While leafing through books on world history, one might come upon the famous portrait of Mehmed the Conquer by renowned Italian artist Gentile Bellini, depicting the sultan under a carved stone arch, a symbol of power since the Roman period. Commissioned by the Venetian Republic to paint portraits of the sultan and his court, Bellini was one of the first Western artists to travel to Istanbul and was a source of inspiration for his following counterparts. The exhibition “The Sultan’s World: The Ottoman Orient in Renaissance Art” explores the perception of Renaissance artists who reflected an imperial culture in their works.

Read More: Exhibition Unveils Influence of Ottoman Culture on Western Artists

The heady mix of sensuality and religion that defines so much of Indian art often confuses and even alarms western viewers when they first encounter it. The sacred and the sensuous rub shoulders in an intimate manner that seems strange to sensibilities that have been trained to see art through the lenses of a tradition rooted in Christian attitudes to sexuality and religion: why, we wonder, would a monastery built for celibate Buddhist monks be decorated with images of beautiful, half-naked palace women? How could it be appropriate to cover the exterior walls of a religious building with graphically copulating couples?

Read More: Why The Body in Indian Art and Thought Exhibition is Unique

See also: Show of Indian Treasures Explores the Contradictions of the Corporeal

An exploration of The Body in Indian Art and Thought throughout history is akin to a study of the atom in physics – there’s no getting away from it. The fecund eroticism of Indian goddesses, their feet planted on dusty earth as their bosoms heave, is only the beginning. But the exhibition of Indian treasures now mounted at the Musee des Beaux Arts in Brussels as part of the Europalia festival takes on this sweeping theme unabashedly.

Read More: Show of Indian Treasures Explores the Contradictions of the Corporeal

The CAB (Contemporary Arts, Brussels) announces its new exhibition titled ‘The Fold’, which explores, under the curation of Michel Dewilde and Azar Mahmoudian, topics such as absence, disappearance, amnesia and the importance of memory set against the background of modern and contemporary Iran. Inspired by ‘Le Pli’ (1988) of the French Philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the curators choose the fold as the leitmotif for the exhibition. Here, the concept of the fold functions in a variety of modalities including the psychological, historical and political level.

Read More: Exhibition of Iranian Artists at Contemporary Arts, Brussels