The Art Newspaper

London's Middle Eastern arts festival expands

V&A and Ismailia Centre take part in this year's Nour Festival for first time

By Ermanno Rivetti. Web only
Published online: 02 October 2012

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London sees the start of the third edition of the Nour Festival this week (1 October-1 December), a celebration of contemporary arts and culture from across the Middle East.

The festival, which was launched at Leighton House Museum in 2010, involves more London institutions this year. New participants include the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Mosaic Rooms, Ciné Lumière, Science Museum, the Tabernacle, the Ismaili Centre and Al Manaar, the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre.

The festival aims to show a wide selection of artistic output from the Middle East, including film, music, literature and visual art. Leighton House Museum, in west London, is hosting “Nuclear Nuqta” (3-26 October), which is the Manchester-based artist Muiz Anwar’s first UK museum show. Anwar's art focuses on political and cultural aspects of Muslim identity. The museum will then host “Kütmaan”, an exhibition by the British photojournalist Bradley Secker (5-10 November). The term means “concealing” in Arabic and the show explores the hidden lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the V&A is showing “Light from the Middle East: New Photography” (13 November-7 April 2013), featuring over 90 works of contemporary photography from and about the region.

The full schedule can be found on the festival's website website