Anthony Downey
Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa
Birmingham School of Art
- Email:
- anthony.downey@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- 0121 331 5970
Anthony Downey is Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa (Birmingham City University). He is currently affiliated with several research projects exploring the politics of global contemporary art practices; digital media and image production; knowledge production and visual culture; and how cultural practices relate to migration and human rights across the Global South. In 2019, he received an AHRC Network+ award (in his capacity as a co-investigator) to develop research on disability education and visual culture in the West Bank and Lebanon.
Anthony has the following professional affiliations:
- Member of the Editorial Board of Third Text (thirdtext.org), appointed 2006.
- Member of the Editorial Board of Digital War (digital-war.org), appointed 2019
- Editor-in-Chief of Ibraaz (ibraaz.org), appointed 2011.
- Series Editor, Research/Practice (Sternberg Press/MIT), 2019-present.
- Series Editor, Visual Culture in the Middle East (Sternberg Press), 2016-present.
- Consultant Editor, Open Arts Journal at the Open University (openartsjournal.org), appointed 2012.
- Trustee, Strange Cargo (an Arts Council funded organization focusing on community-based arts project, strangecargo.org.uk), appointed 2014.
- Trustee, Maryam and Edward Eisler Foundation, appointed 2011.
- Trustee, Arts Cabinet (an organization that develops international art and culture programmes in the Middle East and beyond, artscabinet.org), appointed 2015.
- Research Associate, the Institute of Human Activities (humanactivities.org), appointed 2016.
Recent and upcoming publications include Unbearable States: Digital Media, Cultural Activism and Human Rights after the Arab Spring (forthcoming, 2021); Displacement Activities: Contemporary Art, the Refugee Condition, and the Alibi of Engagement (Sternberg Press, 2020); Research/Practice (Sternberg Press, 2019); Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019); Don’t Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet: The Works of Hiwa K (Walther König Books, 2017); Future Imperfect: Contemporary Art Practices and Cultural Institutions in the Middle East (Sternberg Press, 2016); Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2015); Mirrors for Princes: Slavs and Tatars (JRP Ringier and NYU Press, 2015); Art and Politics Now (Thames and Hudson, 2014); and Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practice in North Africa and the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2014).
Current Activity
Anthony is currently researching two volumes, Unbearable States: Digital Media, Cultural Activism and Human Rights after the Arab Spring (forthcoming, 2021) and Displacement Activities: Contemporary Art, the Refugee Condition, and the Alibi of Engagement (Sternberg Press, 2020). In October 2019, he launched Research/Practice (Sternberg Press, 2019), which features projects by, amongst others, Michael Rakowitz, Heba Y. Amin, Larissa Sansour, and Lara Baladi.
Recent and upcoming talks and keynote lectures throughout 2019 include presentations and public talks at the Barbican Centre, London, Aarhus University, Copenhagen University, the Institute for Global Prosperity, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, TrAIN Open Lecture series, UAL, London, Modern Art Oxford, and The Midlands Higher Education and Culture Forum.
Qualifications
- Ph.D, Goldsmiths College, London (awarded 2006).
- Master of Arts (with Distinction), Goldsmiths College, 1996-1997
- Bachelors of Arts (First Class Honours), Birkbeck College, 1992-1995
Memberships
- Associate Researcher for the Institute of Human Activities
- Editorial Board, Third Text (www.thirdtext.org)
- Editorial Board, Digital War (www.digital-war.org)
- Editor-in-Chief, Ibraaz (www.ibraaz.org)
- Consultant Editor, The Open Journal (Open University)
- Member of Executive Committee of the Kamel Lazaar Foundation
- Trustee of Strange Cargo
- Trustee of the Maryam and Edward Eisler Foundation appointed 2011
- Trustee of Arts Cabinet
Teaching
Anthony holds a PhD from Goldsmiths College, awarded in 2006, and his teaching focuses on the politics of global contemporary art practices; contemporary research practices and knowledge production in visual culture; human rights, bio-politics and migration; new media, collaborative and participative art practices; and contemporary cultural production in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Global South.
He lectures on all of these topics and supervises PhD students with research interests in contemporary art and the politics of cultural production in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Global South; digital media and research methods; neoliberalism, human rights, bio-politics, and migration in contemporary art practices; and new media, performativity and civil society in the Middle East.
