The Use of the Body and the Representation of Elderly Parents’ Care in the Visual Art from the Arab World Preliminary Remarks for a Comparative Approach

Abstract

This paper aims to present the first preliminary results of The Changing Body and the Care Experience in Visual Arts in a Comparative and Cross-cultural Perspective Between Western and Mediterranean Art, a research project focused on the perception and representation of care in the MENA region (i.e. the Middle East and North Africa). In modern and contemporary artistic productions from the area, a reflection on the perception and visual representation of care must necessarily set out from the depiction of the body and illness, which plays a crucial role in any discourse on caring. The purpose of this paper is therefore to offer an initial overview of the visual representation of caring, and of the way in which it is understood in North Africa and Middle East, through the comparative analysis of some case studies.