Artists' Rooms // Sumac Space–Art Practices of the Middle East

Andrea Salerno

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:36:16 +0000

Andrea Salerno, b. 1978, , Miranda, Venezuela.
Lives and works between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE.

Colombian-Venezuelan photographer, Andrea grew up between the Andean mountains and the Caribbean sea. She studied photography at the Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya. In 2009 went to Argentina as a jury member for the Latin American Film Festival and for 12 years she ran her photo studio in Rosario. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and published in magazines, newspapers, books, and large advertisement billboards around the world. Andrea has given countless lectures and workshops on photography and food culture in South America. Today, she is a full member of Diversify Photo (NY, USA), works as a cultural manager in the Embassy of Colombia to the UAE, and keeps working as a licensed freelance photographer between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

When I think of the UAE I think of the discovery of the ephemeral as a state of things, of life. This speaks much more of the strength behind the print that remains and that changed places also, like the dunes of the desert. Because that which moves is matter to create; it’s life.

Understanding the place from which you come to create in the place where you are.

This is my first and most important revelation so far and from which I begin to understand the deep connection between the Middle East and Venezuela and the Middle East and Argentina. Especially when it comes to gastronomy. And it is not as simple as the use of spices, but also the way in which we share food, the importance of the family ritual of cooking and, above all, the generous sharing of food.

Perhaps there is nothing more ephemeral than food. It certainly traces a memory but its passage through our lives is ephemeral because, even if it is a repetitive ritual, we will never eat the same thing even if we were to cook the same recipe, just as the desert is never the same at daybreak.

For this reason, thinking of gastronomy as an intangible migrant, which takes shape once it has run aground in a kitchen, personally inspires me to continue in this state of fascination that comes to life when I recognize similarities between cultures, showing that our stories always intersect with each other.

The Middle East, as seen from Latin America -be it Venezuela or Argentina-, seems very far away and yet feels so close.

Those are the sparks from which the narrative of my photographic projects is nourished and which, here, in the United Arab Emirates, I find everywhere: the distances, the proximity, and the intersections between cultures. Because in the end, between cultures, we store more stories in common than differences.

So, perhaps, storing is that exercise of memory, with which the ephemeral revives, again and again, changing the state of life and of things. The storage of memory, that intangible that transforms the ephemeral and gives it substance, like a flavor or a recipe.

Andrea Salerno J.

Abu Dhabi, April of 2022.

The hand of Vijay Kumar Gupta covered in curry powder. Vijay traveled 15.896 km between Madhya Pradesh, India, and Rosario, Argentina in search of the absolute opposite of what he has known.
https://www.andreasalernojacome.com/india

The hand of Robby Glésile stained with beetroot juice.
Robby Glésile, Elyse Pierre and Olivier Danache covered the 5.860 kms. between Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Rosario, Argentina, bringing Caribbean joy and a history of resilience to their hearts.
https://www.andreasalernojacome.com/haiti

The hand of Lidia Perella i Puig, holding pieces of cinnamon stick. Lidia Perella i Puig traveled along with her family the 10.472 km between Sant Fruitós de Bages, Spain and Rosario, Argentina when she was a little girl. Today, seventy years later she still feels Sant Fruitós as her home, holding savoury and sweet memories of her birth land.
https://www.andreasalernojacome.com/catalonia

The hand of Ernesto Flores Meléndrez holding Mexican chili guajillo.
7.482 was the number of kilometers traveled by Ernesto Flores Meléndrez between Guadalajara, Mexico and Rosario, Argentina. And his story is the story of an ancient comal and the spicy side of a wanderlust heart.
https://www.andreasalernojacome.com/mexico

The hand of Francisco Sala holding a chocolate cookie; an Argentinian “Chocolina”. When Francisco Sala flew that 13,817 km that separated Rosario, Argentina from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, little he would know that ten years later he would be reinventing his life in the sweetest way possible.
https://www.andreasalernojacome.com/argentina

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Sofia Basto Riousse

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:34:49 +0000

Sofia Basto Riousse, b. 1981, Pitalito, Colombia.
Lives and works in Dubai, UAE.

