Literature

EX-0092 - ABC Art Berlin Contemporary, Berlin. "ABC Art Berlin 2015, Hall B," 16-20 September, 2015, ATHR brings three young artists from Saudi Arabia whose works collectively stem from personal references. The works not only shed-light on social, cultural and political normalcies and practices, but are posed to suggest the necessity of re-questioning the ‘regularity’ that has become inherit within the addressed subject matter of each work. Athr’s participation is also complemented by a private panel discussion on September 17, 2015, hosted by Monika Krauss, and moderated by Bettina Steinbrügge, Director of the Kunstverein Hamburg. The panel participants will include Sarah Abu Abdullah, Mohammed Hafiz, Co-Founder of Athr, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Aarnout Helb, Founder of Greenbox Museum, Amsterdam. Nasser Al-Salem’s work City Nomads is a movingly nostalgic piece that is a drastic departure from the artist’s previous calligraphic work. The subject, one that is close to his heart, is of the nomadic traditions that are forcibly disappearing by the ever-expanding cities and fast-paced modernization. The work comprises of hanging traditional tent flaps (that made-up the entrances of tents) on a number of scaffolds. Each tent-flap is marked with calligraphic verses and indications of modern-day �?tagging�? that geo-records their location. The scaffolds are assembled in a way that force the viewer to explore and discover the tent-flaps within the skeletal structure. The assembly of tent-flaps, a traditional material for constructing the homes of Nomads, lay in stark contrast to the use of scaffolds, a modern day means for constructing buildings. Nasser’s hollow structure alludes to the flimsy and unstable, and appears to both highlight and question the foundation in which culture and tradition will continue to exist or disappear. Sara Abu Abdullah presents Salad Zone, a video installation that showcases disarrayed glimpses of multiple narratives such as that of; familial domestic tensions, a juvenile dream of going to Japan, the tendency to smash TVs in moments of anger, and eating fish. While using scenes from the artist’s surroundings and life in Saudi Arabia, like streets or malls, it never attempts to provide the whole picture, but takes a rhizomatic approach to tell a story of the everyday life. Abdullah Al-Othman: In his work No-Touch Torture, Abdullah explores the human acoustical experience that circulates with the contemporary common sense towards weaponizing music. Through a live performance, which was part of a group exhibition titled, Post Oriental Exhibition, curated by Mo Reda at The Mine in Dubai, UAE [2015], the artist actively experimented with the misuse of music. Abdullah documents the conclusion of his experiment with video installations, an ECG report and a Facebook conversation with a tortured prisoner. His ongoing research is the artist’s attempt to shed-light on human tendencies to manipulate and utilize sound, and its effect on the individual and the wider body of society.. - Other -