RE-DIRECTING: EAST. Conversations # 10:
Mohamed Hussein, Iraq
Mohamed on strike, I am performing // In between Catherine David and Jonathan Watkins Go yOur Own Way
July 31, 2013 at 6 p.m. he begins on the other side of the territory, Laboratory Building CCA
The presentation are held in English.
RE-DIRECTING: EAST Conversation # 10: Mohamed Hussein from CSW TV.
Mohamed Hussein: Mohamed on strike, I am performing // In between Catherine David and Jonathan Watkins Go yOur Own Way
This situation is identical to the place where he comes from
The soldiers indicate the boundaries of the new territory
To the people in there everything that is happening at the stage is perfectly normal
It is the outside world that is difficult to understand
It is an endeavour to scan the territorial topography between an unrealised research project INBETWEENITY 2004, co-curated with Catherine David, Witte de With, Rotterdam, and the current show WELCOME TO IRAQ 2013, the Pavilion of Iraq at the 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, demonstrating the tremendous challenge faced by an Iraqi intellectual forced to perform within the territory determined by the totalitarian regime and globalisation. Dismantling the two projects may outline the impossibility of finding a way out.
Description: he sought to capture a more realistic image of the Nude Ladies and Gentlemen. Please take your seats, as the presentation is about to begin.
IN-BETWEENITY is a work program that occupies a place between theory and practice. It will include seminars, publications, performances and presentations of works by various Iraqi cultural practitioners – visual artists, architects, film-makers, performers, musicians, writers, poets and intellectuals, as well as people from the social and political sphere. There will also be a range of workshops that will explore works of art and artistic practice. It was an instalment of Contemporary Arab Representations, long-term project series.
WELCOME TO IRAQ (The Pavilion of Iraq at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia in 2013) hosts a group exhibition curated by Jonathan Watkins comprising works by eleven contemporary Iraqi artists residing in Iraq. Working across a wide range of media, including photography, drawing, painting, video, installation, sculpture, and textiles, they represent two generations of artists from across the country and were selected after many studio visits, other meetings and much careful thinking.
Let’s face it, the main aim of speech is to get the public excited, to make them clap and applaud.
The theatrical bit is an attempt to make it different from all those shows.
Note: The presentation contains images, grammar and spelling mistakes which some readers may find distressing. He thought to leave it the way it came.
Mohamed Hussein is a freelance artist, designer and curator from Baghdad. His practice-based research investigates and questions the boundaries between architecture, design, and fine art. He seeks an adventurous, alternative and even radical approach to what contemporary art and curatorial practices could be. He has received his MA in Curating from Chelsea College, London 2009; BA in Fine Arts, from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad 2006; and diploma from the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad 2000. He has curated a number of shows, interventions, and workshops and participated in artist-in-residence programmes worldwide, set up presentations and lectures. His works have been exhibited at various solo and group exhibitions, including, among others: Rawak Gallery, Baghdad 2007; Baladna Gallery, Amman, Jordan 2007; Iraqi Art Exhibition, Arab World Institute, Paris 2007; Inana Gallery, Baghdad 2008; Artists Books Exhibition, Ten Iraqi Artists, Frankfurt Exhibition International 2009; Orfali Gallery, Amman, Jordan 2010; Environment and Surroundings in Iraqi Art Exhibition, National Museum, Amman 2011; 2011 Three Iraqi Artists Exhibition, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut; Alrwaaq gallery, Bahrain 2012.
