possible thanks to the vision and efforts of Mr Following her Masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art Jacques Gies, President of the Musee Guimet; in London, Arianne Levene worked at Sotheby’s, UBS, Having originally studied as a painter, Rana only Caroline Arhuero, Project Manager for Contemporary and for Lord Rothschild before becoming an art recently began to explore new media, inspired by Art and Head of the Exhibition Department and advisor. She has developed an expertise in Chinese, cinema and popular culture. His approach to Museology, and guest curators Arianne Levene and South Asian, Middle Eastern and Iranian art. She is photography is the same as that of making a painting: Eglantine de Ganay, working under the banner of known for her unique vision and fine analysis of the the constructing of a final image from the conglomeration A&E Projects. trends that comprise these markets. of many smaller details (that function as would pixels in a digital image). The finished works carry a tension Renowned in South Asia, Rashid Rana’s works are Eglantine de Ganay has a Masters in contemporary that is born from the clash between the view of the included in a number of private and public collections art from EAC in Paris. From there she gained her whole and that of its accumulated parts, and yet by in Europe and the US. He frequently features in experience from working with a number of art advisors, juxtaposing the ‘seen’ and the ‘not seen’ in this way, international exhibitions such as The Empire Strikes curators and artists around the world, allowing her Rana’s work underlines the antagonisms that are Back: Indian art Today at the Saatchi Gallery (London, likewise to develop an in depth knowledge and

26 LE FIGARO ET VOUS, 8 Jul 2010 THE ECONOMIST, 31 Jul 2010

27 ASIAN ART NEWS, Jul/Aug 2010 ECONOMIST.COM, 29 Jul 2010

28 TELEGRAPH.CO.UK, 12 Jul 2010 JANG.COM, 31 Jul 2010

29 Rashid Rana Biography

30 Rashid Rana Future Exhibitions/Projects: Rana | Devi Foundation | New Delhi | India Dec 2009 Living off the Grid | Anant Art Centre| New Dehli|India Dec 2010 Solo Show-Selected works 1992-2010 Oct 2009 View Points and Viewing Points: Asian Art Biennial at Rashid Rana was born in Lahore, Pakistan (1968), Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi| Pakistan the National Fine Arts Museum | Taichung | Taiwan where he lives and works. Rana received a BFA from the Jan 2011 Solo Show | Lisson Gallery, London, UK Sep 2009 Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan | Asia National College of Arts, Lahore (1992) and an MFA at Mar 2011 Solo Show | Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Society | New York | USA the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston (1994). Rana Lal| Bombay, India Aug 2009 “The 21st Century, the Feminine Century, and the is a significant figure today among the new generation Century of Diversity and Hope” The 2009 of Pakistani artists, distinct for his ideas, imagery and July 2009 Mashq: Repetition Meditation Mediation | pictorial strategies, he has been showing both in Selected Solo Shows: Green Cardamom | London | UK July 2009 How Nations are Made | Cartwright Hall | Bradford | UK Pakistan and abroad. His recent international July 2010 Perpetual Paradoxes | Musee Guimet, Paris, France May 2009 Art Hong Kong-09 | represented by Green Cardamom, exhibitions include: The Empire Strikes Back; India Art Dec 2009 Solo Show | booth of Gallery Chemould at Art Basel London | Hong Kong Today, Saatchi Gallery, London; Where dreams Cross: Miami, Florida, USA Mar 2009 Art Dubai -09| represented by Cemould , Mumbai and 150 years of photography from India, Pakistan and May 2008 Solo Show | Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Green Cardamom, London | Dubai | UAE Bangladesh , Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010)The Lal at Hong Art Fair 2008, Hong Kong Mar 2009 Starring The Artist | Indus Valley School of Art and Power of Ornament, Lower Belvedere, Vienna; Dec 2007 Solo Show | Art Public – Cabinet P.H. Architecture | Karachi | Pakistan Geneva, Switzerland Jan 2009 The Power of Ornament | Orangery, Lower Belvedere | Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia Nov 2007 Solo Show | Chemould Prescott Road + Chatterjee & Vienna| Austria Society Museum, New York (2009); Re-Imaging Asia, Lal, Mumbai, India Jan-Mar 2009 Lines of Control (traveling exhibition) | Third Line House of World Cultures, Berlin (2008); Mirror Worlds: Sep 2007 Shanghai Contemporary | Best of Discovery | Nature gallery Dubai | VM Gallery Karachi | Institute of the Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Beyond Morte | Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China Green Cardamom London the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Manchester Feb 2007 Reflected Looking | Nature Morte, New Delhi, India Jan 2009 The Audience and the Eavesdropper: New Art from Art Gallery and Asia House, London; 1st Singapore Feb 2005 Identical Views | Philips Contemporary, Mumbai, India India and Pakistan | Phillips de Pury | New York Biennale; Grid<>Matrix, Kemper Art Museum, St Louis, Oct 2004 Identical Views | V.M. Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan Nov 2008 The Audience and the Eavesdropper: New Art from July 2004 Identical Views | Nature Morte |New Delhi |India India and Pakistan | Phillips de Pury | London USA; 5th Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Gallery of Dec 2000 Non-Sense | Rohtas Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan Oct 2008 Critical Studio: Dialogue with South Asian Artists | Art, Australia (2006); 3rd Fukuoka Triennale, Fukuoka Aug 2000 Non-Sense: One Person Show | Zahoor ul Akhlaq Macy Gallery, Columbia Univ. | New York Museum of Art, Japan, (2005); Playing with a Loaded Gallery, NCA, Lahore, Pakistan. Sep 2008 Everywhere is War (and rumors of war) | Bodhi Art | Gun, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany. He is Mumbai | India an Associate Professor, and one of the founding faculty Mar 2008 Passage to India | Frank Cohen Collection, members, of the School of Visual Arts at the Selected Group Exhibitions/Projects Initial Access | UK Mar 2008 Re-Imaging Asia | House of World Cultures | Berlin | Beaconhouse National University. He is currently Aug 2010 Where dreams Cross: 150 years of photography from Germany working on a solo show scheduled for January 2011 India, Pakistan and Bangladesh | Fotomuseum | Mar 2008 Desperately Seeking Paradise | Pakistan Pavilion at the at the Lisson Gallery, London and two mid-career Winterthur, Switzerland Art Dubai-2008 | Dubai | UAE retrospectives- one in December 2010, Karachi at the Jun 2010 Beyond the Page-The Miniature as Attitude in Mar 2008 Art Dubai | represented by Green Cardamom London Mohatta Palace Museum and the other in Paris at Contemporary Art from Pakistan | Pacific Asia and Chemould Mumbai | Dubai | UAE Musee Guimet July 2010. Museum, Pasadena, USA Mar 2008 Group Show | Elementa| Dubai | UAE Mar 2010 Armory Show | Jack Shaiman Gallery, New York, USA Dec 2007 Face East: Contemporary Asian Portraiture | Wedel May 2010 The Empire Strikes Back; India Art Today | Fine Art | London |UK Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Aug 2007 Inaugural Show (of the new venue) |National Art Gallery Jan 2010 Where dreams Cross: 150 years of photography from Islamabad | Pakistan India, Pakistan and Bangladesh | Whitechapel Gallery | July 2007 Group show: Contemporary Art from Pakistan | London | UK Thomas Erben Gallery | New York | USA Jan 2010 Contemporary Art from Pakistan | Curated by Rashid Mar 2007 The Politics of Fear | Albion |London | UK