Colombian-French self-taught artist, based in Dubai since 2015. Her art path started back in Colombia with big-format mural paintings. Once a lawyer fed up with codes and paperwork, Sofia returned to the arts, where she contemplates nature and observes social dynamics. Having decided to move her brushes again, watercolors and acrylics are her main mediums. Embroidery and decoupage can be found in her collages and paintings, always accompanied by a botanical touch, which reminds her of the mountains and jungle she grew up surrounded by.

“La tête dans les nuages” La cabeza en las Nubes o “Aquí y allá”, Una evocación del entorno de origen vista desde Medio Oriente. Una añoranza, una manifestación de la nostalgia tropical.
Translation: En evocation of the environment of origin as seen from the Middle East, a longing, a manifestation of tropical nostalgia, Detail

“When talking about ‘almacén’, the first image that comes to mind is a huge store where nothing is missing, like a place where I feel small and want to buy everything. ‘Almacenar’ is to store, but that is the first of several actions implicit in this act. In my opinion, there is an exercise of appreciation: who wants to store something they don’t like? Above all, ‘almacenar’ is to save something in an express manner, in an organized way, to preselect. It involves remembering where you have placed what you stored. Remembering why and at what time what you stored can be used. And then the question is: store for what? To admire? To seize? To display?”

“I come from a region in the south of Colombia with little Arab influence, so this whole cultural universe was completely new to me. The first contact was in France where I perceived the Maghrebi influence in several aspects: food and literature, for example. In Singapore, I discovered the spiritual dimension, given the proximity to Malaysia and Indonesia, countries that have the largest Muslim population. Dubai has represented for me a more intimate experience with the Arab world, a continuous auditory exposure to the language, discovering some connections with my mother tongue, Spanish. Also the experience of being a spectator of what Ramadan represents within an Arab family. It has involved understanding an aesthetic, a color palette, and an ever-present geometry. A way of living in relation to the environment, picnics in the desert, serving tea on a rug on the beach at sunset. A lifestyle that always seeks comfort (and achieves it!) in an environment that could be seen from the outside as unfavorable to it.”

“Indoor garden with monkey” En la misma línea de la nostalgia tropical, aquí están las plantas de la abuela, de regreso a un lugar de antaño, donde la selva es bienvenida a casa, donde convivimos con elementos
exteriores haciéndolos nuestros.
Translation: Along the same line of tropical nostalgia, here are the plants of my grandma, in return to a yesteryear place, where the jungle is the welcome home, where we coexist with exterior elements making them ours.

“I envisioned the [Arab] cultural movement completely framed within a religious framework. I didn’t imagine the openness that actually characterizes it. I have found a quite encouraging dynamism, different spaces of creation, of interaction, a desire to connect between the people who create, between those who write, an entire ecosystem that wants to grow more and more through connectivity.”

Le coeur-quillage” ¿A qué se parece lo que llevamos dentro?
Translation: What does our within resemble?

“Since moving to the Emirates I have returned to embroidery. I always received my education in a Catholic school, where embroidery and weaving were part of the comprehensive education that a “good young lady” should receive. In daily life, its usefulness had not been manifested to me to a greater degree. However, here this knowledge returned from my memories, to highlight the local clothing decorations, to admire them. This reunion made me introduce embroidery to my canvases and I am currently researching the local Talli embroidery. It’s inevitable to escape to calligraphy, which plays a leading role in the arts of this region -not speaking Arabic is not an impediment to appreciating its fluidity.”

“People I see passing everyday” Invisible hands, blue clothes, blue skies, blue shadows. The Dubai landscape is made of these: people we see passing in front of us.

