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Biokhraphia |
When it comes to cultural expression, Parisian curator Catherine David looks to display work from outside of the limited schema of Western contemporary art. In recent years David has curated several film and video exhibitions as well as acted as creative director for 1997 Documenta X in Kessel, Germany. David’s current long-term project, Contemporary Arab Representations, is an exhibition and series of lectures and events put together to explore the cultural expression of Arab countries in the era of globalization.
The first installment of Contemporary Arab Representations focuses on Beirut, Lebanon and will be on at the BildMuseet in Umea, Sweden through the end of April. This chapter, one of a series of exhibitions/events focusing on different Arab countries, has been traveling around Europe since 2001, where it began as a seminar at the Universidad Internacional de Andalucia in Seville, Spain from 22-26 October 2001. It then continued on to the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany 7-9 February 2002. The exhibition then moved on to the Fundacio Antoni Tapies, in Barcelona, Spain 3 May-14 July 2002 and the Witte de With Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands 15 September-24 November 2002.
Contemporary Arab Representations: Beirut, Lebanon unites a large selection of Lebanese artists, filmmakers, writers and architects that are living and working in Beirut who are interested in developing a “critical and experimental” contemporary Arab culture. The exhibit or project is described in the press release as a “multi-layered project that is devoted to the deepening of the knowledge of present-day cultural expressions of the Arab world and strengthening the dialogue and exchange between cultural centers of the Arab countries and the rest of the world.”
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All is well on the border front.
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David’s project cannot be labeled exclusively as an art exhibition because it is multi-faceted, consisting of a series of lectures, readings and performances as well as a multi-media art exhibition supplemented by a publication called Tamass, which depicts the activities and ideas of agents of the cultural realm within the Arab world. David also opts to label the pieces shown in the exhibit “representations” rather than “artworks” to highlight the main concern of the project, which is examining the “complex dimensions of aesthetics in relation to social and political situations.” Meaning that the artwork is specifically concerned with representing the ideas and climate of contemporary Beirut.
There are twenty representations exhibited. These include installations, films, sculpture, photography, literature, architecture and a special viewing room airing live broadcasts from 17 TV channels from around the Arab world. According to BildMuseet’s press release, the city of Beirut is the “heart and pulse of the exhibition. In many of the works memories and experiences of the civil war and the Israeli occupation constitute a backdrop or an explicate theme, portrayed and developed in personal narratives.”
By presenting these representations, David encourages us to reflect upon cultural practices in our own societies, wherever we may reside, and think about what kind of role the arts play. The artists included are interested in using their media of artistic expression or discussion to really understand and dissect what is going on in their home country in specific and its relations to the rest of the Middle East. They also are concerned with the strengthening of a critical Arab dialogue.
The exhibition of representations strongly leans toward a preference for new media. Most pieces steer far from traditional media of artistic expression. Exceptions would be Tony Chakar’s 2001 painting entitled Four Cotton Underwear for Tony, or Walid Sadek’s 2002 sculptural installation entitled Les Autres (The Others). The majority of the work employs the documentary power of film and video.
Akram Zaatari’s contribution to the exhibition includes a video piece entitled Al-Shrit bikhayr (All is well on the Border), 1997. The video presents a series of interviews with Lebanese prisoners in Israel as a way of examining issues and failures of representation.
Performance work also goes hand in hand with media artwork. A collaborative performance piece between two artists, Rabih Mroue and Lina Saneh, entitled Biokraphia, 2002, questions norms and breaks political taboos of Lebanese culture while examining the role of the artist in the globalized world.
The next installment will focus on Cairo, Egypt and will be presented at the BildMuseet in November, 2003.
Contemporary Arab Representation: Beirut,Lebanon will be on exhibit through 21 April 2003 at the BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden.
For more information and comprehensive coverage of the project visit http://www.wdw.nl/ENG/text/projects/arab/fr_arab.html
David’s companion book, Tamass, is available to order at D.A.P., New York (US only) http://www.artbook.com/8488786611.html
Cornerhouse, Manchester (UK only) http://www.cornerhouse.org
Idea Books, Amsterdam (all other countries)
e-mail idea@ideabooks.nl +31 (0)20 6226154 |
