Terms & Conditions
The phrase ‘Terms & Conditions’ often refers to the fixed set of guidelines at the basis of any official contract or agreement. While these extensive specifications are sometimes overlooked in everyday practice, their implementation can have quite powerful implications by dictating the precise nature of representation and interaction between people, entities and countries. The phrase indicates parameters that appear to be rigid over the passage of time. Yet taken apart, the words terms and conditions convey fluid and precarious concepts that can, in actuality, be continually negotiated and modified.
Many artists with roots in the Arab world work simultaneously across different geographic, physical and cultural contexts, making it difficult to define the artists by or constrain them to a narrow set of specifications. Contemporary art draws on a rich variety of techniques, enabling artists to navigate and speak within multiple contexts, undermining attempts to restrict how identity and representation are expressed.
This exhibition presents an open-ended debate into how history and social realities are represented, with an emphasis on the Arab world. The artists examine the divide between those who control the discourse and those who are silenced or forgotten. ‘Terms & Conditions’ draws upon seminal works from the Barjeel Art Foundation, the Abraaj Group Art Prize Collection, Mathaf-Arab Museum of Modern Art, Paris-based Museum of History of Immigration, and collections of private individuals and artists.
You can find more information at Singapore Art Museum – Terms and Conditions