“Bearing in mind that nature has always been a main driver in my creative process, the Emirati landscape has been a complete surprise. The fauna and flora, yes, the flora, are an invitation to detail, as opposed to the tropical exuberance that, whether you like it or not, enters your eyes. Here you have to delve into the details, look for the tree, the camouflaged fauna, settle for fewer species, but savor them with your eyes down to their last details. When you get here you think there is no ‘nature’. Your notion of it changes, because there is, it’s just that it’s different and it doesn’t fall short in beauty.”

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Enrique Yidi

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:33:27 +0000

Enrique Yidi, b. 1960, Barranquilla, Colombia.
Lives and works between Barranquilla, Colombia, and Bethlehem, Palestine.

Enrique Yidi is a creative soul in constant evolution. Born to a Bethlehemite family on the Colombian Caribbean Coast, this third-generation Palestinian engineer from Purdue University, businessman, artist, and prolific researcher and collector, has devoted his life to safeguarding the unique Palestinian art of mother-of-pearl carving. In 1998, he founded Taller Palestina, an artistic workshop with local Colombian artisans under his instruction, with the initial mission of restoring old art pieces and later creating its own. The workshop also ensures the continuity of this endangered tradition in the realm of safety provided by its new Diasporic dwelling.

In over two decades, Taller Palestina has produced around 3,500 art pieces that are currently held in museums, private collections, or have been commissioned for political and religious leaders from around the world. Enrique Yidi’s work has been showcased worldwide and in 2011, he opened in Barranquilla the biggest museum of Palestinian mother-of-pearl art, with artefacts spanning from the 16th to the 20th century. He has also given lectures and curated private mother-of-pearl collections around the world which were previously mislabelled or insufficiently identified, and has co-authored several books, most notably “El arte palestino de taller el nácar. Una aproximación a su estudio desde el Caribe colombiano” (2005), a seminal work on the history and evolution of this Palestinian tradition.

Complementary to the work of Taller Palestina in the fields of restoration and conservation, Enrique Yidi is an artist himself that has traveled to Palestine on several occasions to share his knowledge and inspire others with his mission. His current artwork reflects his Diasporic identity: Palestine and the Caribbean meet through the introduction of non-traditional materials like emeralds, Caribbean seashells, and semiprecious stones in the different mother-of-pearl art pieces he creates.

Yafa Oranges in Bethlehem, 2020

“The seas and their deep blue colors confirm that Colombia and Palestine are very much apart. However, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean enter a dialogue and reunite thanks to the histories of thousands of families which have been shared, fractured, migrated, and returned, and that wrestle tirelessly to find their voices and roots.”

Almacén de Telas “Belen”, 2021

Jerusalem Panorama, 2020

“From the Diaspora to the motherland, in the universal language of art, across the challenging seas, and while overcoming the most ignominious historical challenges, today the Palestinian people, their traditions, arts, and above all memory survive and are enriched by the work of its offspring spread throughout the world.”

Wheat Harvest in Bethlehem, 2020

“My job has been to amplify the Palestinian art of mother-of-pearl carving and today in most government palaces in Latin America there is a work from Taller Palestina. This has enabled a rediscovery of the important role of migration in Latin America. [With Arab migration,] valuable pieces of mother-of-pearl art opened the doors for [migrants’] rapid integration into societies in these countries, at a time of strong discrimination against individuals who had been subjects of the Ottoman Empire, of which the countries of the Levant were part.”

