RUYA MAPS Celebrates its First Birthday!
It's been a year since RUYA MAPS launched!
October 2018
Our first exhibition ‘Crisálida’ opened with the Venezuelan artist Pepe López, who shipped 200 of his possessions to London's Fitzrovia Chapel where they were wrapped in polyethylene film in a large scale installation. A combination of owned, borrowed, and found objects they were "the collective memories of the citizens of Caracas", who are facing an ongoing crisis that has produced 4.5 million refugees.⠀
Alongside the exhibition we published a fully illustrated catalogue designed by Beirut-based graphic designer Farah Fayyad, with imagery by Caracas-based photographer Julio Osorio. It included essays by Tamara Chalabi, Curator of Crisálida, and Elizabeth Marín Hernández, Associate Professor in Contemporary Art at the Universidad de los Andes, Mérida. All of the objects included in the installation were listed in the form of a shipping ledger; this reference to shipping procedures for the international loan and sale of artworks provided a provocative extension to López’s artistic investigation of exile.
January 2019
We commissioned new works from artists Majd Abdel Hamid, Maryam Hoseini, Farah Khelil, Christiana Soulou, Talar Aghbashian and Lana Čmajčanin.
March 2019
We announced the exhibition ‘Heartbreak’ to coincide with the 58th Venice Biennale, 11 May – 24 November 2019. Taking the classical story of Dido and Aeneas as its starting point, the exhibition includes the work of nine contemporary artists, each exploring the theme of heartbreak.
May 2019
Our second exhibition, Heartbreak, opened in Venice and was chosen by Gareth Harris (The Art Newspaper) as one of his picks for the 58th Venice Biennale. It received brilliant reviews, including coverage from Phillipe Dagen (Le Monde) and Melissa Gronlund (The National). It continues its six month run at Ca' Del Duca until 24th November.
We also published an exhibition catalogue which featured a foreword by co-curators Tamara Chalabi and Paolo Colombo, an essay by Themelis Glynatsis and an extract from Alain de Botton’s ‘Heartbreak’ publication (2019). The volume is a three way conversation between the curators, the artists and Christoph Radl, who conceived its design and layout. He used an old manuscript of Layla and Majnun as a template on which to superimpose the works that are shown in the exhibition. Merging the old with the new, today’s world with the ancient, Radl connects the universal elements of the exhibition’s story.
June 2019
We announced a five part podcast series, which would unpack the different themes of the Heartbreak exhibition. Throughout the run of the 58th Venice Biennale episodes are released on: Dido and Aeneas, Layla and Majnun, Maps, Childhood and War. On the podcast we have interviewed an array of experts - scholars, artists, curators, psychologists, architects - from leading institutions including: The Aga Khan Museum, Oxford University, King’s College London, Rochester Institute of Technology, The Foundling Museum, The Bruschettini Foundation, The School of Life.
Future plans
Speaking of future plans for RUYA MAPS, Director Tamara Chalabi said "Ruya Maps is focused on discussing, promoting and working with themes that are more horizontal, more lateral, than vertical, more thematic shows that deal with issues that are very relevant today.” The platform will grow in scope as “it aims to communicate these themes and eventually develop an education programme around them that’s accessible online and is able to engage with local audiences. Ideally – and it’s also related to funding – we’d like to have our own space, where we’re able to operate a more permanent exhibition series.”
Thank you to all of our supporters, and here's to the year ahead!