The Common Library is open from Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm.
For information on readings, artist talks and workshops in the Common Library, see our upcoming Events.
Photo credit: Christopher Baaklini, Arab Image Foundation
Library Catalogue
The Common Library at AIF houses over 3,000 titles. You can browse the catalogue here
The Common Library, located at the Arab Image Foundation, is shared with Dawawine, Public Works and Archive Books. Together we house an extensive collection of publications on a range of themes, from photography, and art, to critical theory and feminism, from cinema and theatre, to history and urbanism. Whether you want to delve into the works of renowned photographers or explore the intricacies of the city, or even calligraphy, our library offers a critical and diverse range of books and ephemera, housed within space fostering community and cultural exchange.
If you are seeking a quiet space to study or work; an environment to discuss or organise; or a place to simply charge your phone and cool down from the heat, you are welcome to visit the Common Library.
Recent Acquisitions
Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests
Acquired from: Archive Books
The Musafiri: Travellers and Guests reader follows the entwined paths and encounters of those that embark on journeys, traversing the worlds that open up when the confines of familiar surroundings are left. They are musafiri, a word that denotes the traveller as well as the guest in a plethora of languages.
Forgive Us Our Trespasses Reader: Of (Un)Real Frontiers, Of (Im)Moralities and Other Transcendences Of (Un)Real Frontiers, Of (Im)Moralities and Other Transcendences
Acquired from: Archive Books
The Forgive Us Our Trespasses / Vergib uns unsere Schuld Reader explores radical and emancipatory significations and fabulations of trespassing, turning towards practices that transgress and reshape the boundaries of, among other dimensions, currency, governance, religion, spirituality, language, and artificial intelligence.
Like Swarming Maggots: Confronting the Archive of Coloniality across Italy and Libya
Acquired from: Archive Books
Like Swarming Maggots: Confronting the Archive of Coloniality across Italy and Libya is Alessandra Ferrini’s first monograph. Featuring the artist’s long-term research on the colonial and neo-colonial relations between Italy and Libya through a critical engagement with the Italian ‘archive of coloniality’ and its structural violence.
Destination Tashkent: Experiences in Cinematic Internationalism
Acquired from: Archive Books
Between 1968 and 1988, theTashkent Festival of Asian, African, and — from 1976 onwards — Latin American Cinema was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
discontent Magazine Issue 04
Acquired from: discontent Magazine
Reportage, new writing, photography and art from Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt.
Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine
Tatreez — elaborate hand-embroidery — is an ancient Palestinian craft characterised by remarkable beauty and complexity. Beginning with an introduction to the regional diversity of historic Palestinian dress, Rachel Dedman traces the politicisation of embroidery after the Nakba of 1948. From its evolution into a symbol of the nation, to its powerful presence during the First Intifada, and reimagination by contemporary artists, tatreez in Palestine embodies many forms of personal and public resistance.
رحلة العدد 33
Acquired from: رحلة
وقتٌ مستقطَع يحتمي بين غارتين، في فراغ اللقطة المصوّرة من فوق، لا يهدأ، يبحث عن فرصة، يبحث عن ملجأ...
العدد 33 من مجلة "رحلة" يحمل العنوان التالي: "في الوقت المستقطَع، احتمالات لا نهاية لها". هذا العنوان له تأثير متناقض ومتضارب. "الوقت المستقطع" (time out) غالباً ما يكون حيّزاً مأخوذاً من كلّ، قصيراً ومحدوداً، سريعاً. أمّا "احتمالات لا نهاية لها"، فتشير إلى اتساع الوقت وتنوّع الخيارات. وفي العنوان أيضًا إشارة إلى ما يفعله المونتاج (التوليف) بالصور والأحداث من تفكيك وإعادة تركيب أو حتى تفخيخ وتخريب المشهد لخدمة غاية ما. ليس مستغرباً أن يحمل هذا العنوان طيف وحماسة إعلانات المصارف والوعود التي تنهمر على المستهلك، وهنا أيضاً تفخيخ لأسلوب التواصل التجاري السائد.
Archive of Destruction: Reader 1
Archive of Destruction is a story-telling platform that brings together narratives around destruction and public art. Spanning a hundred years and many continents, it tells cumulative tales of vulnerability, interference, rage, fear, boredom and love.
Femme, arabe et... cinéaste / Woman, Arab and... Filmmaker
Acquired from: Anaïs Farine
En 1976, deux ans après la sortie de son premier long-métrage L'heure de la libération a sonné (1974), récit d'une lutte armée à Oman, Heiny Srour revient sur son expérience en tant que cinéaste femme et arabe, à bien des égards exemplaire. Elle rédige ce manifeste qui a été remarqué au fil des ans par un certain nombre de lectrices, pour qui il a représenté une révélation féministe.
Featured Publications
Sélection Focus 1 – Traduction مختارات مسار ١ – الترجمة by Dawawine Beirut
This book recommendation has been compiled by Dawawine, as part of their Focus series for the Common Library at the Arab Image Foundation.
Focus 1 - Translation is a selection of books and writings that look at translation not for its capacity to deliver equivalent texts and words in another language. Rather, it is where we halt over the unequivalences, using them as opportunities to diffract significations, to reveal the bits and parts where one can appropriate meaning, while keeping away from the burden of betrayal, to take measure of the partial understanding we might have of the depth of the languages we utter, to witness how languages have long been prone to interferences, and again, ourselves, interfere lovingly, nervously, delightfully.
THE ILLUSTRATED SURVIVAL GUIDE
FASSL n5 ASSIA DJEBAR
PIDGINIZATION AS CURATORIAL
DMZ COLONY
THE QUEER ARAB GLOSSARY
KALIARDÁ
HARSH OUT OF TENDERNESS
PENSÉE GRECQUE CULTURE ARABE
صموئل بكت، ترجمة ديك الجن
ENTRE LES LANGUES Conférences
SORRY I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND. CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN ?
AMONG A SEA OF INFLUENCES
Auditorium
Beside the Common Library is an auditorium / screening room. The room features a professional-grade DCP Projector provided by the Cooperative of Cinema Professionals, and cinema chairs contributed by Dawawine.
While members of the Cooperative have access to the screening room and its facilities, we also hire out the space to other professionals. Our hope is to create a hub for varied programming and screenings, whilst also establishing a self-sustaining economic model that covers any maintenance and operational costs, contributing to the economy we share with our collaborators.
For information on programmes and screenings in the auditorium / screening room, see our upcoming events
Collaborators
Dawawine is a cultural entity specialised in film, dance, theatre and music. It will using the library and auditorium for its public programmes, but also jointly programme with one or multiple entities in the space on topics of shared interest. The Common Library holds around 900 books from Dawawine.
Public Works is a research and design studio that critically tackles urban and social issues. Public Works has contributed around 200 books to the common library. >
Archive Books is a polycentric publishers cooperative with bases in Milan, Berlin, and Dakar. The Common Library at AIF is one of their new centres. The cooperative is a community of practitioners collaborating across regions and socio-political environments. As a result, their work is deeply rooted in a sustained scrutiny of the role of languages, visuality, and archives in the perpetration of the coloniality of knowledge. >
The Cooperative for Cinema Professions is a collective of industry professionals spanning cinematographers, colourists, sound engineers, animators, set designers, and filmmakers.