Yto Barrada, Belvedere 1, Tanger, 2001. © Yto Barrada, Courtesy Sfeir- Semler Gallery, Hamburg/Beirut and Deutsche Bank Collection
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Faten Rouissi, Art dans la rue – Art dans le quartier, 2011 – 2013. Performance. © Photo: Faten Rouissi
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Anna Boghiguian, from the 27 part series “Autobiography I & I”, 2011. © Anna Boghiguian
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Arwa Abouon, Abouon Mama, 2004. © Arwa Abouon
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Bouchra Khalili, Still from “Mapping Journey # 1”, 2008. Video. © Bouchra Khalili, Courtesy Galerie Polaris, Paris / galerieofmarseille, Marseille
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Amal Kenawy, Still from “Silence of the Sheep“, 2009. Video of the Performance. © Darat al Funun, The Amal Kenawy Estate
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Belvedere – beautiful view. Yto Barrada chose this poetic title for her three-part photo series from the Deutsche Bank Collection.
The black-and-white photographs show people standing in front of a quay
wall and gazing out at the open sea. Initially, these figures seen from
behind recall Romantic landscape painting. But the situation the “Artist of the Year”
2011 captures here is scarcely romantic. The people are not enjoying a
pleasant view, but are looking towards a continent they will probably
never set foot on. On account of the Schengen Agreement,
residents of the Moroccan city of Tangier, where the artist
photographed the series in 2001, are not allowed to cross the
13-kilometer wide Straits of Gibraltar legally. Every year, dozens of
people die trying to transverse the narrow channel between Africa and
Europe to find a better future in the north.
Barrada’s at once laconic and impressive series is now on view in the exhibition Cross-border at the ZKM
in Karlsruhe. The show presents works by contemporary female artists
from the Arabian Mediterranean region who engage with cultural,
political, and territorial borders. Cross-border presents a
region whose art scene is currently arousing international interest. It
is not only since the beginning of the Arab Spring that countries such
as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Lebanon have been in a
state of political and cultural upheaval. The artists featured in the
exhibition reflect this in very different ways. Many move between
different worlds, between North Africa and Europe, indigenous
traditions and Western modernity. The Cairo-born artist Anna Boghiguian, who with her sketch-like drawings was represented at the 13th documenta, regards herself as a nomad. She combines figurative elements and texts to create a kind of visual diary. With her works, Faten Rouissi
reacts directly to the political unrest in her home country Tunisia. In
performances, she transforms cars set on fire in the revolutionary
strife into art objects. While the photographic works of the Libyan
artist Arwa Abouon, who lives in Canada, deal with the role of Moslem women, Bouchra Khalili’s
videos from her “Mapping Journey” series are concerned with the destiny
of migrants whose fate is determined by territorial and political
borders.
More filmic works from the Arab Mediterranean region can be seen in Berlin in September. The festival Doku-Arts will
show artistic documentary films that work with visual archive material.
Yto Barrada is represented again, with films and as the founder of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, which since 2006 has been of the region’s few non-commercial institutions devoted to film culture.
Cross-border. Contemporary Female Artists from the Arabian Mediterranean Region
April 27 – September 8, 2013
ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe
Doku.Arts
Second Hand Cinema – Perspectives for Artistic Documentaries
September 11 – September 29, 2013
Zeughauskino German Historical Museum, Berlin
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