Title: The Future of Promise
Artist: Abdelkader Benchamma, Abdulnasser Gharem, Ahmed Mater, Ahmed Alsoudani, Ayman Baalbaki, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Driss Ouadahi, Emily Jacir, Faycal Baghriche, Jananne Al-Ani, Kader Attia, Lara Baladi, Manal Al-Dowayan, Mona Hatoum, Mounir Fatmi, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Raafat Ishak, Taysir Batniji, Yazan Khalili, Yto Barrada, Ziad Abillama, Ziad Antar
Curator: Lina Lazaar, Collateral Event
Venue: Magazzino del Sale n. 5 , Zattere, Dorsoduro
The Future of a Promise is the Venice Biennale’s first pan-Arab exhibition of contemporary art, and though the artwork ranges from painting, drawing, and photography, to video, sculpture and installation, and covers a vast area between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, the ultimate feeling of this exhibition is one of despair and entrapment for the Arab people.
As you enter the exhibition you are presented immediately with Manal Al-Dowayan’s Suspended Together, 2011, an installation that gives the impression of movement and freedom through the suspension of 200 white doves. However after closer inspection, one can see that each dove carries on its body the permission document that allows a Saudi woman to travel. The contributors range from six months to sixty years old, each of whom have contributed in some way to society. The work shows that regardless to how influential a female figure can be in society, Saudi women are still trapped, never being allowed full freedom, even in the contemporary society that they may work in. Ahmed Alsoudani’s Untitled, 2010, depicts a disfigured tableau of war and atrocity, evoking a universal experience of conflict and human suffering through the depiction of indistinguishable and bestial figures. One is further presented with the images of war and conflict in GH0809, 2010, by Taysir Batniji, a take on commercial advertising with the altered content of houses and facilities destroyed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in 2008-09.
The Lost Springs, 2011, by Mounir Fatmi displays the 22 flags of the Arab League states at half mast, with two brooms referring to the upheavals that led to the fall of President Ben Ali in Tunisia and President Mubarak in Egypt. The half-mast state of these flags emphasises the desperate situation the Arab League has been put in, further accentuating the despair of this exhibition. The Colour Correction series, by Yazan Khalili, 2007-10, through the simple multi-colouring of houses, emphasises the idea of losing lifestyle, mobility, freedom of choice and even the ability to dream of a brighter tomorrow. According to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, these losses lead to a permanent state of emergency, where the possibility of thinking and living in the present becomes impossible. It is this loss of freedom and free will of these pan-Arab artists that is ever so apparent in such an affluent, influential and contemporary art festival, emphasising how important contemporary exhibitions like The Future of a Promise are in bridging the gap between our differing societies.
Emily Burke
Title: The Future of Promise
Artist: Abdelkader Benchamma, Abdulnasser Gharem, Ahmed Mater, Ahmed Alsoudani, Ayman Baalbaki, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Driss Ouadahi, Emily Jacir, Faycal Baghriche, Jananne Al-Ani, Kader Attia, Lara Baladi, Manal Al-Dowayan, Mona Hatoum, Mounir Fatmi, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Raafat Ishak, Taysir Batniji, Yazan Khalili, Yto Barrada, Ziad Abillama, Ziad Antar
Curator: Lina Lazaar, Collateral Event
Venue: Magazzino del Sale n. 5 , Zattere, Dorsoduro
The Future of a Promise is the Venice Biennale’s first pan-Arab exhibition of contemporary art, and though the artwork ranges from painting, drawing, and photography, to video, sculpture and installation, and covers a vast area between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, the ultimate feeling of this exhibition is one of despair and entrapment for the Arab people.
As you enter the exhibition you are presented immediately with Manal Al-Dowayan’s Suspended Together, 2011, an installation that gives the impression of movement and freedom through the suspension of 200 white doves. However after closer inspection, one can see that each dove carries on its body the permission document that allows a Saudi woman to travel. The contributors range from six months to sixty years old, each of whom have contributed in some way to society. The work shows that regardless to how influential a female figure can be in society, Saudi women are still trapped, never being allowed full freedom, even in the contemporary society that they may work in. Ahmed Alsoudani’s Untitled, 2010, depicts a disfigured tableau of war and atrocity, evoking a universal experience of conflict and human suffering through the depiction of indistinguishable and bestial figures. One is further presented with the images of war and conflict in GH0809, 2010, by Taysir Batniji, a take on commercial advertising with the altered content of houses and facilities destroyed by the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in 2008-09.
The Lost Springs, 2011, by Mounir Fatmi displays the 22 flags of the Arab League states at half mast, with two brooms referring to the upheavals that led to the fall of President Ben Ali in Tunisia and President Mubarak in Egypt. The half-mast state of these flags emphasises the desperate situation the Arab League has been put in, further accentuating the despair of this exhibition. The Colour Correction series, by Yazan Khalili, 2007-10, through the simple multi-colouring of houses, emphasises the idea of losing lifestyle, mobility, freedom of choice and even the ability to dream of a brighter tomorrow. According to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, these losses lead to a permanent state of emergency, where the possibility of thinking and living in the present becomes impossible. It is this loss of freedom and free will of these pan-Arab artists that is ever so apparent in such an affluent, influential and contemporary art festival, emphasising how important contemporary exhibitions like The Future of a Promise are in bridging the gap between our differing societies.
Emily Burke
Posted 1 year ago & Filed under The Future of Promise, art, Venice, Venice Biennale, LINE magazine, line,
