This event is to be
considered a personal action of the artist; the Pergamon
Museum as an institution is not involved.
The action will be documented and a video will be subsequently
released.
Good Morning Babylon
A performance by Al Fadhil
Ishtar Tor, Pergamon Museum, Berlin Germany
9 April 2010 h. 2pm-3pm
If you take away a people’s history, what are they
left with?
Dictator Saddam Hussein, in an awkward measure, had a reproduction
of the famous Ishtar Gate constructed as a museum entrance;
it was an act that intended unfortunately, yet again, to
celebrate, not the beauty of art and the meaning of culture,
but his own personal magnificence and to create a link between
his figure as father of the country and the glorious past
of the region.
Is it possible to survive without memory?
Al Fadhil (a cosmopolitan artist based in Berlin) will
try to respond to this classical question in what he considers
the most suitable way, personally taking part in a significant
act, a public act: to stand (on your feet in one place)
with his hands crossed on his chest, in front of the Ishtar
Gate at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. It is a minimal and
simple act, practically banal, and yet full of meaning and
pathos.
Al Fadhil, in assuming the traditional position of the
deities of Mesopotamia, the artist’s land of origin,
carries out an act of gratitude and of devotion towards
the lands where the first civilizations were born, while
at the same time he tries to awaken a process of awareness
through an act of creative “resistance”. By
“standing in place”, and with a minimum of psychological
projection of his emotional state, he invites us to make
a profound reflection upon the huge disaster and devastation
that has fallen upon Iraq since the official invasion that
began on 9 April 2003, with the military occupation of the
capital, Baghdad.
In balancing the clandestine nature of the event and the
official nature of the institution, a dialectic that has
distinguished the artist in various actions over the last
few years, Al Fadhil proposes a performance that borders
upon the clandestine, a choice that allows him to avoid
official endorsement of the event, and to be present among
the people in the role of a question mark, awakening surprise
and reflection in the casual museum public. The artist will
be dressed entirely in black with a keffiya (the keffiya
is commonly associated with Arab virility) around his neck,
as a symbolic link with Ishtar, the goddess of love and
war to whom the gate is dedicated, and will become in his
immobility a sentinel for peace, a symbol of passive resistance,
but also its opposite, silence that is ready to transform
into active resistance, into action.
To place oneself in front of history as a mute spectator,
to choose immobility in front of tragedy in order to remember
it and bring it as future testimony could seem like a paradox.
But it is precisely from this paradox that Al Fadhil is
moved. Good Morning Babylon is about immobility, and immobility
attracts attention.
Questa è un azione
che rientra in un agire personale dell'artista e il Pergamon
Museum come istituzione non è coinvolto.
L'azione verrà documentata e successivamente verrá
realizzato un videodocumento.
Cosa rimane di un popolo se gli viene tolta la propria storia?
In un goffo tentativo il dittatore Saddam Hussein fece
costruire una riproduzione della famosa porta di Ishtar
come entrata ad un museo; un atto che purtroppo voleva ancora
una volta celebrare, più che la bellezza dell’arte
e il senso della cultura, la sua personale magnificenza
e creare così un collegamento tra la sua figura di
padre della patria e il passato glorioso della regione.
È possibile sopravvivere senza memoria?
A questa classica interrogazione Al Fadhil (artista cosmopolita
con base a Berlino) cerca di rispondere nel modo a lui più
congeniale, praticando di persona un atto significativo,
un’azione pubblica: stazionare (stare in piedi sul
posto) con le mani incrociate sul petto, davanti alla porta
di Isthar del Pergamon Museum di Berlino.
Un’azione minima e semplice, al limite del banale,
ma carica di senso e di pathos. Al Fadhil, assumendo la
posizione tradizionale della divinità mesopotamica,
terra d’origine dell’artista, si predispone
ad un atto di gratitudine e di devozione verso le terre
dove sono nate le prime civiltà, e nello stesso momento
cerca di attuare un processo di sensibilizzazione attraverso
un atto di “resistenza” creativa. L'artista
con questo elementare “stare sul posto” e con
una minima proiezione psicologica del suo stato emotivo,
ci invita ad una profonda riflessione su quel grande disastro
e sulle devastazioni calate sull'Iraq con l'invasione completata
ufficialmente proprio il giorno 9 Aprile 2003, con l'occupazione
militare della capitale Baghdad.
