Manjm Culture Lab
Manjm is a "Temporary Autonomous Zone" Haifa-based non commercial art space forwarded to stimulate contemporary creation, inter-disciplinary exhibition projects, educational values, and critical theory. Our main motivational focus is the presentation of contemporary art at the meeting junctions of culture, science, and philosophy. Manjm's space is open for or artists, curators and other people who are eager to create and make their ideas blossom.
Manjm ‘s Logo consists of the symbol of the philosopher’s stone. The concept of the “philosopher’s stone” originated from the theories of the 8th century alchemist Geber (Jabir Ibn Hayyan), allegedly it is a substance capable of turning inexpensive metals into gold. A symbol that represents the final outcome of man's inner transformation, of the conversion of the base metal of his outer character to the golden properties of his higher self. Newton and Goethe valued alchemy’s function as a model for the workings of the universe . Manjm believes that art creation is our philosopher's stone. The processes of exploration and dividing properties, and in its ability to create a new product and a new perception.
Focused on temporary discursive setups of creation, Manjm's extensive program consists of various productive formats including a weekly cinema, performance events, food and culinary gatherings, workshops, reading groups, Saturdays’ conceptual market, and other activities.
MANJM OBJECTIVES
As the literal meaning of the word (Manjm منجم = Mine in English; an excavation in the earth for extracting minerals, an abundant source of something), Manjm’s lab seeks to raise awareness and ask questions, as well as dig Active Collaborations! Rather than focusing on durational fixed exhibitions, the highlight is on methodological collaborating through using the art lab as a tool for mutual learning experiences and a third space where various outlooks are brought together into the public notion.
Empirical Eastern Approach
Western culture put great value on the level of a person’s knowledge but they do not value the level of a person’s being. We believe that a person’s knowledge depends on the level of their being, and from there the importance of art as a tool to develop the self and the intellect through studying reality and digging into it.
Educational Entries
Through a conscious openness to different disciplines, eastern and western, we will manage to take a variety of specialized approaches to workshops, seminars, lectures, talks and discussion. This is why we called our art education section as a laboratorium.
Manjm Laboratorium welcomes groups of students, scholars, pupils and others who are interested to have an alternative look and mutual learning experiences about various debated topics aroused by Manjm's extensive programme.
MEETING HUB
Manjm’s programme seeks to reach and bridge between both local and international audiences and creators. Domestically, we are zealous to approach young folks, cultural consumers, and other communities that inhabit the surrounding of Haifa, Galilee and Palestine. Furthermore, situated in the Middle East, Haifa’s small metropolitan area is considered peripheral within the global contemporary art landscape, so our challenge is to reach the international audience of visitors and scholar collaborators of curators and artists who wish to be active and introduced to the local cultural scene.
We look forward ...
To provide a space for alternative cultural discourse.
To raise awareness on the responsibility of the artist and creator in creating reality.
To make the people question the world they live in, and not take reality as for granted.
To create an environment for cultural exchange, dialogue and development.
To collaborate with local artists and Palestinian local art institutions in order to develop and promote the current art scene.
To promote art production for the local Palestinian art consumers and audiences, especially with the huge lack of independent Palestinian platforms focused on visual arts in Haifa specifically and the Galilee in general.
To stimulate both creators and audiences, for active engagements within different formats, where also audiences, as creators, becomes integral and active parts of the artwork.
To encourage freedom of expression, experimental and alternative.
“Provided we can escape from the museums we carry around inside us, provided we can stop selling ourselves tickets to the galleries in our own skulls, we can begin to contemplate an art which re-creates the goal of the sorcerer: changing the structure of reality by the manipulation of living symbols... Art tells gorgeous lies that come true.”