Research
- Contemporary Cultural Production in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Global South
- Neoliberalism, Globalisation, and Cultural Institutions
- Artificial Intelligence and Targeted Disinformation in a Post-Truth age.
- Human Rights, Bio-politics, and Migration in Contemporary Art Practices
- New media, Performativity and Civil Society
- Public Space and Collaborative Art Practices
Postgraduate Supervision
- Jacob Koster (Critical Practices in Contemporary Art)
- Nat Muller (Futurism in Contemporary Arab Art)
- Yuu Sachiel (Censorship in Chinese Art)
Recently Graduated:
- Khulod Albugami (Installation Art as a tool for Social Change: A Case Study of Saudi Contemporary Art)
- Rawan Sharaf Khatib (The Role Played by Palestinian Cultural Institution in the Formation and Transformation of Palestinian Visual / Cultural Identity)
External Co-Supervision:
- Heba Y. Amin, doctoral fellow in art history at Freie Universität, Berlin (Co-Supervisor)
- Anastasia Shanaah, doctoral fellow, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University (Co-supervisor)
Publications
Selected Books and Edited Volumes
- Downey, A., Unbearable States: Digital Media, Cultural Activism and Human Rights after the Arab Spring (forthcoming, 2021)
- Downey, A., Displacement Activities: Contemporary Art, the Refugee Condition, and the Alibi of Engagement (Sternberg Press, 2020)
- Downey, A., Research/Practice (Sternberg Press/MIT, 2019). ISBN: 9783956794766
- Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019). ISBN: ISBN: 9783956795053
- La Primavera árabe y el invierno del desencanto: Prácticas artísticas y medios digitales en el Norte de África y Oriente Medio (Ripio Press, 2019), ISBN: 978-987-46999-1-6
- Downey, A., Don’t Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet: The Works of Hiwa K (Walter Koenig Books, 2017) ISBN 978-3-96098-160-2
- Downey, A., Future Imperfect: Cultural Institutions and Contemporary Art Practices in the Middle East (Sternberg Press, 2016) ISBN 978-3-95679-246-5
- Downey, A., Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2015) ISBN 978-1-784-53-4110
- Downey, A., Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practice in North Africa and the Middle East (I.B.Tauris, 2014) ISBN 978
- Downey, A., Art and Politics Now (Thames and Hudson, 2014) ISBN 978-0-500-29147-41784530358
Selected Catalogue Essays and Chapters in Books
- Essay for Edited Volume, "Conditions of Possibility: Collaborative Research Methodologies and Speculative Practice", in Institution as Praxis: New Curatorial Directions for Collaborative Research (forthcoming 2020)
- Essay for Edited Volume, “The Future of The Networked Image in A Post-Truth Age”, in (W)archives: Archival Imaginaries and Contemporary War (Ed. by Daniela Agostinho et al, forthcoming 2020)
- Essay for Edited Volume, "After Mosul: The Cultural Economy of Destruction and Reconstruction", in Terrorism and the Arts (edited by Jonathan Harris, Routledge Press, forthcoming 2020, pp. tbc).
- Essay for Edited Volume, “Is There a Right Way to Do Wrong? Enjoy Poverty and the Case Against Ethics”in Critique in Practice: Renzo Martens' Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (Sternberg Press, 2019).
- “Hiwa K: Interview with Anthony Downey and Amal Khalaf” in Brayshaw, T., Fenemore, A. and Witts, N. The Twenty-First Century Performance Reader (forthcoming, Routledge, 2019, pp. tbc)
- "The Politics of Shame: Ai Weiwei in conversation with Anthony Downey", The Large Glass: Journal of Contemporary Art, Culture and Theory, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje (Macedonia), No. 25 / 26, 2018, pp. 28-42. ISSN: 1409 - 5823
- “Transposing the Vernacular: Moving Images in the Work of Akram Zaatari”, June 2018, catalogue essay on the occasion of Akram Zaatari’s touring show, The Script, ISBN: 978-0-9932659-8-3
- “Where to Now?: Imminent Impermanence in the Work of Sheela Gowda”, in Sheela Gowda, Ikon Gallery, November 2017. ISBN 978-1-911155-10-2
- “Scopic Reflections: Incoming and the Technology of Exceptionalism”, in Richard Mosse, Barbican Art Gallery, March 2017, ISBN 9780995708204
- “Exemplary Subjects: Camps and the Politics of Representation”, in Giorgio Agamben: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives. Ed. Tom Frost. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2013. 119-42.
