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| Image: video still from Symphony, 2012 |
Lawrie Shabibi is pleased to present Symphony a solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Adel Abidin. Curated by Basak Senova, the exhibition opens on 18 March as part of Dubai’s 2013 Art Week and coincides with the artist’s solo exhibition at Maraya Art Centre, a non-profit space in Sharjah dedicated to contemporary art. The exhibition also includes an artwork entitled Warqaa commissioned by United Arab Emirates based Barjeel Art Foundation which expands and develops upon his earlier two correlated works - a video and sculpture-based installation (which lends its name to the title of the exhibition) - first exhibited at Arter, Istanbul in October 2012.
In March, 2012, at least 90 Iraqi students with 'emo'1 appearances were stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad. Abidin takes this single event and transforms it into an imaginative journey that examines death, the soul’s quest for liberation and the tragic price paid in the name of freedom. Taking as his foundation the philosophical and metaphysical writings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Symphony is an homage to these young people and seeks to process the violent effects of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice that exist in many guises all over the world.
The sculpture-based installation features 90 small white doors in the walls, some of them closed, while some open. When the viewer pulls open the doors, small white statues of these young people, resting in peace, come into view on the sliding beds. The video installation portrays the aftermath of the massacre of these young people, the very same statues from the installation depicting the stiff corpses in an evocative painterly scene. A thread connects each of the statues' mouths to the leg of a white dove. The flock of doves flaps their wings in vain, attempting to escape, but are anchored by the weight of death. The fluttering wings form a white cloud in the sky, registering the only movement in the work. The stillness of death is juxtaposed with the frantically flapping wings. The whistling cries and rustling wings of the doves create a soothing yet terrifying white noise.
Abidin will articulate these two works by adding a large-scale sculptural installation and a video piece along with an outdoor photographic work installed on the exterior wall of the gallery. A book accompanies the exhibition with essays by Anthony Downey, Arie Amaya-Akkermans, Basak Senova, Daniella Rose King, Didem Yazici and Nat Muller.
The Barjeel Art Foundation has generously funded the production of Warqaa, 2013. The exhibition has been generously supported by Badr Jafar and Dr. Reem El Mutwalli.
Adel Abidin (1973, Baghdad, Iraq)
Adel Abidin received a bachelor’s degree in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 2000 and a master’s degree in Media and New Media Art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2005, focusing on installation, interactive installations, videos and photography. His multi-media practice explores the complex relationship between culture, politics, and identity. Using a sharp palette of irony and humor, Abidin gravitates towards social situations dealing with elusive experiences and cultural alienation. Abidin uses his cross-cultural background to create a distinct visual language often entwined with sarcasm and paradox, while maintaining his ultimately humanistic approach.
Abidin has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions such as, The Helsinki KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, The DA2 Domus Atrium 2002 Centre of Contemporary Art (Salamanca), The Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Mathaf Museum (Doha), Location One Gallery (New York), the 17th Sydney Biennale, Aksanat (İstanbul), the 10th Sharjah Biennale, and 52nd Venice Biennale where he represented Finland with “Abidin Travels”, a mock travel agency that promotes tourist trips to Baghdad. In 2011, he presented new work in a string of solo exhibitions at Darat al-Funun (Amman), Gallerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris), and Wharf: Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse (Normandy). He also exhibited his critically acclaimed video installation, “Consumption of War”, at the Iraqi Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. He had solo shows at L’Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris) and Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland.
Adel Abidin works and lives in Helsinki.
Basak Senova (1970, Istanbul, Turkey)
Basak Senova is a curator and designer. She studied Literature and Graphic Design (MFA in Graphic Design and Ph.D. in Art, Design and Architecture at Bilkent University) and attended the 7th Curatorial Training Programme of Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. She has been writing on art, technology and media, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions since 1995. Senova is the editor of art-ist 6, Kontrol Online Magazine, Lapses book series, UNCOVERED and Aftermath among other publications. She is an editorial correspondent for ibraaz.org and one of the founding members of NOMAD, as well as the organizer of “ctrl_alt_del” and “Upgrade!Istanbul”. Senova was the curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) and lectured as assistant professor at the Faculty of Communication, Kadir Has University, Istanbul (2006-2010).
Some of her exhibitions and projects include “Conscious in Coma” (Goethe-Institut, Istanbul, 2006), “Rejection Episodes” (Vooruit Kunstencentrum, Gent, Belgium, 2006), “Unrecorded” (Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, 2008), “Soft Borders” (São Paulo, Brazil, 2010), “Aftermath” (Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, 2012), “UNCOVERED. International Nicosia Airport” project (2010-2013, Cyprus) and "The Move. Adel Abidin. Rosa Barba. Runa Islam" (Arter, Istanbul, 2012). Currently, she curates "The Translation" exhibition (Cabaret Voltaire Zurich, 2013) and co-curates the 2nd Biennial of Contemporary Art, D-0 ARK Underground (2013) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Basak Senova lives in Ankara and works in Istanbul.
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