060409: Zentrum Paul Klee: Dream and Reality. Contemporary Art from the Middle East

Zentrum Paul Klee: Dream and Reality. Contemporary Art from the Middle East Vacuum-clean the desert It strikes one as somewhat absurd to speak of contemporary art from Middle East countries or the Orient as many of the invited artists, among them Walid Raad or Lida Abdul have not lived there for a long time. The artists’ work is predominantly determined by their critical relationship to their home country and the interaction between numerous cultures. This is also valid for works by the Swiss artists San Keller or Reto Leibundgut. They spent some time in Cairo as artists-in-residence. The Zentrum Paul Klee is therefore not presenting work from the Middle East, but about the Middle East. There are only a few exceptions, among them Shirin Neshat’s photos, in which the artists avoid clichés and pathos. The works confront glorification with alert and satirical comments. The protagonist in Raeda Saadeh’s videos, dressed in a black chador, vacuum cleans a desert landscape. A similar tragic-comic situation is shown in the video “The Work by Sener Özmen”, in which women pursue a Sisyphean task: what at first looks like they are concentrating on skilled handicraft turns out to be the pointless squashing of bubble wraps. Some works focus on the cruelties of the ongoing conflicts and are visualized with media of fictionalisation: through desires, wishes, and longing, which break out under the political and social circumstances. The artistic confrontation in this exhibit mainly takes place with video and photography. All of the works can be watched while sitting in one of the numerous plastic chairs, some of which offer the highly recommendable audio stations designed by the Bernese music technologist Thomas Burkhalter. However, the superfluous displays showing so-called “everyday objects from the Orient of the 20th century” and the sand dune colouring of the walls constitute a contradictory indoctrination; a rather questionable effect. By Marianne Wagner Zentrum Paul Klee 3006 Bern, Monument im Fruchtland 3, until 16.08.09 www.paulkleezentrum.ch

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

060409

Zentrum Paul Klee
3006 Bern, Monument im Fruchtland 3
Tel: +41 31 359 01 01, Fax: +41 31 359 01 02
Email: info@zpk.org
https://www.zpk.org
Öffnungszeiten: Di - So 10-17 h

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