In the 31 years since, it has established itself as the world’s leading center devoted to Arab culture. In its modernistic building that has become a Paris landmark (the taxi driver knew exactly where it was without being told the address), there has been an endless flow of events featuring Arab artists, writers, filmmakers and many others. It has not just been traditional Arab culture. Many of its exhibitions have been at the cutting edge of art and production.
Last month, the IMA made a cutting edge decision about itself: It appointed Mona Khazindar as director general. She is the first woman to run the institute and also the first Saudi.
From a prominent Jeddah family, Khazindar was born in the US in 1959 where her father was studying at the time. She herself studied comparative literature at the American University of Paris and then modern history at the Sorbonne. A specialist in contemporary plastic art, she has been with the IMA since 1986. Before becoming director general, she was curator of contemporary art and photography, with responsibility for the IMA’s permanent art collection. She had also organized a considerable number of exhibitions at the institute.
Art experts, especially heads of art institutes and museums, can often be intimidating. They know so much and command — in some cases, demand — respect. Khazindar is different. Soft spoken in at least three languages, she is down to earth and approachable. She manages to convey both enthusiasm and calm at the same time. The atmosphere in her modest but functional office on the eighth floor of the institute, with its panoramic views of Paris, is unflustered. Maybe that is because it is Monday and on Mondays the institute is closed to the public.
Khazindar’s appointment as director general says much about where the IMA is going.
“In the past, the IMA was inevitably more focused on certain parts of the Arab world,” she says. It was “for historic reasons, because of proximity, and because of language.” Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia are Francophone; so is Lebanon as are many officials and artists in Egypt. “The institute is now conscious that in terms of activities, it had not highlighted countries such as Saudi Arabia and others from the Gulf."
Last years’ exhibition of archeological treasures from the Kingdom was a case in point. For Khazindar, it had been both a source of pride and pain — pride because of the country’s astounding wealth of history and past culture on show; pain because this was the sort of event that the IMA should have put on.
“We did not fulfill our mission,” she says. It was not the first time. In 2006, Qatar exhibited the best of its Islamic collection in the Louvre and before that Kuwait had done the same thing.
Being the first woman to run the institute is as much a challenge as being the first Saudi, Khazindar says. “There are lots of expectations,” she says. “I have to prove that Saudi women are no less capable than men — and no less capable than other Arab women. I have to prove that I am no less capable than my male predecessors from other countries.”
There is, however, absolute confidence that it is not going to be a problem. Ever since she was a child, she says, she has always been determined to show that she is as good as the next person. “I’ve been brought up that way.”
Her vision for the IMA is bold: “I want the IMA to not only to be the place to present Arab creativity in France and Paris — it can be exhibitions, debates, concerts or movies — I want it to become a meeting point for Arab creators,” she says. “For example, if a Saudi writer doesn’t know a Syrian writer, I want the IMA to be the place where they can get to know each other and work together.”
She is full of ideas. One is a biannual art video festival featuring Arab artists, which would include sound and light art works. It could then be toured around the Arab world. Another is to develop the institute’s role in promoting Arab writers in translation, in collaboration with French publishers. Two other ideas are revivals — of the Institute’s biannual Arab film festival and its “Chair” which an eminent Arab historian or academic is invited to fill for a season, contributing to conferences and other events. Both had to be dropped because of financial constraints. Khazindar hopes to find the funds to restart them.
For her, the IMA is a window on Arab culture and a place where Arab and western cultures can interact. “We have a very important role: to show how both civilizations have mutually enriched each other and how today you have traces of Islamic civilization, architecture, literature and the like in the West and vice versa, in all fields — even in cuisine,” she says.
Five years ago, there was an exhibition entitled “Venice and the East,” which showed how, as a result of commercial links, Venice had been influenced by the Muslim world in painting, textiles, architecture and other fields. Khazindar hopes to have a similar exhibition on Palermo and Arab Sicily.
By showing all this, “we can understand each other better and live with each other better, appreciate each other better.”
If it seems odd that one of the leading centers of Arab culture and creativity could be outside the Arab world, it does not worry Khazindar. “Paris is a very important city worldwide in terms of culture and heritage. It is a city of museums and of culture. Everywhere you walk, you find one. What I’d like is that when people come to Paris, the IMA is part of their sightseeing tour. When they go to the Louvre and Notre Dame, they should also say: ‘We have to go to the IMA to see what is going on there’.”
For those who cannot make it to Paris, that should not be too much of a problem either. “My ambition is that we can export certain events that we organize and show here to Moscow, Berlin, New York and elsewhere,” Khazindar explains.
Last month, there was a colloquium at the IMA on the winds of change sweeping through the Arab world, with speakers from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. It was a very political event. Would there be more overtly political events at the institute, given the attention the world is paying to the Arab spring?
The IMA is mainly a cultural institution, says Khazindar. “But, when you talk about art, about cinema, about literature, it is not something that is cut off from what is happening daily. Artists and filmmakers reflect what is happening in their societies,” she states.
The IMA will show more about what Arab artists are doing now, she insists. “Our role is not only to showcase the heritage and the past but also what is happening in the present climate.”
So, an exhibition is planned in the autumn of photos, video, murals and cartoons from Egypt. “We’re going to do the same with Tunisia too.”
Although there has been little reaction to it in the Saudi media, Khazindar’s appointment is something to celebrate in the Kingdom. There are few other Saudi women in such an influential position. She is also president and one of the founders of Al-Mansouria Foundation, which promotes contemporary Saudi and Arab artists in the Kingdom and elsewhere, and one of the two co-curators of the Saudi pavilion at this years’ Venice Biennale. It opens in 10 days' time and it is the first time Saudi Arabia has formally participated.
Asked about what her appointment says for Saudi women, she is sure that things are moving in the right direction. “Over the last few years, Saudi women have achieved a lot, but they still have a lot to achieve. There is much to be done. They are very capable. This is why I am confident that, very soon, they will be able to achieve the many things they aspire to.”
As yet, there is nothing quite like the IMA in Saudi Arabia, although there will be by the end of 2012 when the Aramco-sponsored King Abdul Aziz World Cultural Center opens in Dhahran with its museum, permanent collections, temporary exhibitions, cinema, library, theaters and a children’s museum.
For Khazindar, that presents problems of developing an interest in art, particularly among young people. There is the national museum in Riyadh but nothing in Jeddah. “If you go to the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay, you see groups of schoolchildren in front of a Picasso or whatever, sketching or being told about it by their teacher. Without lots of museums in the Kingdom, you cannot create interest and curiosity in children,” she says. “You have to show them not only textbooks, but also art in real life. This can only happen by having museums, exhibitions and cultural centers. There is a real need for it.”