seeking al-tawhid in andalusiaPHOTOGRAPHY BY AKIM MONETjamm-art.org

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copyright © akim monet 2013 www.seekingaltawhid.com

seeking al-tawhid in andalusiaPHOTOGRAPHY BY AKIM MONETinfo@jamm-art.org

Established in 2009, JAMM is an independent strategic artadvisory service founded by Kuwait based art-journalist andformer Middle East Director for Phillips de Pury Sheikha Lulu Al-Sabah. The mission of JAMM is to create cultural projects without geographical boundary, from large-scale exhibitions tosmall-scale events and activities, which advance Arab andIranian artists in the West and Western artists in the East, thusfurthering collaboration between the two. JAMM currentlyoperates exhibition spaces in Kuwait and Dubai and has anoffice in London. For more information on JAMM, please visitwww.jamm-art.org

About JAMM

Born 1968 in Geneva. Swiss Citizen. Lives and works in Berlin.Studied comparative literature and art history at Cornell University,New York State. Akim Monet has been showing his work publiclysince 2002. He has had several solo exhibitions of which“Passage to India” in New York and Mexico City, “Homage toGaudi” in Geneva and Belgium, and “Pergamon” in Paris.Monet's work is on public display at the Deutsche BankCollection, New York. In addition to numerous articles in the in-ternational press, a monograph about Monet's work waspublished in 2003: “The Space Between” (New York: InfinitePoint Press). isbn 0-9728647-0-9

About AKIM MONET

The idea for "Seeking Al-Tawhid" came to me while thinkingabout the longstanding nonacceptance of depictions of humansand animals in Islamic art, and the resulting development of theArabesque in which abstract geometry and stylized organicmotifs are used to symbolize, within our manifest realm, thatwhich is beyond manifestation.

I pondered about a possible connection between the inventionof this visual language, which leads the eye back and forthbetween the second and third dimension, and the practice ofphotography, in which the representation of three-dimensionalsubject matter is rendered on a flat surface.

I discovered that the infinitely extensible designs in Islamic art,that are themselves made up of individual, self-replicating units

SEEKING AL-TAWHID IN ANDALUSIA

have been interpreted as visual demonstrations of the singlenessof God and his presence everywhere. They represent 'unity inmultiplicity' and 'multiplicity in unity'.

Technically the term for this 'Oneness' is Tawhid - a belief inGod's uncompromised unity and transcendence. The best-known expression of this Divine Unity is 'La-ilaha-ill-Allah', (Quran112:1): 'There is no god but God'.

With these thoughts, I embarked on a journey that began in2006 in Andalusia, where in the words of British orientalist andarchaeologist Stanley Lane-Poole, "Whatever makes a kingdomgreat, whatever tends to refinement and civilization was found inMoorish Spain."

Akim Monet

plates

1312

Untitled 1, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

Untitled 4, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

1514

Untitled 5, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

1716

19

Untitled 8, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

82 x 57 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

Untitled 13, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

2120

Untitled 18, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

82 x 57 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

2322

Untitled 19, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

2524

2726

Untitled 27, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

2928

Untitled 29, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

82 x 57 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

3130

Untitled 30, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

3332

Untitled 31, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

3534

Untitled 34, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

82 x 57 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

3736

3938

Untitled 38, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

57 x 82 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

4140

Untitled 39, 2013

Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton 350 gsmacid free watercolor paper with deckled edges

82 x 57 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP

4342

frame

47

Untitled 27, 2013 (Framed example)

Archival Pigment Print with deckled edges mounted floating in custom artist’s frame with Plexiglas

Print size: 57 x 82 cm Framed size: 74,6 x 104,6 x 4,5 cm

46

CATALOGUE DESIGNAnne-Marie Visconti

Claudio FortugnoAkim Monet

www.seekingaltawhid.com