DANICA DAKIĆ
- El Dorado, Giessbergstrasse (2006-2007)
Color slide in light box, 34×47×10 cm, and video projection, 13’39”. Courtesy the artist.
In El Dorado Danica Dakić has worked with underage refugees in Germany, exploring their dreams, thoughts and feelings towards their future. Dakić has previously collaborated with Romani communities in Kosovo and indigenous families in Mexico. Her collaborators participate in writing, staging and performing her works. They explore identity, hopes, dreams and the search for happiness. In El Dorado the artist seeks to empower her participants, rather than presenting her own reflections, and as a result, offers a fresh perspective on migration. Danica Dakić (Sarajevo, Bosnia, 1962) is based in Düsseldorf and Sarajevo.
ALA YOUNIS
- Tin Soldiers (2010-2011)
Installation of 2448 hand-painted metal toy soldiers. Produced in the context of Home Works ‘5, Beirut 2010, and the 12th Istanbul Biennial, 2011.
Courtesy the artist and the Istanbul Biennial.
Tin Soldiers is an installation depicting the nine armies that were implicated in, or part of acts of war in the modern Middle East. The work represent the armies of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey at a ratio of 1:1000 of the actual active troops in 2010. Each figure is hand-painted with details from the factual army uniforms. Toy soldiers have a long history in children’s bedrooms, where games of war were a way of preparing sons of royalty for future rule. Tied to the real armies and conflicts of our time, the toys serve a new purpose. Ala Younis (Kuwait, 1974) lives and works in Amman, Jordan.
ADRIANA BUSTOS
- Leonor y su Ilusión – Yolanda y la Ilusión de Leonor (2008)
- Anabella y su Ilusión – Doris y la Ilusión de Anabella (2008) Photography, Diptych, 125×125 cm
- La Ruta de Patricia (2011)
- La Ruta de Adri (2011) Graphite on canvas, 210×140 cm Courtesy Ignacio Liprandi Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires.
Based on a series of personal interviews at a women’s prison, Adriana Bustos (Bahía Blanca, Argentina, 1965) has developed the series The Anthropology of the Mule. She explores similarities between the use of animals to transport precious metals from Peru to Argentina during Colonial times, and today’s human mules, the women who are used to smuggle drugs from Tacna via Cordoba and Buenos Aires to Europe. Using drawings and carefully constructed photographs of inmates’ lost hopes and dreams, she retells the story of colonialism and capitalism.
NEVIN ALADAG
- Pattern Matching Red (2010) Carpet collage, 75×128cm.
- Pattern Matching (Flowers Red) (2012) Carpet collage 192×112cm. Courtesy the artist and Wentrup, Berlin.
In this work Nevin Aladag combines the traditional craft, patterns and emblems of oriental carpets with the layout and markings of basketball courts. The result is a somewhat bizarre merge of Eastern and Western cultures. Through the series Pattern Matching the artist encourages us to look again at the things we surround ourselves with and their meaning to us. In this work, function and play comes together. Aladag (Van, Turkey, 1972) has gained international attention for her installations, video works and performances. She lives and works in Berlin.
FAYÇAL BAGHRICHE
- The Message (2010)
Video,185’. Courtesy Campagne Première, Paris.
Born in Algeria in 1972, Paris-based artist Fayçal Baghriche grew up navigating between Arab and Western cultures. This work is a remake of the film The Message from the 1970s. Moustapha Akkad directed the original film that tells the story of Islam in two virtually identical versions. Each scene was shot twice, with the same script, scenography, and costumes, but performed in two different languages and with two distinct sets of actors, one from Hollywood and one from Arab cinema. By creating a dialogue between the Arab and American actors, Baghriche’s resampled work tells a new story of representation, cultural differences and similarities.
INES DOUJAK & JOHN BARKER
- Loomshuttles / Warpaths (2010-2015)
45 posters – prints, hand-painted, stamped, 2 index posters, 2 exhibition books. Courtesy the artists.
This ongoing research project is based on 48 textiles that the artists have collected from the Andes. In the Andean region cloth is not only made for practical usage; fabric, colors and patterns are also a medium for communication. The number on each poster, made from woven hair, refers to the text in the books included in the show. This tells the history of textiles and the use of clothes as a means of expression. The artists address the continuing struggles of workers in the clothing industries, and their place at the bottom of the food chain in the global labor market. Ines Doujak (Klagenfurt, Austria, 1959) and John Barker (London, UK, 1948) live and work in Vienna and London. [www.inesdoujak.net/eccentric-archive]
AGNIESZKA KURANT
- Political Map of Phantom Islands (2011)
- Map of Phantom Islands (2011) Pigment prints on archival paper, 69.9×115.6 cm. Courtesy the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo.
On these world maps, the continents are missing, depicting instead the non-existing islands that appeared on various maps as late as the 1940s. Some might have disappeared due to rising sea levels or erosion, or simply been invented by colonial conquerors, as cartographic pranks or even optical illusions experienced at sea. Regardless of the reasons, some of these mystical territories nearly caused real wars. In her works, Agnieszka Kurant (Lodz, Poland, 1978) examines how the immaterial and imaginary can have real political and economic consequences. She lives and works in New York.
- The archive of Phantom Islands (2011) 30 pigment prints on archival paper, 27,9×35,6 cm. Courtesy the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Documenting the origins of these phantom islands, this work presents a collection of 30 descriptions alongside fragments of real historical maps on which each island appeared. The descriptions include accounts of individual territories gleaned from rumors, myth, and real economic and political data.
WALID RAAD
- Footnote III (2014) Composed of seven elements: Wallpaper, three pigmented inkjet prints, one object 3D print plaster composite, white pigment dye. Dimensions variable.
Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg / Beirut.
Walid Raad (Chbanieh, Lebanon, 1967) is a leading contemporary media artist who lives and works in New York. In this work, which is part of the larger project Scratching on things I could disavow, Raad explores how Islamic, modern, and contemporary art in the Arab world is shaped by encounters. He explores how the art, culture, and traditions produced within the region have been affected by the emergence of biennials, art fairs, museums, and galleries. The work was inspired by the decision made by the French museum The Louvre to open a branch in Abu Dhabi.
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