- “Zones of Indistinction: Giorgio Agamben's 'Bare Life' and the Politics of Aesthetics”, in Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. Eds. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 416-35.
- “Zu Giorgio Agamben: Das Nackte Leben' Und Die Politik Der Asthetik”, in Open Space: Schnittpunkte Aktueller Kunstpraxis. Ed. Gulsen Bal. Vienna: Divus, 2010. 64-79.
- “The Production of Cultural Knowledge in the Middle East Today”, in Art & Patronage in the Middle East. Eds. Hossein Amirsadeghi and Maryam Homayoun. Eisler. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010. 10-15.
- “127 Cuerpos: Teresa Margolles and the Aesthetics of Commemoration”, in Understanding Art Objects: Thinking through the Eye. Farnham: Lund Humphries, 2009. 104-13.
- “An Ethics of Engagement: Collaborative Art Practices and the Return of the Ethnographer”, in Third Text 23.5, 2009. 593-603.
- “Towards a Politics of (Relational) Aesthetics”, in Third Text 3rd. 21.3, 2007: 267-75.
- “Critical Imperatives: Notes on Contemporary Art Criticism and African Cultural Production"”, in Wasafiri 21.1, 2006. 39-48.
- “Yinka Shonibare in conversation with Anthony Downey”, in BOMB 93, Fall 2005.
- “Curating Africa: ‘Africa Remix’ and the Categorical Dilemma”, in Wasafiri 45.2, 2005. 47-55.
- “The Spectacular Difference of Documenta 11”, in Third Text 17.1, 2003. 85-92.
- The Future of a Promise: Contemporary Art from the Arab World (Ibraaz Publishing, 2011).
Selected Recent Conferences and Talks
2019
- Invited Lecture and Seminar: Applied Futures, Copenhagen University, 12 December, 2019.
- Invited Lecture: The Politics of Visual Culture in the Middle East and Global South, Aarhus University, 11 December, 2019.
- Director's Seminar: Performing Rights, the Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL, London, November 14, 2019
- Keynote Lecture: Applied Futures: Digital Archives and Visual Cultures in a "Post Truth" Age, Irish Museum of Modern Art, June 11, 2019.
- Public Talk: “Applied Futures”, The (Networked) Image in Conflict: Cultural Activism and Visual Culture, Modern Art Oxford, April 4, 2019
- Conference Paper: “Collaborative Research Practices”, The Midlands Higher Education and Culture Forum, March 27, 2019Public Talk: Performing Rights, TrAIN Open Lecture, UAL, London, 24 Apr 2019
- Keynote Lecture: “Applied Futures: Digital Materialities in a Post-Truth Age”, Advanced Study at the University of Konstanz, in partnership with Mohammed V University in Rabat, Berlin, 25 January, 2019.
- Public Talk: “Digital Media and the Future of the (Post) Revolutionary Image”, IFA, Berlin, 27 January, 2019.
2018
- Keynote Lecture: “Art after ISIS: Digital Networks and the Future of the Post Conflict Image” Photographies and Conflict: Archiving and Consuming Images of Strife, ICPT Conference, Nicosia, Cyprus, November 22-24, 2018.
- Public Talk: Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 14 July, 2018.
- Public Lecture: “Performing Rights”, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, 13 June, 2018.
- Public Talk: “Unconformities: Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in conversation with Anthony Downey”, Acropolis Museum, Athens, 30 April, 2018.
- Public Lecture: “Performing Rights: Contemporary Art, Public Institutions and the Refugee Condition”, ThalieLab, Brussels, Belgium, 22 March, 2018.
- Jury Member, Beirut Art Residency (BAR), Beirut, in conjunction with Ziad Antar, Sandra Dagher, Fouad Elkhoury, and Bernard Khoury. 24 February, 2018.
- Public Lecture: “The Future of Image Production in the Middle East”, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, 13 February, 2018.
- Conference Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Edmund Clarke, “Edmund Clarke: In Place of Hate”, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, 12 February, 2018.
