Prof. Dr. Charlotte Bank

Charlotte Bank studierte Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Kunstgeschichte, Assyriologie und Semitistik an der Universität Heidelberg und arbeitete anschließend international als freie Kuratorin mit einem Fokus auf die zeitgenössische Kunst aus der MENA-Region.

Von 2012 – 2017 promovierte sie in Arabischer Kultur an der Universität Genf mit einer Arbeit über die zeitgenössische Kunstszene in Syrien im regionalen kunsthistorischen Kontext.

Von 2013 – 2016 war sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des vom SNF geförderten Projektes Other Modernities: Patrimony and Practices of Visual Expression Outside the West. Sie hatte Fellowships am Orient Institut Beirut, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz und der Universität Bamberg.

Im Sommersemester 2019 war sie Gastprofessorin des Elite Masterstudienganges „Cultural Studies of the Middle East“ an der Universität Bamberg.

Von 2021 – 2024 war sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin des Fachgebiets Kunst und Gesellschaft an der Universität Kassel / Documenta Institut.

Monografien:

The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria: Social Critique and an Artistic Movement, London and New York: Routledge 2020

Artikel und Buchkapitel mit peer review:

“Approaching a Liminal Space: The Sea in Contemporary Art of the Middle East”, in: Nathalie Roelens and Armand Erchadi (eds.): Breaking the waves. Water (issues) in contemporary verbal and visual arts, Luxembourg: Melusina Press 2023, pp. 129-138

“Negotiating masculinity in the works of Iranian Diaspora artists”, in Schirin Nowrousian, Michael Hofmann and Tobias Schickhhaus (eds.): Transkulturelle Wechselwirkungen durch Künste und Soziales. Iranische Diaspora in Europa und darüber hinaus, Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann 2022, pp. 123-137

“Performing critique: Chaza Charafeddine’s Divine Comedy as an inter-temporal dialogue on gender and sexual diversity”, in Pedram Khosronejad (ed.): Beauty and the Beast: photography, the body and sexual discourse in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Journal of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 5 & 6, 2021 (delayed volume: Summer 2017 – Winter 2018/19), pp. 85 – 101

“Feminism and Social Critique in Syrian Contemporary Art”, in Ceren Özpınar and Mary Kelly (eds.): Under the Skin: Feminist Art from the Middle East and North Africa Today, Oxford: Proceedings of the British Academy (Oxford University Press) 2020, pp. 26 – 40

“Film and Video as a Space for Political Expression and Social Critique in Syria”, Artl@s Bulletin 9:1, 2020, Art. 7, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/artlas/vol9/iss1/7/

“Give Sorrow Images: Trauma and Loss in the Works of Displaced Artists from Syria”, in Lucy Wrapson, Victoria Sutcliffe, Sally Woodcock and Spike Bucklow (eds.): Migrants: Art, Artists, Materials and Ideas Crossing Borders, London: Archetype Publications 2019, pp. 130 – 140

“Art Education in Twentieth Century Syria”, in Nino Nanobashvili and Tobias Teutenberg (eds.): Drawing Education Worldwide! Continuities - Transfers – Mixtures, Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg Press 2019, pp. 305 – 319

“Remaking a world: Recently displaced artists from Syria in Berlin”, in: Johanna Rolshoven and Joachim Schlör (eds.): Artistic Positions and Representations of Mobility and Migration, Mobile Cultures Studies 4, 2018, pp. 171 – 182

“Translating Commitment. Some Thoughts on Critical Artistic Production in the Arab World”, in: Jelle Bouwhuis (ed.): Furthering, nurturing and futuring Global Art Histories?, Kunstlicht 39:1, 2018, pp. 35 – 42

“Painting as critique: Oil painting as a site for social and political negotiation in Syria”, in: Silvia Naef and Elahe Helbig (eds.): Visual Modernity in the Arab World, Turkey and Iran: Reintroducing the ‘Missing Modern’, Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 70:4, 2016, pp. 1285 – 1306

“Calling things by their real names: Anonymous artistic production and the Syrian uprising”, Fusion Journal 9, Anonymous: The Void in Visual Culture, Fall 2016
http://www.fusion-journal.com/issue/009-anonymous-the-void-in-visual-culture/calling-things-by-their-real-names-anonymity-and-artistic-online-production-during-the-syrian-uprising/

“Veiled Visuality. Video Art in Syria”, ISIM Review, Fall 2008
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/17270

Reviews:

Natasha Gasparian, Commitment in the Artistic Practice of Aref El-Rayess: The Changing of Horses, Manazir Journal, September 1, 2021, https://manazir.art/blog/natasha-gasparian-commitment-artistic-practice-aref-el-rayess-changing-horses-bank/