Come sempre in bilico tra la clandestinità dell’evento
e l’ufficialità dell’istituzione, una
dialettica che lo ha contraddistinto in varie prove di questi
ultimi anni, Al Fadhil propone una performance al limite
della clandestinità, una scelta che gli permette
di evitare l’ufficialità e l’idea dell’evento,
per essere presente tra la gente come un punto interrogativo,
destando sorpresa e riflessione nel pubblico occasionale
del museo. L’artista tutto vestito di nero e con la
kefiah (la kefiah è comunemente associata alla virilità
Araba) attorno al collo, in un simbolico collegamento con
Ishtar, la dea dell'amore e della guerra a cui la porta
è dedicata, diventa nel suo immobilismo una sentinella
della pace, simbolo di una resistenza passiva, ma anche
il suo contrario, un silenzio pronto a trasformarsi in resistenza
attiva, all’azione.
Il porsi davanti alla storia come spettatore muto, scegliendo
l’immobilità davanti alla tragedia per rimembrarla
e portare testimonianza nel futuro può sembrare un
paradosso. Ma è appunto da questo paradosso che Al
Fadhil si muove. Good morning Babilonia è stare immobili,
e stare immobili è attirare l'attenzione.
The Iraq Pavilion
at the 53rd Venice Biennale
June 4 - 6, 2009
Giardini, Arsenale and urban space
I Need Love
art communication and survey by Kadhum
curator: Riccardo Lisi
Iraq Pavilion, founded in 2003 during the Venice Biennale
as individual artistic project, presents I NEED LOVE, art
communication by Kadhum, Milan-based artist born in Iraq
(1961).
His performance will be carried out in the entire Biennale
and urban space and will include tools of art communication
and social survey.
A deafening cry has risen since the civilization of man
was born. A sharp cry, but it seems that no ear is able
to perceive it. Love Love Love. Everything was based on
this noble “sentiment”. Upon it were born religions,
novels were written and billions of words were wasted. Life
is born from a simple instinctive gesture of love. The earth
needs the sun to continue to live, the sun also needs the
earth to continue to exist. We can create an endless list
of exchanges of unselfish love, from which a seed becomes
a tree, the bees produce honey having loved a flower. Only
the society of mankind is incapable of applying this natural
concept and has diverted its existence to the reasoned thinking
and away from their instinct. It is the primary need for
all that lives to confirm their existence: “Amo ergo
sum”.
The artist will perform “begging for love”,
with a cardboard bearing the inscription “I NEED LOVE”,
wandering in the Biennale during the opening days. The visitors
will have a questionnaire to be filled out. To the love
request they will answer: I can give:
A handshake / A hug / A kiss / Sex / Money / Nothing / My
life / Other ...
The collected data will be processed also by demographic
and social cluster (age range, sex, domicile nation, ethnical
group, work, and so on). All the collected information’s
will be published on www.artnow.it
where the project is already present in the form of
poll.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Italiano
Iraq Pavilion, istituito nel 2003 durante la Biennale di
Venezia come progetto artistico individuale, presenta I
NEED LOVE, intervento di art communication realizzato da
Kadhum, artista di Milano, nato in Iraq (1961).
La performance sarà eseguita nell’intera area
della Biennale e nello spazio urbano di Venezia e comprende
strumenti di comunicazione e di indagine sociale.
Un grido assordante si alza da quando è nata la
civiltà degli uomini. Un grido forte, ma sembra che
nessun orecchio sia in grado di percepirlo. Amore Amore
Amore. Tutto si è basato su questo nobile "sentimento".
Su di esso sono nate le religioni, si sono scritti romanzi
e si sono sprecate miliardi di parole.
La vita nasce semplicemente da un gesto istintivo d'amore.
La terra ha bisogno dell'amore del sole per continuare a
vivere, e reciprocamente il sole ha bisogno dell'amore della
terra per continuare ad esistere. Si può creare un
elenco infinito di scambi d'amore disinteressato: dal seme
che diventa albero, alle api nel produrre il miele dopo
aver amato un fiore.
