An exhibition on comics from Arab countries in Jesi

In Jesi, the international comics event returns for its fourth edition, hosting the exhibition “Oltremari. New Trajectories of Arab Comics.” The exhibition scheduled at Palazzo Bisaccioni from Sept. 19 to Nov. 24, curated by Alessio Trabacchini and Luce Lacquaniti, features comics production from Arab countries overlooking the Mediterranean. In particular, it exhibits works by young authors from the Arab world who reach Italy proposing different experiments of the drawn narrative. In the Arab world, the emergence of an independent adult comics scene is part of the major cultural transformations triggered by the revolutions of 2011. The initiative has the patronage of the Marche Region, the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, the Municipality of Jesi and the Municipality of Pordenone. The review is organized by Acca - Academy of Comics, Creativity and Visual Arts, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Jesi and PAFF! International Museum of Comic Art in Pordenone.

“Their gazes,” writes co-curator Alessio Trabacchini, “render a multifaceted world, sometimes in dense ink marks, sometimes among fibers of ancient textiles, sometimes in the bright colors of the digital age. Reality and imagination intertwine with memories of troubled pasts and visions of dystopian futures, dreams of broken freedom, nightmares and desires.”

“This exhibition,” adds Luce Lacquaniti translator from Arabic and co-curator, “Gives an account of the latest developments, brings together young women artists who, in many cases, are coming to Italy for the first time. Their stories cross more than one border, artistic and geographic, and take their cues from both the Tunisian, Egyptian and Lebanese coasts, and from overseas through artists of the Arab diaspora in the U.S., to land in Jesi, the birthplace of Frederick II, the protagonist of the exchange between the two shores of the Mediterranean to rewrite and redraw together a history of multiple, free and reciprocal crossings.”

“The initiative,” explains coordinator Roberto Gigli, “Also envisages a series of related events that will take place throughout the period of the exhibition in the form of workshops, concerts, performances and seminars aimed at a wide audience and schools. A cultural exchange is also planned, with ’tasting’ and insights into the roots and history of some typical dishes of the Arab culinary tradition.”

Notes on the artists

Deena Mohamed (1995) became known at a very young age for the webcomic Qahera (2013-2019), which features a visibly Muslim Egyptian superheroine fighting patriarchy and Islamophobia. Trained as a graphic designer, she went on to publish her three-volume graphic novel Shubbek Lubbek (released in Italy by Coconino Press in 2024) in Egypt between 2017 and 2021, a wide-ranging urban fantasy in which the magical element of the wish-fulfilling genie of the lamp is turned into a commodity and placed within the social inequalities of the contemporary world.

Ganzeer (1982) is a “concept pop” artist, according to the definition he coined, who travels between different worlds and artistic languages. A graphic designer by training and the author of some famous murals and street art interventions in Egypt in 2011, he creates comics, illustrations, prints, canvases, videos, objects and installations. He has shown his work in dozens of exhibitions around the world. He now lives in the U.S., where he is completing his dystopian graphic novel The Solar Grid, set in different eras and planets after a third world war and climate catastrophe.

Tracy Chahwan (1992) is a cartoonist and illustrator who grew up between Lebanon and Cyprus and now lives in the U.S. The city of Beirut and its art scene have inspired her entire career, which she began, after graduating in fine arts, by designing posters for the city’s main alternative music nights and publishing with the Lebanese independent comics collectives Samandal and Zeez. In 2018, he published the graphic novel Beirut Bloody Beirut in France. After the 2019 Lebanese protests, she began to focus on graphic journalism, collaborating on, among other things, the books Guantanamo voices and Where to, Marie? Stories of Feminisms in Lebanon.

Twins Cartoon (1986) are twins Mohamed and Haitham El-Seht, cartoonists and cultural agitators in the Egyptian scene. After studying animation together, in 2014 they founded the platform Kawkab El Rasameen with which, among other things, they publish the independent comics magazine Garage, which is distinguished by its comic and cartoony drawing styles. In 2015 they helped create the CairoComix festival. In 2018, again with Kawkab El Rasameen, they published their graphic novel Hudhud al-Ghosn (“The Hoopoe of the Branch”), which tells the story of Egypt’s Nubian communities displaced by the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Issam Smiri (1987) graduated in fine arts in Tunis and works as a graphic designer and illustrator, with forays into the wider world of design. After the Tunisian revolution (2010-2011) he turned to narrative art and joined the Tunisian independent comics collective Lab619. His latest project, Surface Narrative / Syncrétisme JdS sits at the intersection of comics, graphic design, narratology, and craftsmanship: together with the women of his home country, Sbiba, he has woven rugs that do not reproduce decorative elements, but rather, through symbols of narratology, tell stories. The carpets are associated with a board game aimed at the collective creation of stories.

Image: TWINS CARTOON, Garage Cover No. 2

An exhibition on comics from Arab countries in Jesi

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