Einträge in Encyclopaedien:

“Seta Manoukian”, AWARE Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, 2023, https://awarewomenartists.com/artiste/seta-manoukian-ani-pema-drolma/

“Marwan Kassab-Bachi”, Mathaf Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World, Doha: Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, 2021 http://13.80.22.208/en/bios/Pages/Marwan-Kassab-Bachi.aspx

Sonstige Buchkapitel:

“The Art of Persuasion. Posters of the Anonymous Syrian Artist Collective Alshaab alsori aref tarekh”, in: Malu Halasa, Zaher Omareen and Nawara Mahfoud (eds.): Syria Speaks. Art and Culture from the Frontline, London: Saqi Books 2014, pp. 66 – 83 (English PEN Award winner)

Erscheint in Kürze:

“Queer Heavens: Rethinking the Islamic Garden in Contemporary Art”, in: Anne Marie Butler and Sascha Crasnow (eds.): Queer Contemporary Art of Southwest Asia and North Africa: Beyond Borders and Binaries, Bristol: Intellect Books: Critical Studies in Architecture of the Middle East 2024

“Queer Subjectivities, Community Building and Care-Taking in Contemporary Photography from the Middle East and its Diaspora”, in: Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad, Elin Haugdal, Stephanie von Spreter, Hanne Hammer Stien (eds.): Photographic Practices as Care-Taking, Special Issue, Photographies 18:1 (2025)

• “Approaching a Liminal Space: The Sea in Contemporary Art of the Middle East”, in: Nathalie Roelens and Armand Erchadi (eds.): Breaking the waves. Water (issues) in contemporary verbal and visual arts, Luxembourg: Melusina Press 2023, pp. 129-138

• “Negotiating masculinity in the works of Iranian Diaspora artists”, in Schirin Nowrousian, Michael Hofmann and Tobias Schickhhaus (eds.): Transkulturelle Wechselwirkungen durch Künste und Soziales. Iranische Diaspora in Europa und darüber hinaus, Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann 2022, pp. 123-137

• “Performing critique: Chaza Charafeddine’s Divine Comedy as an inter-temporal dialogue on gender and sexual diversity”, in Pedram Khosronejad (ed.): Beauty and the Beast: photography, the body and sexual discourse in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Journal of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 5 & 6, 2021 (delayed volume: Summer 2017 – Winter 2018/19), pp. 85 – 101

• “Feminism and Social Critique in Syrian Contemporary Art”, in Ceren Özpınar and Mary Kelly (eds.): Under the Skin: Feminist Art from the Middle East and North Africa Today, Oxford: Proceedings of the British Academy (Oxford University Press) 2020, pp. 26 – 40

• “Film and Video as a Space for Political Expression and Social Critique in Syria”, Artl@s Bulletin 9:1, 2020, Art. 7, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/artlas/vol9/iss1/7/

• “Give Sorrow Images: Trauma and Loss in the Works of Displaced Artists from Syria”, in Lucy Wrapson, Victoria Sutcliffe, Sally Woodcock and Spike Bucklow (eds.): Migrants: Art, Artists, Materials and Ideas Crossing Borders, London: Archetype Publications 2019, pp. 130 – 140

• “Art Education in Twentieth Century Syria”, in Nino Nanobashvili and Tobias Teutenberg (eds.): Drawing Education Worldwide! Continuities - Transfers – Mixtures, Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg Press 2019, pp. 305 – 319

• “Remaking a world: Recently displaced artists from Syria in Berlin”, in: Johanna Rolshoven and Joachim Schlör (eds.): Artistic Positions and Representations of Mobility and Migration, Mobile Cultures Studies 4, 2018, pp. 171 – 182

• “Translating Commitment. Some Thoughts on Critical Artistic Production in the Arab World”, in: Jelle Bouwhuis (ed.): Furthering, nurturing and futuring Global Art Histories?, Kunstlicht 39:1, 2018, pp. 35 – 42

• “Painting as critique: Oil painting as a site for social and political negotiation in Syria”, in: Silvia Naef and Elahe Helbig (eds.): Visual Modernity in the Arab World, Turkey and Iran: Reintroducing the ‘Missing Modern’, Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 70:4, 2016, pp. 1285 – 1306

• “Calling things by their real names: Anonymous artistic production and the Syrian uprising”, Fusion Journal 9, Anonymous: The Void in Visual Culture, Fall 2016 http://www.fusion-journal.com/issue/009-anonymous-the-void-in-visual-culture/calling-things-by-their-real-names-anonymity-and-artistic-online-production-during-the-syrian-uprising/

• “Veiled Visuality. Video Art in Syria”, ISIM Review, Fall 2008 https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/17270