Cauliflower Sellers, 2020

Gates of Jerusalem, 2021

Taller Palestina was founded by Enrique Yidi in the city of Barranquilla (Colombia) in 1998, with the aim of transplanting, preserving, and disseminating the Palestinian legacy of the artistic carving of mother-of-pearl; a distinguished tradition of the Palestinian people through the centuries. Before their migration to the Americas, the Yidi family had been working mother-of-pearl for almost two continuous centuries in the family workshops, and in the workshop of the Lama and Zougby families in Bethlehem. Enrique Yidi, who has decided to honor his Palestinian origins by giving continuity to this art in danger of disappearing from the Diaspora, is also an accomplished researcher, art collector, conchologist, writer, and co-author of several books, including “El arte palestino de tallar el nácar” [The Palestinian art of mother-of-pearl carving] (2005). Taller Palestine has managed to perfect the traditional Betlemite techniques of filigree engraving and carving of mother-of-pearl and has introduced more than forty new species of shells, and a wide variety of semi-precious stones, exotic woods, amber, pearls, and coral; thus providing fresh air, unique and new textures to this art. The Workshop has also created its own works where the different periods of Palestinian art are mixed, as well as artistic techniques learned by the artist in Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and Italy. Likewise, the Workshop has reproduced some of the most important works by Palestinian artists who made known to the world the famous and unique school of mother-of-pearl filigree carving in Bethlehem, and which today rest outside of Palestine.

Embroidering, 2019

Saint George, 2020

Currently, Taller Palestina is made up of an interdisciplinary group of five artists and artisans from Barranquilla and its surroundings, who continue to be trained in figurative carving, atauriques, and filigree tape, inlay, engraving, mosaic, cabinetmaking, and restoration. Since its foundation, the Taller Palestina has produced more than 3,500 works, both religious and secular. Among them are the coats of arms of Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Guyana, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Custody of the Holy Land, the Maronite Patriarchate of Lebanon, the Patriarchate of Jordan, and of the State of Qatar. Exclusive works have also been custom-made and exhibited in museums around the world such as the Monastery of the Incarnation and the Pilgrimage –the first in Madrid and the second in Santiago de Compostela–, the Mother of Pearl Museum in Australia, the Malacological Museum Piceno in Italy, the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and Brigham Young University’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures in the United States.

Palestinian Headpieces, 2022

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Cristina Serrano

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:32:17 +0000

Cristina Serrano, b. 1995, Bogotá, Colombia.
Lives and works between Bogotá and Cali, Colombia.

Cristina Serrano Gnecco is a chef, baker, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. Her lifelong passion for manufacturing baked goods has been the driving force behind her professional trajectory. Having culminated her studies in ethnomusicology and history at NYU Abu Dhabi, she became an unsuspected food entrepreneur whilst continuing to cultivate her interests in human history, migrations, the creation of culture, and its undoing. She has written for food publications such as the Dubai-based food magazine The Carton (2015) and has featured as a guest speaker about cooking and culinary anthropology in the podcast Expertos de Sillon. The intersection between her culinary skills and historical knowledge has resulted in several historically driven investigations of recipes and food cultures that often culminate in some form of product for sale. She teaches the course on the History of Colombian Food Culture in the Escuela de Gastronomía de Occidente in Cali, Colombia. Cristina is currently the executive chef and co-owner of Onza, a bakery-cafe in Bogota where she offers the public a showcase of her culinary innovations and developments.

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Adrian Pepe

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:30:55 +0000

Adrian Pepe b. 1984, La Ceiba, Honduras.
Lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon.

Adrian is an artist and designer presently residing in Beirut, Lebanon. His work focuses on craftsmanship from socio-cultural, aesthetic, ecological, and methodological perspectives. He studies the relational ties we form with objects over time; how they are made and replicated, transferred and adopted, and how they change and adapt. His integrated approach interweaves culture, history, and performance with design, fashion, and interiors. Throughout his work, he performs a sort of creative shadowgraphy, crafting objects and experiences as tools to enable an open discourse on materiality, our morphing cultural landscape, and present condition.

“My initial interaction with the region was via the Arab people that moved to Latin America over the past two hundred years, marking the decline of the Ottoman Empire and other conflicts subsequently. Before my first visit, I imagined an opulent culture deeply seated in religion and politically provocative. What I found was a living archaeology of sorts, a rich and diverse culture rooted in the land, struggling with issues of identity, dynamically changing and continually adapting.”

