Contemporary art production in Arab countries still remains largely unexplored. Often general and trite assumptions are made distinguishing between East and West, Arabic-Islamic and Western-Christian civilisation without essentially addressing the specific characteristics in appropriate ways. Aware of the fact that the reception of art from these countries calls for a new approach, the museum for contemporary art Marta in Herford has invited nine female artists from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Iraq. They all came to the West as university students or exiles and most of them never returned to their homes.

The exhibition focuses on their works of art and devotes ample space to the particular biographical and national details in the lives of these women. The diversity of their artistic styles links many different aspects, reflecting both the boundaries and the crossing of boundaries as well as the times of upheaval in their home countries.