An exhibition by the Fotohof
(in the still of the night)
9. 8. – 25. 11. 18
The exhibition (in the still of the night) brings together works that address questions of political power and repression, against a background of global conflicts.
In Ahlam Shibli’s Occupation (2016/17), the town of al-Khalil/Hebron is the pivotal point of a critical analysis of the now long-term state of emergency. The Palestinian artist shows confined urban spaces visibly marked by the forcible division of the town. Paradoxically, the signs of occupation and control – watch-towers, walls, fences, cameras, road blocks – seem to clear the view of the asymmetrical relations between the opposing sections of the population.
With Wüstungen (2016), Anne Heinlein and Göran Gnaudschun tell of places which, due to their location on the inner-German border, were razed to the ground, and their residents forced to “relocate”. Free treatment of the topic, using large-scale photographs, documents, conversations with contemporary witnesses and their own texts, results in an artistic form of historiography, focusing on time and memory as well as on the influence of political interests, power and repression on the individual and his/her identity.
In Control Order House (2011), British artist Edmund Clark shows an extreme form of state control. Since 2005, the British authorities have been permitted to detain suspected terrorists for an unspecified period without concrete evidence. In 2011, the artist was allowed access to a residential property used for this purpose. A photo-documentation of what he found there offers a detailed description of this special form of detention and control.
In Homesick (2014), Syrian artist Hrair Sarkissian takes a model of his parental home in Damascus as the basis for a very personal reflection on his own identity, the war, and a menacing future.
Curated by Peter Schreiner and Nadine Weixler
Information
- Date
- 9. 8. – 25. 11. 18
- Venue
- Fotohof
- Opening
- 9 August at 8 pm
- Duration
- 10 August–29 September 2018
- Opening hours
- Tuesday–Friday 3–7 pm, Saturday 11 am–3pm
Ahlam Shibli
Ahlam Shibli was born in Palestine in 1970. Through a documentary aesthetic, her photographic work addresses the contradictory implications of the notion of home. It deals with the loss of home and the fight against that loss, but also with restrictions and limitations that the idea of home imposes on individuals and communities marked by repressive identity politics.
Website
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
2017 Staring (web commission), Remai Modern, Saskatoon (CA). 2013 Phantom Home, MACBA, Barcelona (ES), Jeu de Paume, Paris; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (PT). 2010 Ahlam Shibli: Trauma, Château de Sédières, Clergoux (FR). Ahlam Shibli: Why did you leave the forest empty!, Darat al Funun, Amman. 2009 Ahlam Shibli: Wydomowienie, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw.
Group exhibitions
2017 documenta14, Athens & Kassel (DE). Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon (CA). The Photographic I, S.M.A.K. Ghent (BE). 2015 la terre nous est etroite, regards croisés sur la palestine, Le 19 CRAC, Montbéliard (FR). Formes biographiques, Carré d’Art, Nîmes (FR). Uncovering History, Camera Austria, Graz (AT). 2014 Progress and Hygiene, Zachęta, Warsaw. We are Living on a Star, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden (NO).
Publications
Ulrich Loock (ed.): Ahlam Shibli: Dependence, Ediciones Originales, Barcelona 2013.
Ahlam Shibli: Phantom Home, exh. cat., Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Jeu de Paume, Paris, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2013.
Ahlam Shibli: Go there, Eat the mountain, Write the past, exh. cat., Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman 2011.
Ahlam Shibli: Trauma, exh. cat., Peuple et Culture Corrèze, Tulle 2010.
Adam Szymczyk (ed.): Ahlam Shibli: Trackers, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Basel, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2007.