Solo la società degli uomini è incapace di
applicare questo naturale concetto ed ha deviato la sua
esistenza verso il pensiero ragionato, allontanandosi dal
proprio istinto.
E' il bisogno primario per tutto ciò che vive ed
indispensabile per confermarne l'esistenza: "Amo ergo
sum".
L’artista eseguirà la performance “mendicando
amore”, con un cartello recante la scritta “I
NEED LOVE" e percorrendo la Biennale durante i giorni
d'inaugurazione. Al pubblico verrà distribuito un
brevissimo questionario da compilare, la cui risposta alla
richiesta d’amore sarà:
Posso dare:
una stretta di mano / un abbraccio / un bacio / sesso /
denaro / niente / la mia vita / altro…
Le informazioni raccolte verranno poi elaborate anche in
base alle caratteristiche demografiche e sociali dei rispondenti
(fascia di età, sesso, nazione di residenza, etnia,
professione, …). Tutte le informazioni saranno poi
pubblicate su www.artnow.it
dove il progetto è già presente in forma di
sondaggio.
info:
info@iraqpavilion.com
info@artnow.it
+39 335 354589
Photo by Max Falsetta Spina 2009
Shifting Identities - (Swiss) Art Now
Curator:Mirjam Varadinis
Kunsthaus Zürich
6.6 - 31.8.2008
Permit F
A performance with a group of refugees
A project by Al Fadhil
With the collaboration of Hayder Almusawi
Saturday August 30th 2008
Starting point: Zürich HB exit Bahnhofstrasse at 2pm
The Swiss confederation is known as a land of asylum. Because
of its neutral policy and its solidarity laws, the land
has hosted in its cantons many people who have left their
countries of origin for political or religious reasons,
or because they belong to ethnic and racial groups. In the
Swiss Parliament, particular decrees were established in
order to regulate the temporary admittance of refugees according
to their situation. The permit granted to the refuge-seekers
falls within category F.
Having sought a refuge in Switzerland, in the hope of having
peace, they have found themselves holding the controversial
class “F” permit, which allows only limited
freedom. According to chapter 11 of article 83, certain
rights are granted to the refugee, but actually these are
rules of control, which often contradict the principles
of transparency and solidarity.
The artist breaks the circle and invites the exiles to
a peaceful and creative public demonstration inside the
museum. Art is a free territory, it offers the possibility
of reflection. Its power conveys a sense of belonging, of
being a citizen of a world without permits and frontiers.
Saturday August the 30th, at 2pm, a group of refugees with
their relatives and friends, from different nationalities
and all with an armband bearing the symbol of the project,
will walk from the Zurich central station, crossing the
Bahnhofstraße, and proceed towards the Kunsthaus.
Each person will carry a sign with a slogan referring to
permit F, the Swiss flag or various symbols of the associations
engaged in the defence of their rights.
Many thanks to:
the inspirer of the project Hayder Almusawi, Lugano
the refugees with permit f and their friends
my counsellor Riccardo Lisi
Franco Marinotti / PLAY platform for Film & Video, Lugano
& Berlin
Daniela and Guido Guidici / ConsArc Gallery, Chiasso
The people at the Museo Cantonale d’Arte di Lugano
TSI Televisione della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano
Giona Mattei, Soccorso Operaio, Lugano
ZBA Züricher Betratungsstelle für Asylsuschende
Giuditta, Lugano
and my teachers, friends and relatives dead or surviving
in Iraq
Further information: www.shifting-identities.ch www.alfadhilhussain.blogspot.com/
info@iraqpavilion.com
An idea, a course of action, an communicative
act based on the reality of the facts. I Repeat A Question
is a legitimate interrogation that seeks its space in our
mind amidst a daily life a in transformation so rapid as to
make us forget our own kind, our neighbours. If the contemporary
world stimulates us continually with its messages and its
communication, there must still exist the possibility of repeating
a question. The same question as always. The world transforms
itself, even Iraq transforms itself, moves in a direction
that is more and more tragic and becomes more and more forgotten
by the world artistic scene, but unforgotten of course by
war profiteers. We would have liked to show an empty petrol-tanker
in dock, entitled “Iraq Issue Pavilion” in this
biennale, but politics wouldn’t allow it, so the only
thing that remains is to repeat the same question: I Repeat
A Question.
