Sponsored Post: Why the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris Is a Must-Visit
If you’re considering a vacation or business trip to Paris, France, then the chances are you already have your itinerary of the must-visit monuments and museums firmly planned out.
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe are, of course, all worthy institutions with which to pass the time on a trip to France’s capital. But there’s one you may not know about that is a must-visit for any Arab-American in Paris: the Arab World Institute (Institut du Monde Arabe).
Note: If you’re an American citizen planning to go to Paris to visit the Institute you can currently travel to France visa-free for up to 90 days. If you have dual nationality with a GCC country, you will also soon be able to apply for the ETIAS visa waiver.
Conceived in 1973 by then-French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) contributes to the understanding between the Arab world and Europe by promoting cooperation and exchange between France and 18 Arab nations, particularly in the areas of science and technology.
The recipient of the 1989 Aga Khan Award for Architectural Excellence, as well as the 2018 Cultural Personality of the Year from the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, this long-standing institution is an invaluable resource for Arabs the world over. It’s therefore an essential stop-off if you’re visiting the French capital.
We’ve already covered the amazing architecture and the enlightening seminars that this incredible hub of Arab art and culture in France offers, but the richness of its rotating series of exhibits are well worth paying attention to as well.
In 2022 alone, the institution has hosted 7 special temporary exhibitions exploring the Arab world.
The first, ‘Lights of Lebanon – Modern and contemporary art from 1950 to today’ ran from September 2021 to January of this year. The goal of the exhibition was to “pay tribute to the vitality and resilience of the Lebanese art scene” in the wake of the devastating 2020 explosion in Beirut.
The exhibition featured works by the like of Shafic Abboud, Etel Adnan, Saliba Douaihy, Paul Guiragossian, Hussein Madi, Assadour, Chaouki Choukini, Ayman Baalbaki, Zad Moultaka, Serwan Baran, Hala Matta, Hiba Kalache, Zena Assi and Tagreed Darghouth. It also inaugurated a new space at the Institute,
The second exhibit, ‘Intimate Shafic Abboud – A gift from Michèle Rodière’, ran from October 2021 to February 2022. It featured a large variety of work ( handmade books, prints and ceramics) by the renowned Lebanese artist, supplied by both the artist’s companion and the Claude and France Lemand donation.
‘Eastern Jews – A thousand-year-old history’ premiered in November 2021 and ran until March 2022. It continued the IMA’s exploration into monotheistic religions in the Arab world and served as an extension of the 2014 exhibition ‘Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca’, as well as ‘Christians of the East, 2000 years of history’, which debuted in 2017.
The first exhibition to debut in 2022 was ‘Slimen Elkamel – With an open heart’, which ran in February and March. A co-production with the La La Lande gallery, the monographic exhibition outlined the Tunisian artist’s different artistic periods and culminated in his new series themed around love in Eastern societies.
March also saw the debut of the ‘Algeria, my love’ exhibit, which ran until late July as part of the “2022.: Views on Algeria at the IMA” season. Centering around Algerian Brotherhood Artists between 1953-2021, the exhibition presented a collection of modern and contemporary art from Algeria and its diaspora in France.
The next exhibition to debut, ‘The Horizon of Khufu – A Journey in Ancient Egypt’ was perhaps the Institute’s most innovative yet. Running from June to October, this immersive virtual reality experience was the result of 3 years’ research and development by EMISSIVE, the award-winning French virtual and augmented reality company.
The 45-minute virtual tour based around Ancient Egypt required visitors to don a backpack-connected headset in order to be transported back 3,000 years to the summit of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, one of the seven wonders of the world.
From there, they were able to step inside the mighty pyramid and freely explore its numerous passages and chambers, many of which are off-limits to the public at the real site. The experience ended with a virtual ride on a solar barque on the Nile, where visitors bore witness to the funerary rite of King Khufu in real-time.
The last exhibition that debuted in 2022 was quite tame compared to this boundary-pushing experience, but fascinating none-the-less. ‘A treasure in gold -the dinar in all its states’ premiered in September. It presents an exclusive collection of dinar gold coins minted in the Arab-Muslim world between the 8th and 19th centuries, never before seen by the public.
The good news is that this latest exhibition is ongoing until March 2023, so there is still plenty of time to see it for yourself! Additionally, the IMA is also soon epected to announce a varied selection of forthcoming exhibitions for the new year that are certain to be as fascinating as the last!
Please note that this post was paid for by a third-party and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arab America or its employees. These posts help allow Arab America to produce our wonderful original content, thanks for your understanding.
Don’t forget to check out Arab America’s blog!