Why Arabic art is everywhere in Scotland now – and why it matters

The Herald Scotland

25-06-2025

But the subject is bigger than that, and in its widest and most urgently modern form the study of Arabic culture – and in particular the art and artefacts it produces – is currently being propelled out of its once narrow academic silo and onto our streets and galleries. Yes, geo-politics has something to do with it. But that's not the whole story.
Few will have missed the opening in Edinburgh last month of the Palestine Museum. Located on Dundas Street in the New Town, it is devoted to contemporary Palestinian art and is the first of its kind in Europe. And if you make the journey across the Tay to visit the excellent Garden Futures exhibition at V&A Dundee you'll find a chunk of the show devoted to garden design as a force of cultural expression in various places, including in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank. In the same show there's also a massive, wall-mounted mosaic panel in yellows and blues showing floral motifs and dating from the 17th century. It was originally sited in Isfahan, the ancient city in Iran renowned for its Persian-Muslim architecture.
Elsewhere Iranian film director Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or for It Was Just An Accident, shot secretly in his homeland, and No Other Land, by the Palestinian-Israeli team of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards. The Middle East and its art is swirling all around us, if we care to look.
Back in Dundee, meanwhile, the V&A is about to open a new exhibition titled Thread Memory. It uses textile design to tell the history of Palestinian dress and tatreez – the elaborate hand-embroidery through which women mark their identities and chart the ups and downs of their lives. Some of the textile exhibits are from the V&A mother-ship in London, though some have come from the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the Occupied West Bank. There's also a selection of jewellery, veils and archival photographs, and the show has been mounted in part to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Dundee's twin city relationship with Nablus, which has a population of 150,000 and sits just north of Jerusalem. That show opens on June 26.
Still from a video work by Wael Shawky (Image: Wael Shawky) There's more. Heading south-west from Nablus and south from Dundee brings us to Egypt and Edinburgh. The first is the birthplace of artist Wael Shawky, who last year represented the country at the 60th Venice Biennale and whose video work uses puppetry to dissect the legacy of the crusades among other things. The second is home to the Talbot Rice Gallery, where Sawky sets up from June 28 in an expansive exhibition which promises to be once of the centrepieces of this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.
Artistic events and innovations like these don't alter the day to day reality of life in the region. The bombs and missiles continue to fall. But enquiring minds willing to engage with the contemporary art and culture of the Arab world will find context and explanation in these places – and maybe even a dash of hope. Please do take up the offer.
Egyptian artist Wael Shawky sets up from June 28 in an expansive exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery (Image: Wael Shawky)
Home time
Its seven year refit must have tried the nerves and the patience of all involved, but no matter: Glasgow's feted Citizens Theatre finally re-opens on September 12 with the premiere of Small Acts Of Love, a major new work about the bonds forged between the people of Lockerbie and the American relatives of those who lost their lives in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over the town in December 1988. Now, full cast details have been announced for the 14-strong production which will be led by Blythe Duff.
Featuring music by Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross in collaboration with playwright Frances Poet, the show will use a five-piece band including Louis Abbott, frontman of Mercury Prize-nominated Admiral Fallow, and Jill O'Sullivan, formerly with Sparrow And The Workshop and now performing as Jill Lorean. Also in the cast are Robbie Jack and Beth Marshall, who both appeared in BBC dramas Lockerbie: The Bombing Of Pan Am 103.
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'To be announcing our cast for Small Acts Of Love is an exciting and pivotal moment in our journey home,' says Citz director Dominic Hill. 'Ranging from some of the most experienced and well-known actors in Scotland to newly graduated stars of the future, this cast and this production announce the ambition and quality of the new Citizens Theatre.'
Lots to look forward to, then. And ahead of that, the Citz will be mounting a multi-day autumn Homecoming festival to whet the appetite for what promises to be a welcome re-awakening.
And finally
The Herald critics have sharpening their pens, filling their notebooks and – in the case of intrepid reporter Martin Williams – pogoing in the grass at Bellahouston Park, but each leaving the show with a surfeit of observations and opinions.
At regular hunting ground Òran Mór, theatre critic Neil Cooper watched Gothic comedy-drama The Haunting Of Agnes Gilfrey, a co-production between Mull Theatre and the island's An Tobar art centre. He also visited Pitlochry Festival Theatre where he enjoyed a revival of Grease, strengthened he thinks by owing more to the original stage show than the blockbuster film version.
The pogoing came courtesy of the throng of ageing punks who turned up to watch an outdoor Punk All-Dayer featuring The Stranglers, The Undertones, The Rezillos, Buzzcocks and Skids, and headlined by the Sex Pistols, with Frank Carter replacing you-know-who on vocals. Good fun. All that remains to be determined is what is the proper collective noun for a bunch of ageing punks moshing to Anarchy In The UK, No More Heroes and Into The Valley. Answers on a beermat, please.
Finally, Gabriel McKay headed to a hot and sweaty King Tut's Wah Wah Hut to see Mallrat, aka fast-rising Brisbane-born indie pop challenger Grace Shaw. Plot the mid-point between Olivia Rodrigo and Lana Del Rey and you won't be far off a description of her winning pop sound.