“As a fiber artist, I work directly with the raw form of natural materials, be it from plants or animals. In Lebanon, I encountered the fat-tailed Awassi sheep, a close domestic relative bred in the Syro-Arabian desert for over five thousand years. This particular breed of sheep is a key protagonist within the human narrative, particularly when referencing biblical fables, pastoral imagery, and ritualistic practices in Abrahamic religions. Sheep in the region is considered among the first animal species to enter into a domestic relation with humanity, offering its meat, milk, skin, and ultimately, its wool for textile. I became very interested in this ancient relationship between human, animal, and the land, and how it formulated moral codes and the textile structure present today. I began working with its wool to create large-scale tapestries laden with mythologies and symbolism, reflecting on themes of trans-corporeality, post-naturalism, and biocentrism.”

“Through my work, I attempt to trace the origins of particular textile making and fabric manipulation techniques as they relate to the occurrence of domestication and its role in the birth of human civilization. I am constantly surprised by what I find when engaging with the human and non-human agents involved, for example, my discovery of ochre. Ochre, also referred to as ‘ruddle’, has been used by shepherds of the region to mark their animals over several millennia. Ochre is a naturally occurring pigment derived from the earth, giving tones of yellow, red, and brown. The earliest use of ochre by ancient humans dates to Paleolithic times, over 200,000 years ago, found primarily in cave art; it is considered the oldest known natural pigment used by humankind. I am presently experimenting with this pigment in my work, reflecting on the co-history between all the bodies involved in this ancient interaction.”

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‘akhi huna

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:29:48 +0000

‘akhi huna, b. 2020, Sobradinho, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
Live and work in Sobradinho, Brazil.

‘akhi huna is a musical duo from Sobradinho, Distrito Federal, Brazil formed by brothers Mansur JP and Dila Caju. Playing on the Arabic phrasing for “my brother is here,” the project kicked off in 2020 when the duo shared the same house again after living on separate continents. Since then, they have released two mixtapes, Aleluiá (October 2020) and Várzea Mini Jumbo (April 2021). The duo’s music transits between the timelessness of Clube da Esquina’s songs, the cosmic funk of Jorge Ben, the retrofuturism of Daft Punk, and the deep melodies of Djavan. ‘akhi huna is pioneering a niche wave of Latin American creatives returning to their Arab roots for conceptual inspiration.

“‘Armazenar’ is to carefully store what is important to you, whether material or immaterial.”

“This platform allows us to shorten the geographical distances between us and the Arab World! We are very happy to be a part of the exhibition and honored to be able to share our music! We hope to be physically present in a while!”

“[About Lebanon and the Arab world], We imagine it’s like a homecoming! The idea of getting to know Lebanon up close and being able to feel the land where our ancestors came from is incredible!”

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Ana Escobar Saavedra

madadpoor — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:28:40 +0000

Photo © Andrea Salerno

Ana Escobar Saavedra, b. 1978, Cali, Colombia.
Lives and works in Dubai, UAE.

Ana Escobar Saavedra has a cross-disciplinary practice, working on the frontiers of art, craft, and design. Born and bred in Colombia, after living and working for three years in Italy and 13 years in France, she moved to Dubai in 2020. Her work has been featured in different printed publications and has been selected for group exhibitions across Europe, Colombia, Argentina, China, Australia, the USA, and the UAE.

For the last few years, she has combined a personal studio practice alongside research, writing, and other professional projects in a range of fields such as fashion, art, and trend forecasting. Ana has a background in fashion and textiles and goldsmithing and currently, she is pursuing an MA in object and jewelry from MASieraad in partnership with Hogeschool PXL in Hasselt Belgium.

Grab a vow (gold – antidote project), 2022, postcards with standard words and texts from different religions and civil wedding vows

“Almacenar: to contain, to protect, to preserve, to categorize.”

Yes, I do, do I? (gold – antidote project), 2022, outdoor scrolling yellow Led board.
Using light as an attempt to replace gold as a material for wedding vows exchange.
(The words and sentences are taken from official certificates, religious texts, social media comments and marital adds)
Yes, but only if… gold – antidote project), 2022, outdoor scrolling yellow Led board.
Using light as an attempt to replace gold as a material, for wedding vows exchange.
(The words and sentences are taken from official certificates, religious texts, social media comments and marital adds)

Let them all know (gold – antidote project), 2022, scrolling phone video of a google search engagement outdoor lights decoration services.
In some households in the UAE, there is still the tradition to decorate with yellow lights the exterior of the parental house of the bride-to-be, as an announcement of the engagement to the community.

