Jacques Vartabedian | Beautiful Destination 2

About

THE FOUNDER

 

Of French origins, Marie-Mathilde Jaber moved to Beirut in 2014 after completing a MA in Art History / Art Market Law at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She first worked at the Metropolitan Art Society, a space dedicated to hosting exhibitions in partnership with international galleries spanning the likes of Kamel Mennour. In her bid to pursue her interest in art, she acquired a professional MA in Art Criticism and Curatorial practices at St. Joseph University while working for the Saradar Collection, before deciding to join BEIRUT ART FAIR’s team in 2017. This experience exposed her to both local and regional contemporary art scenes, allowing her to establish strong relationships with their main actors.

After the art fair’s forced relocation to Europe following the economic collapse in Lebanon, Marie-Mathilde decided to stay and create no/mad utopia, a digital gallery dedicated to promoting emerging and mid-career artists operating in the Middle East & North Africa region.

 

THE GALLERY

 

Launched in January 2022, no/mad utopia offers tailor-made support to artists by further exposing them to exhibitions and art fairs.

Showcasing a range of contemporary creations hailing from the MENA, no/mad utopia  is a platform dedicated to a generation questioning the meaning of history, the construction of identities, socio-political frontiers, and the unwritten norms embedded within given societies.

Being a space for committed poetic expression, no/mad utopia provides a reflective stage-beyond-borders on which contemporary regional aspirations are put in dialogue with issues of global scale.

 

"Life without utopia is suffocating: threatened otherwise with petrifaction, the world must have a new madness." Emil Cioran