090308: Kunsthalle Wien project space: Mahrem

Kunsthalle Wien project space: Mahrem - Notes regarding the veil Veil fights A journalist working for the Austrian Daily “Die Presse” was irritated that women wearing chadors were overcrowding downtown Vienna last August. They all seemed to him as if “somebody had wrapped them into a bale of cloth with only a slit left open for their eyes”. To him this attire looked rather “repulsive, if not obscene”. And just a few days ago a witness was barred from court because her chador prevented the jury from seeing her mimicry. There is no comparable piece of clothing that is ideologically and emotionally as charged as the chador. The current exhibit “Mahrem (Turkish for: secret, discrete, confidential) - Notes regarding the veil” is not interested in defending the chador. But by displaying works created mainly by female artists from Islamic countries who now live in the West, the exhibit gives experts the opportunity to have their say in this sensitive and important debate. There are numerous exciting pieces of art to be seen: Nezaket Ekici created a “compulsive veil fight” in which she clears her face of the headscarf and the modified fashion store advertisement by Shahram Entekhabi, shows the transformation of a woman’s scanty clothing into a chador, while a man’s head is completely covered with paint; the latter insinuating how American authorities treat prisoners. Kutlug Ataman’s “Women Who Wear Wigs” is displayed as is Mandana Moghadamm’s sculpture made of 40 braids. But in any case this exhibit definitely contributes substantially more to the “headscarf-debate” than some journalists do. Kunsthalle Wien project space 1040 Vienna, Karlsplatz/Treitlstrasse 1-3, until 16.03.08

Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville

090308

Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz
1040 Wien, Karlsplatz/Treitlstraße 2
Tel: +43 1 52189-0
Email: office@kunsthallewien.at
http://www.kunsthallewien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 11-19, Do 11-21 h

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