ART CITIES:Barcelona-Aziz Hazara
Born in the province of Wardak, close to Kabul in Afghanistan in 1992, Aziz Hazaraworks across mediums such as photography, video, sound, programming languages, text and multimedia installations. His works in this exhibition feature young boys whom have grown up within a context of violence and war. The actions that Hazara stages with the young boys for the camera explore the relationship between the young people depicted and the distressing places that form their playground.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Fundació Antoni Tàpies Archive
The exhibition “The Restless Echo of Tomorrow” is the result of the Mentorship Grant awarded to Aziz Hazara by the Han Nefkens Foundation in 2019 that aims to support artists in all aspects of production. The exhibition shows three recent works including the critically acclaimed “Bow Echo” (2019), a five-channel video installation that was featured for the first time at the Biennale of Sydney 2020 – in addition to “Rehearsal” and “Eyes in the Sky” (both 2020) both single-channel video works. “Bow Echo” is titled after a dangerous and highly destructive storm. The film depicts five boys as they try to climb onto a rocky outcrop to blow into small, plastic bugles that they are holding. As they fight to complete their task they are battered by the strong winds and intimidating sounds of helicopters and drones close by but out of sight. Though the boys are playing, the physicality and sheer strength of their surroundings gives a sense of the transience and preciousness of life. “Rehearsal” shows one boy carrying a smaller boy on his shoulders. The smaller boy mimes shooting a gun, whilst the boy whose shoulders he is sitting on swivels expressionless from left to right as if a part of the machinery. Whilst this may seem like normal play for the two boys, those familiar with military weaponry will recognize the accuracy and familiarity of the imitation of a Burst Assault Rifle. What is he rehearsing for? Is he a gunner or is he a pawn ? In “Eyes in the Sky” Hazara coopts the optics of surveillance and military reconnaissance as he examines one manifestation of children’s play in contemporary Afghanistan: the transformation of the remnants of war into yet another desert obstacle course. In this film Hazara explores military conflict through the rituals and customs that define and connect many of Afghanistan’s many fragmented and intermingled ethnic communities. Viewed together “Rehearsal” and “Eyes in the Sky” form a diptych of play derived of innocence, raising the questions of what and who is missing from these barren landscapes, and what does it mean for these boys to play ‘war’ when war has surrounded them since birth?
Info: Curators: Sona Stepanyan and Hilde Teerlinck, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Carrer d’Aragó 255, Barcelona, Duration: 3/10/20-24/1/21, Days & Hours: Fri-Sat 10:00-19:00, Sun 10:00-15:00 (Prior registration is required), https://fundaciotapies.org
