BETWEEN EXOTICISM AND CULTURALISM CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE MIDDLE EAST

This study aims to examine the impact of modernization, which spread in the whole region starting from Kahire upon Napoleon’s Egypt excursion. The processes of this modernization are examined in the light of its artistic and historical ties. Primarily, how the Orientalist perception affected the art produced in the region is studied. Secondly, the strategies followed during the nation state and the works that diaspora artists created over the concept of identity are examined, and finally and particularly how the recent contemporary art produced in the region read this historicity is questioned. In the final section, how the contemporary art strategies pursued in the region is used as a base in the perception of the region and the ways to build a new narrative through art is discussed.