Graphic Cities - A MENA Comics Exhibition
Ex-Libris Gallery, Third Floor (room 3.25), Fine Art Building
Graphic Cities - A MENA Comics Exhibition
This exhibition will invite audiences to engage with experiences of the city captured by graphic artists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and reflect on the role of the urban built heritage in memory work, identity formation, and finding a sense of belonging.
Within the exhibition, an installation will take the form of an intimate multi-modal experience whereby a recorded performance of the commissioned piece by CMC Composer Matthew Rowan - 'A City In Memory' - will be integrated into the exhibition space (via QR code) to enable visitors to immerse themselves in the cross-artistic creative resonance and experience the dialogue between poetics, memory, and the lived experience of the city.
About the Music
A CITY IN MEMORY (for cello and piano) by Matthew Rowan
'A City In Memory' (2024) is a creative response to Mazen Kerbaj’s graphic novel 'Lettre à la mère' (2013). Drawing upon connections with his own traumatic childhood experiences during the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, Matthew Rowan composed an instrumental work of eight visceral movements that are brought together through notions of destruction, resonance, volatility, vulnerability and yearning. Extremes of instrumental demands challenge the performers, resulting in an added woven layer of apprehension to the listening experience of the piece. 'A City In Memory' encourages the listener to reflect on how they relate to the city and how environment may contribute to the development of identity.
Performers:
Naomi McDonough (cello)
Georgios Tsakoumakis (piano)
Tickets
Free admission, no booking needed.
The new work will be available to stream during these dates by scanning the QR code in the poster or by clicking here.