This first solo exhibition in the region for Bassiouni offers a first look at an ongoing international project that reframes landscape photography through the lens of lived Muslim presence in the contemporary West. Each of these photographs \u2013 taken from inside mosques across the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK \u2013 centres on a window, an aperture on to the outside world that is rarely found in purpose-built mosques. Through them we glimpse familiar Western landscapes: traffic junctions, supermarkets, apartment blocks, sports fields. But these views are framed by examples of Islamic visual culture \u2013 patterned tiles, rugs, wooden minbars, and more.<\/p>\n
New Western Views<\/em> is a counterpoint to a long history of Orientalist image-making. Bassiouni’s landscapes are no longer the backdrop for conquest, curiosity, or romanticisation; they are simply what exists outside the mosque window. In doing so, the work avoids the familiar tropes of victimhood or spectacle …<\/p>\n To 5 November.<\/p>\n Above: Marwan Bassiouni, New British Views #06, England (2021)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"