by Stéphanie Bertrand
Developed within the framework of the ongoing project “Roaming Images” and conjointly presented at the MMCA, the group shows “Roaming Images Exhibition” and “Roaming Images Routes” examined the contemporary role of the image in Arab and Eastern Mediterranean cultures in light of the regions’ shared history of aniconism – from Byzantine iconoclasm to the Muslim prohibition on imagery – spurred by the media war that has surrounded recent events in North Africa and the Middle East. Initiated in December 2010, “Roaming Images” was conceived as a series of dialogues and exchanges with institutions, artists and curators from the Arab Peninsula and Eastern Mediterranean countries, that would coincide with the Arab Spring and the Greek protests against the economic crisis, polarizing its premise and giving the project an added sense of urgency. Nearly a year later, the resulting exhibitions registered as timely considerations on the instrumental use of imagery and the persistence of orientalist stereotypes, whose sparing and judicious references to the popular uprisings threw the latter’s sensationalist appearance along with our own tainted expectations into relief.
Under the direction of veteran curator Lara Boubnova, “Roaming Images Exhibition” brought together existing artworks by a number of well-established artists from the Arab world along with a few recent works by Greek, Cypriot and Bulgarian artists around notions of otherness, immigration and belief, set against a backdrop of religious and political conflict stretching back to the Crusades. If the exhibition’s intricate proposal was somewhat winded by the dead spaces that isolated the works, unavoidably scattered across the awkward ground floor layout of the museum, it coalesced in the foyer and the first room, which established a forceful context for the more removed pieces.
This first section opened onto Adel Abdessemed’s work “Dio” (2010), documenting a catholic pilgrimage of men carrying wooden crosses around the Vatican, and Lida Abdul’s silent video “White House” (2005), recording the artist dressed in black as she coats the rubble of an Afghani house in white paint – allowing for the former’s triumphant crunch of white gravel under foot to imbue Abdul’s isolated gesture with an unbearable bleakness. Paired with Natascha Sadr Haghighian’s text installation “I can’t work like this” (2007) created with nails hammered into the wall reinforcing the allusion to the crucifixion, and Luchezar Boyadjiev’s photographic series “5 Views to Mecca” (2007), these works articulated a strong sense of futility, suffering and resilience through the recurring references to Sisyphean labor and religious creed, while critically addressing the clichés that continue to reaffirm the East-West divide.
By contrast, “Roaming Images Routes” was a much more eclectic exhibition. It consisted mainly of works that were produced as part of the larger project at the outcome of individual collaborations with local curators and partner associations in each of the participating countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Syria and the UAE. Superficially unified around a common examination of the image in the Middle East, which found expression as a series of subtle reflections at the show’s highest points and in curator Sotirios Bahtsetzis’ rigorous catalogue essay, the exhibition mostly appeared as an uneven collection of photographs and videos generally dealing with identity, memory and loss. Notwithstanding the disparity between the different contributions, the exhibition showcased a number of noteworthy pieces, including Scandar Copti & Rabia Buchari’s humorous video “Truth” (2003), which examined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a fictional account of disused landmarks and structures in Jaffa.
Arguably, the most compelling statement on the subject of the exhibition came from curator Delphine Leccas and artist Rami Farah’s collaborative project “Syrian Icons” (2011). This series of elegantly rendered video portraits set against artistic backgrounds in private interiors, captured the views of important figures from the Syrian art scene on various related topics, including iconoclasm, craftsmanship, and the underrated significance of imagery in Syrian art. While formally addressing a history of portraiture indicative of the 19th century European influence on the art of the region, the work offered a multilayered perspective on the rapidly changing image of Syrian culture, whose recent integration into the contemporary art circuit has drastically impacted its production. In this way, the work highlighted the stakes behind the overarching “Roaming Images” project, whose knowing involvement in the loaded formation of an institutionalized contemporary art scene in the Middle East made for a thought-provoking exhibition proposal.
Leave a Reply