ART-PRESENTATION:On Building Nations
The thematic double exhibition “On Building Nations” by Mahmoud Khaled and Szabolcs KissPál revisits the notion and complex mechanisms of the construction of national identities. Both artists come from complicated political contexts (Egypt and Hungary) where their work is highly influenced by social surroundings that are in flux and in turmoil.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art Archive
The work of Mahmoud Khaled and Szabolcs KissPál, investigates past histories, engaging viewers in rethinking our current global conditions in which questions at the international level challenge the narratives of national constructs, radically changing the relation between Mahmoud Khaled’s site-specific work under the title “The New Commission for an Old State”, that bears formal and conceptual similarities with a memorial, provides the architectural frame for the complex narrative of the artist’s new body of work. Khaled’s research-based artistic strategy focuses on iconic artifacts of the Egyptian context. The first is a gated summer resort in Alexandria called Maamoura, built by the state, shortly after Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power, to accommodate the new elite of the post-1952 Egypt. The second is a 1961 film by Youssef Chahine titled “A Man in My Life”, the film is a relatively unknown work within Chahine’s filmography, started production in Maamoura a few months after it officially opened in 1959, and a landmark text titled “Maamoura’s Victim”s written by Judge Hassan Jalal who was a harsh critic of the Egyptian monarchy. Khaled’s new body of work likewise metaphorically touches upon these themes, by utilizing building materials such as glass and marble, mixed with photos, texts, screenshots, murals, and online found videos, all presented together within a staged memorial-like installation. “From Fake Mountains to Faith (Hungarian Trilogy)” is a docu-fiction project by Szabolcs KissPál, This project is in line with the artist’s previous works that investigate political communities not as inherited or essentialist but rather as complexly constructed entities. Her exhibition comprises two videos “Amorous Geography” (2012) and “The Rise of the Fallen Feather”, (2016) and an installation that presents a fictitious museum setting “The Chasm Records” (2016). These works establish interconnections within a larger historical and cultural framework between the three major elements of the above-mentioned philosophy: the symbolism of the “ethnic landscape” and political geography, the romantic historiography of national myths of origin, and Turanism as a re-emerging form of political religion.
Info: Curators: Edit Molnár & Marcel Schwierin, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Katharinenstr. 23, Oldenburg, Duration: 19/8-23/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 14:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.edith-russ-haus.de