I didn’t have a deep personal interaction with the Arab world before coming here, even though I was living for many years in a very mixed-culture neighborhood in Paris with all kinds of descendants from different parts of the world including Arab countries. But as a child in Cali – Colombia, I remember loving the delicious “comida árabe” cooked by my grandfather’s second wife, a descendant of one of the Lebanese families that had established in my city around the late XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century.

Yes, No, Yes, No (gold – antidote project), 2022, outdoor scrolling yellow Led board
Using light as an attempt to replace gold as a material, for wedding vows exchange.

Deal (gold – antidote project), 2022, outdoor scrolling yellow Led board.
Using light as an attempt to replace gold as a material.

All the stages of our existence are celebrated by some kind of ritual and most of the time are accompanied by a “precious” artifact, a jewel, a body ornament, or a body transformation, but only 3 of the vital events concern civil records.
Birth, Marriage, and Death have economic implications that matter to families and the state.
In many wedding agreements, there is a monetary component arranged by both parties or families.
Traditions like the Dowry, Mahr, las arras matrimoniales, and on the other hand tax advantages, inheritance, insurances, divorce agreements, and prenups, are a few examples of how the monetary aspect is inevitably attached to a love union.

“Being born in a country that has been stigmatized and reduced to a certain imaginary spread by the world media, I have promised myself to never assume anything about a place I haven’t experienced personally, but to be honest, I had mostly been exposed to the Bling side of Dubai so I was determined to discover the city through another perspective. I had been exposed through the cinema and art exhibitions to some of the cultural traditions of the region, but the Arab world is big and diverse and, during all the years that I had been away from home, I was more preoccupied to inform myself about Latin American arts and culture as I was trying to stay connected to my own roots. The fact that the Emirates has such a variety of nationalities has given me the opportunity to discover not only the local traditions but also the South Asian culture so unknown to me too.”

Ana’s goldsmith bench, 2021
Photo © Andrea Salerno J.

Abrazo esquivo (Replica project), 2021
In December 2020, Bayt Al Mamzar, a cross-disciplinary art space and art studios in Dubai, hosted a view of the work in progress of the Replica project. The starting point was a pre-Columbian Alcarraza Calima from 1600 BCE that belongs to the Gold Museum in Cali – Colombia
Abrazo esquivo (Replica project), 2021, children t-shits, polyester filling

“Coming to Dubai was completely unexpected for us as a family. My husband got an opportunity with his company in 2020 just before the Covid-19 pandemic. I was sad to leave Paris, because It had taken me so long to adapt to such an amazing but not always easy city, and after 13 years I was finally feeling “established”. But when the pandemic hit I was really grateful for the opportunity of a new adventure. We said yes without knowing much, so I started looking around the net about what was going on with the arts in the UAE. Before moving, I did one short trip in February 2020 and visited several art institutions and galleries and remember feeling relieved finding a variety of interesting places and programs taking place. I felt I would be nourished by art from lands I didn’t know. The fact that the fields of art seem less “categorized” than in France, made me feel that there were possibilities for introducing my niche practice of contemporary jewelry into the wider arts spectrum, but while being here I had the opportunity to go back to study and I have found myself exploring all kinds of different mediums and formats, so my practice is changing and I’m embracing that process.”