- Public Lecture: “Who Benefits from the Work of Art: Political Exceptionalism and the Refugee Condition”, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow, 20 January, 2018.
2017
- Conference Paper: “Neoliberal Visions: Cultural Institutions and the Political Economy of Global Culture in the Middle East”, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine, 11 November, 2017.
- Public Talk: Ai Weiwei and Anthony Downey, FOMU, Antwerp, 25 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: John Akomfrah and Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 12 October, 2017.
- Chair: “On Photography and Politics Today” (Ahlam Shibli, Edmund Clark, Nikolai Larsen), Unseen, Amsterdam, 23 September, 2017.
- Conference Paper: “The Future of Image Production: Hermeneutic Suspicions and Neoliberal Conundrums”, Producing Image Activism after the Arab Uprisings Conference, University of Stockholm, 6-8 September 2017
- Conference Paper: “The Archive as Alibi”, (W)archives Conference, University of Copenhagen, 21-22 August, 2017
- Keynote Lecture: “Performing Rights: The Subject of Injustice and the Cultural Logic of Late Modernity”, Art, Justice and Terrorism, a one-day conference, Imperial War Museum, London, June 17, 2017
- Chair: “Representing the Artist”, Survival of the Artist, a one-day symposium at the British Museum, London, 2 July, 2017
- Keynote Paper: “Neoliberal Visions: Cultural Institutions and the Political Economy of Global Culture in the Middle East”, Decolonizing the Cultural Institution, CCLPS Conference, SOAS, London, 16 June, 2017.
- Artist’s Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Judy Price and Lucy Reynolds, Mosaic Rooms, London, 26 April, 2017
- Conference Paper: Instrumental Visions: Neoliberalism, Cultural Institutions and Cultural Policy in the Middle East, Westminster University, London, 21 April, 2017
- Public Talk: Richard Mosse in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 20 February, 2017
2016
- Conference Paper: Hermeneutic Suspicions: Contemporary Visual Culture, Insurgency, and the Future of Archiving Conflict in the Middle East, Terrorism and Cultural Freedom, Birmingham City University, 7 June, 2016.
- Public Talk: “Hermeneutic Suspicion: Digital Archiving, Conflict and Cultural Production in the Middle East”, University of Sussex, Brighton, 16 February, 2016.
- Public Talk: “John Akomfrah in conversation with Anthony Downey”, Arnolfini, Bristol, Saturday 16 January 2016.
2015
- Conference Convenor: “Archival Fever (Again)”, panel discussion for book launch of Gulf Labor’s The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor, edited by Andrew Ross for Gulf Labor (OR books, 2015) Rivington Place, London, 19 November 2015
- Public Talk: “States and Non-States: Performance Art in the Middle East and Public Space”, The Institut d'Etudes Supérieures des Arts (IESA), Leighton House, London, November 2015.
- Conference Paper: “Challenges of a Shared World: New Media and Social Networks”, University of Oxford, Oxford, 25 October 2015.
- Conference Paper: “The Ethics of Ethical Criticism”, AICA: London Congress Symposium: Who Cares? Value, Veneration and Criticality”, Royal College of Art, London, 27 October 2015.
- Public Talk: “Edinburgh International Book Festival: Art on the Attack”, Garden Theatre, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 28 August 2015.
- Pubic Talk: “Zarina Bhimji in conversation with Anthony Downey” NAE Nottingham, Nottingham, 15 July 2015.
- Principal Convenor: “Visual Culture in an Age of Global Conflict.” National Museum of Bardo in Tunis, Tunisia. 28-30 May 2015.
- Conference Paper: “Hermeneutic Suspicion, Digital Technology, And The Crisis Of Representation In The Middle East”, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 14 April 2015.
- Conference Paper: “What does Digital Activism in the Arts Mean Today?: The Middle East as a Case Study”, Harvard Centre for Government and International Studies/ Harvard & MIT Programming BBP, 17-24 January 2015.
2014
- Conference Paper: “Digital Media, New Media and the Middle East”, University College London.
- Conference Paper: “Research and Knowledge Production in the Middle East: Ibraaz as Case Study”, Critical Machines: Art Periodicals Today, American University of Beirut, March 7-8, 2014.
