Radar’s top four artist picks at Cairo International Biennal

ART BIENNIAL AFRICA EGYPT

The opening ceremony of the 11th Cairo International Biennale took place on 21 December 2008. Past versions of this state-organised biennial have been slammed by critics:

The 10th edition of the Cairo International Biennale could have very well been the 8th or 9th….(and)once again highlights the division that exists in the local art circuit between the establishment, namely state-sponsored arts institutions including that of the Biennale, and the private or so-called independent art sector. Moreover, like it’s predecessors, a clear lack of curatorial direction in the selection makes the range of works on exhibition seem disconnected from each other as well as from international contemporary art practices from which the Biennale organisers claim to be operating from within.

NAFAS art magazine

We will have to wait for all the reviews to come in before we can determine the consensus view of the 11th edition but, whatevever the outcome, there is interesting art to explore. Here are Radar’s favourites:

• Haruko Yamashita (Japan 1952) – sculptor who has lived in Paris and Italy

• Gulsun Karamustafa (Turkey 1946) – film. She lives in Istanbul, reviewed by Art Forum, Frieze, Art in America Gulsun on wikipedia

• Adel Abidin (Iraq 1973) – film sculpture.  Now  lives in Helsinki. He has exhibited in the Venice Biennale and MOCA Taipei and has been featured in  international publications including Le Monde, Guardian, New York Times www.adelabidin.com

• Kimsooja (Korea 1957) multimedia from video to sewn works, exhibited at Sao Paolo Biennial and Venice Biennale Kimsooja’s website
  

  Lotus

The principles of harmony and oneness are reflected in Kimsooja’s installation Lotus Zone of Zero, 2008, currently housed at Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels through January 18, 2009. The site specific installation consists of approximately 2000 lanterns shaped as lotus flowers. The visual is accompanied by sound in the form of Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants that merge in the center of the space. Honoring a vision of peace, the work embodies the dance between individuality and universality, yin and yang, and a potential future for planet earth.

Evilmonito.com for featured artist review

Find below a complete list of artists from the Asian continent:

Azerbaijan: Adil Yusifov

Bahrain: Waheeda Malullah

Bangladesh: Firoz Mahmoud

China: Qiu Anxiong

Egypt: Adel Amien Al-Siwy, Arman Agoub Gubian, Essam Mohamed Maarouf, Hanafi Mahmoud Khalaf alla. Wael Kamal Wahby Fahmy Darwish

Iraq: Adel Abidin, Ali Assaf El-Gabry, Tamara Nouri

Japan : Haruko Yamashita

Hani Hourani

Jordan: Hani Hourani

Korea: Kimsooja

Kuwait: Shorouk Amin

Lebanon: Khaled Ramadan, Salwa Zeidan

Libya: Ali al-Abani

Palestine: Hani Zurob

Qatar: Salam Al-Malek, Youseff Ahmed

Saudi Arabia: Ahmed Mater Al-Ziad, Fahd al-Hijilan, Faisal Samra

Syria: Buthayna Ali, Sabhan Adam

Turkey: Gulsun Karamustafa

See:

• Cairo Biennial website for more images and bios of artists

More posts about Biennials, emerging artists, sculpture,

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Kimsooja Bottari Truck

Top three Middle Eastern art show treats in Dubai winter 2008

MIDDLE EASTERN ART

A quick glance at three interesting shows in Dubai this autumn throws up a plethora of talent.

 

Huda Lutfi

Huda Lutfi at The Third Line 13 November – 4 December 2008

One of Egypt’s most notable contemporary artists, Huda Lutfi presents her exhibition Zan’it Al-Sittat, an exploration into the city of Cairo, and more specifically, the visibility of women in Egyptian culture and society.

Both historian and artist, Lutfi is a bricoleur. She collects disparate images and manipulates them to re-invent her personal vision of Cairo, its histories and events. In doing so, Lutfi simultaneously comments on the political relevance of her home country, lifting old feminine icons from history and giving them new life by re-contextualising historic time lines, creating hybridised, timeless female figures.

Third Line Gallery

Khosrow Hassanzadeh at B21 11 November to 12 December 2008

Born to an Azerbaijani family in 1963 in Tehran , Khosrow Hassanzadeh spent most of his childhood in museums and cinemas – a refuge from the busy streets of Tehran , where he sold bananas to tourists near the National Museum of Iran. As a teenager he volunteered to fight on the Iran-Iraq front, not expecting that he would stay as a recruit for several years. When he came back from war, having escaped death, he chose a discipline that he always dreamt about: painting and poetry. Since then, Hassanzadeh has exhibited worldwide in leading art galleries and his works adorn the walls of several public collections such as the British Museum , London , The World Bank in Washington DC and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

• B21 Gallery
• Khosrow Hassanzadeh website

 

Faisal Samra at XVA Gallery 27 October – 13 November 2008

‘I started out experimenting on another shape, another support on which to paint.’ Saudi artist Faisal Samra has pulled out pieces that he produced back in 2001 for this latest show. Moving away from a traditional canvas stretched two-dimensionally flat, Samra wraps his canvas around a wire mesh. The canvas itself wrinkles into a leathery skin-like form and, when hung, it takes on the slightly unnerving shape of a human torso. 

• XVA Gallery
• Faisal Samra website
• review and image Time Out

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