Abrazo esquivo (Replica project), 2021, plaster casting

Topographical bodies (Replica project), 2021, 50 layers of thin cotton fabric

Inspired by the “molas” technique developed by the Embera tribes in Colombia and Panama, the layers of thin cotton are stitched together, and the silhouette is cut and “peeled”

“I guess the biggest surprise I had in arriving in the Emirates was my connection with the landscape. Being born in the tropics where the flora and fauna are so abundant I never thought the desert would have such an impact on me. My work has always been more about the relationship between people and the objects that surround them in a very domestic sphere. While working mostly with “natural” materials, nature itself or the animal world has not been directly explored in my pieces before. I think being around for years of what is considered a “rich nature” was so normal to me, that I was not looking at it anymore, while here a single tree in the desert catches all my attention. Trained as a goldsmith I guess I’m attracted to what is rare. Also, the fact that there are people from so many origins practicing their own faith and cultural traditions in a concentrated amount of land is very interesting and inspiring to me.
In my work, I explore the different rituals and objects that accompany us in the celebration of being, from birth to death and the imprints that we leave behind us.”

Prescence – absence (Replica project), 2021, photography print on archival matte paper

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Seba Kayan

madadpoor — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 07:50:35 +0000

Photo Piero Chiussi

Seba Kayan, b. Vienna, Austria.

Seba Kayan is a viennese DJ and artist. Her music has a forensic, political and metaphorical approach. By digging into various music archives she collects lost pieces. In her musical spectrum, techno meets Anatolian sounds. A binary vision of an occidental vs. oriental world is not aimed to be created, but both cultures are tried to be embodied and become interwoven. By seeking the past in archives, an imagination of tomorrow is getting shaped into a hybrid music. SoundCloud

As of January 2022

Carpet Concert is an idéa and space, to create sounds, music and new unthought spaces beyond the western knowledge and cosmology. It is a new born event series that combines the occidental and the oriental world in a new identity and hybridity. Read more

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Fanni Futterknecht

madadpoor — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 07:49:33 +0000

Fanni Futterknecht, b. 1979, Vienna, Austria.

Her artistic work adopts a position that spans media, ranging between video, performance and installation. In her works she reflects on sociological and social questions, converting them into poetic interpretations. In spatial and plastic translations, and by means of language, the artist works on the construction and deconstruction of scenarios and the questioning of the media employed.

As of January 2022

POWER TO THE UNSPOKEN, Solo Exhibition, Soma Lieu d’Art Hybride, Marseille, 2020

This exhibition is showcasing recent works of Fanni Futterknecht exploring the relation between writing, speaking, and drawing. Engaging with social concepts such as the “I” and the “We” and their interaction, it deals with questions concerning the rhetoric of protests and demonstrations. The video documentary work “We will not let you go”, explores the subject constructions within our European society and depicts both moments of perceived commonality and the isolation of the individual. The focal questions of the project are the visualization of intra-lingual and hierarchical power structures, dynamics, and modes of expression as well as the symbolic appropriation of space and social control.

In addition to this, the artist is also showcasing a series of drawings that Futterknecht created in an attempt to transcribe/translate certain terms into abstract and poetic scribbles. The exhibition aims to set a starting point for Fanni’s residency at Soma and her upcoming project researching the expression and communication of written and non-verbal language.

Everyday Heroes, Solo exhibition curated by Mika Maruyama, Raumstation Vienna 2019/20

In her solo exhibition, Everyday Heroes, Fanni Futterknecht reflects the role of virtuality, as an “ideal“ reality and a growing substitute for everyday life as perceived within Japanese Society. By combining daily sceneries, routines, and functions put into relation to a fictional imaginary space of mind inspired by Anime narratives, the exhibition will be showcasing her recent photo, video as well as installation works produced during her stay in Tokyo.

Futterknecht’s interest is in exploring an alternative interior world where people can feel closer and more secure than reality, especially within contemporary Japanese culture and society. She has employed archetypes and abstraction in her previous works, which also commonly applied to Japanese visual communication including anime and manga. From that Futterknecht was drawn into the visual and cultural aesthetics in Tokyo after she experienced at first hand a large number of advertisements and tropes distributed through the public space, which employed visual characters of anime and manga. She has taken her interests in these representations of anime and manga, distributed as they are throughout Japan, rather than the art forms in themselves. After researching and exploring the world of the “Otaku“ scene around the representations, the artist investigates how people inhabit different imaginations in everyday life while performing their social norms. Those worlds imagined by the artist are not merely projected to everyday life in Japan, but intimate a wider significance, encompassing the myriad of visual images in advertisements, propaganda, and rebellion movement around the world.

WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO, Performance Nordbahnhalle Vienna Art Week brut Wien, Vienna 2019

In the performance WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO, artist Fanni Futterknecht stages tableau-like situations and performative visual moments together with a group of performers in the Nordbahn-Halle. These sequences and pictures are based primarily on media images of protests, demonstrations, and manifestations. By using graphic text fragments and minimalist performative actions, Futterknecht and her performers abstract these ideological moments and transfer them into choreographed poetic scenes, formed by moving, standing, or lying bodies in the space.
WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO explores the subject constructions within our European society and depicts both moments of perceived commonality and the isolation of the individual. The focal questions of the project are the visualisation of intralingual and group hierarchical power structures, dynamics, and modes of expression as well as the symbolic appropriation of space and social control. Holding up plates and signs, the performers repeatedly form new groups of “soundless speakers”, inviting the observers to listen to their own voices and thereby become readers.

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Tarlan Lotfizadeh

madadpoor — Sat, 20 Nov 2021 11:39:30 +0000

Tarlan Lotfizadeh, b. 1984.

Tarlan Lotfizadeh is an interdisciplinary artist who was born into a small family in the midst of the Iran–Iraq war. As a teenager, she found great interest in the subject of physics, which led her to studying physics in the university and receiving a BSc in solid-state physics in 2006. During her university years, Lotfizadeh started practicing analog photography and learned to develop black and white photos in a dark room.
Spending long hours in a dark room, gazing at images coming to life, under a red-tinted light, alongside developing found photographic films and making prints of them was more than enough to make her utterly keen on pursuing art with more intensity. It also inspired her to carry on with studying art history, with a focus on contemporary art theories and critical review.
Additionally, majoring in physics has equipped Lotfizadeh with a perspective that is traceable in her art projects. Each project unfolds itself to her in a manner of problem-solving. For each project, she spends hours and days researching and studying different aspects of the subject; she uses archives, statistics, and found objects in her works.
The progress and how each project evolves is very important to her. As each project unfolds, she tends to focus on choosing the language that can perfectly translate her work, which is why her projects are carried out in a variety of media. Lotfizadeh does not limit herself to any specific medium. Also, she is very particular about choosing the details of her works.
As she goes through her subjects, she tends to process them through the lens of her own experiences, which gives her projects an autobiographical characteristic.
Since 2013, Lotfizadeh has participated in several local and international exhibitions and festivals. Website | Instagram

Probably Approximately 1.303.050 Times

Gallery location on Google Maps

Gallery plan

Hallway is a room used to connect other rooms.

I think the fear of amnesia has always been the most terrifying fear in my life. For me, the fear of forgetting a memory of something can be even more frightening than the actual loss of something. I assume that places have an immortal memory, unlike our imperfect and incomplete memory. Places remember every single thing with all its useless details, say, forever. Places are filled with memories.
Sounds.
Stories.
Places are filled with secrets. Hallways are strange places. Although they are not supposed to have a specific function, their existence is unavoidable. No matter where you go, you have to pass through them. Somehow it is like life itself, you pass through it hoping to get to a much better place.

Turning the lost parts of stones (NO-THINGS) to actual THINGS

Brass Casting

Metals density table
I used documents, tables, essays and did some research on erosion of this specific kind of stone to come to a formula to give me an estama- tion of how many people have just passed by this hallway during this 105 years.

There was a box of those missing parts of the ground casted in brass and also a notebook of all the documents, essays, tables, the progress and also the formula.

Probably Approximately 1.303.050 Times, 2019, Installation view of the group exhibition, In/Ja Gallery, Tehran Iran, Curated by Mohammad Hossein Emad

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