- Public Talk: Art and Politics Now”, London School of Economics, 13 Oct 2014.
- Principal Convenor: “Cultural Production and Cultural Relations,” National Museum of Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia. 9-11, April, 2014.
2013
- Principal Convenor: “Future Imperfect: Cultural Propositions and Global Perspectives”, Tate Modern, 9 November 2013.
- Conference Paper: “The Future of an Anachronism: Civil Conflict and Visual Culture in the Middle East, Centre for Media Studies, School of the Arts, SOAS, London, May, 2013
- Conference Paper: “Knowledge Production and Distribution in the Middle East and Public Sphere”, Museum Infrastructure and Domestic Support SOAS, Regional vis-à-vis Global Discourses, Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the London Middle East Institute, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, 5 July 2013.
- Conference Paper: “Culture and Conflict”, WSA Global Futures, The Mosaic Rooms, London, June 2013.
2012
- Conference Paper: “Power, Knowledge and Patronage in the Context of Civil Society in the MENA Region”, Art and Patronage Summit, British Museum and Royal College of Art, London, 13 January 2012.
- Conference Paper: “I am for an Art Criticism That… A Symposium on the use and Influence of Arts Writing Today|”, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 28 November 2012.
To download copies of Professor Downey's essays and books, please see his website.
Media Work
- Public Talk: Trevor Paglen in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, September 26, 2019.
- Public Talk: Akram Zaatari in conversation with Anthony Downey, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 14 July, 2018.
- Public Talk: “Unconformities: Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige in conversation with Anthony Downey”, Acropolis Museum, Athens, 30 April, 2018.
- Public Talk: Anthony Downey in conversation with Edmund Clarke, “Edmund Clarke: In Place of Hate”, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, 12 February, 2018.
- Public Talk: Ai Weiwei and Anthony Downey, FOMU, Antwerp, 25 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: John Akomfrah and Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 12 October, 2017.
- Public Talk: Richard Mosse in conversation with Anthony Downey, Barbican Centre, London, 20 February, 2017
- Interview: Future: Imperfect: An Interview with Anthony Downey, Di’van Journal, December 2016
- Interview: “Art and Politics Now: An Interview with Anthony Downey” in Keen on Protest. 18 July 2016
- Interview: "Interview with Anthony Downey Art Contemporain Arabe: La Subversion des Formes" in Qantara. Summer 2016.
- Review: Slavs and Tatars in Art Asia Pacific, Almanac 2016
- Review: Dissonant Archives in Art Asia Pacific, Almanac 2016.
- Review: Art and Politics Now in E-International Relations, 22 February 2016.
- Review: A Necessary Dialogue: JAOU Tunis 2015 in Kalimat Magazine, 14 June 2015.
- Review: JAOU Tunis uses art and culture as a retort to extremism, 1 June 2015.
- Review: SCTIW: Review of Uncommon Grounds, 2015
- Review: Uncommon Grounds, H-AMCA, H-Net Reviews, May 2015.
- Review: Uncommon Grounds in The Art Newspaper, 1 May 2015.
- Review: Art and Politics Now in Art Review Asia, Spring 2015
- Review: Transnational Cinema Review of Uncommon Grounds, 10 April 2015.
- Review: New Texts Out Now: Uncommon Grounds in Jadaliyya, 4 March 2015.
- Interview: The Monocle Weekly, Monocle Radio, 2 November 2014.
- Interview: 7 questions for Ibraaz’s Anthony Downey, I.B.Tauris Blog, 10 October 2014.
- Review: Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Art Books, Hyperallergic, 31 December 2014
- Review: Uncommon Grounds on LSE Blog, 7 December 2014.
- Review: Uncommon Grounds in Kalimat, 5 November 2014.
- Interview: Downey, Anthony. "Geocentric Conundrums: Aesthetics and Ethics in Contemporary Art; Gemma Lloyd Interviews Anthony Downey." CAC Interviu. 16-17, 2010/2011: 53-60.
- Interview: Downey, Anthony, “Yinka Shonibare: The Anarchist Artist”, CNN African Voices, 17 May 2010
Work With Industry
- Creative industries and Contemporary Art in the Middle East and Global South
- Publishing and Contemporary Art practices in the Middle East