Al Fadhil

PLAY_gallery for still and motion pictures is proud to present a screening-afternoon on Saturday, January 20 (5pm). On show, a series of works by the Iraqi artist Al Fadhil. The series is entirely dedicated to the Iraqi issue and began with I’m the Iraq Pavilion, a performance proposed at the Biennial of Venice in 2003.

About the artist: “East and West, modernity and tradition, are fatally interwoven in the work of Al Fadhil. In the ‘70s, the Iraqi artist left his country, first moving to Italy and then to Switzerland. In the early ‘90s, the first Gulf War marked permanently his work: since then, it has been characterized by political and social commitment. At times provocatively, at times sarcastically, even solemnly, Fadhil offers his audience a critical look at the often dramatic vicissitudes characterising our time.” Al Fadhil, an artist with multidisciplinary interests (painting, installation, photography, performance, video art), was born in Basrah (Iraq) in 1955. He currently lives in Lugano (Switzerland). He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (Italy). The artist participated to many international art events and workshop residencies; he worked at the “Cité Internationale des Arts” (Paris) in 2000, 2004 and 2005, Dubai Art Symposium 2004, Taipei Art University 2005. He had exhibitions in various venues in Europe and other continents: 2000 / Bonndorf Museum (D); 2003 / Sharjah Biennale (UAE); Venice Biennale, off performance (I); 2004 / Rome University Museum - MLAC (I); 2005 / Emergency Biennale I, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (F); Kuandu Museum, Taipei (TW); 2006 / 5a Biennale dell’immagine, Chiasso; Extracorpi, Galleria Cons Arc, Chiasso (CH); MERZ Project, Kunstverein Bregenz (A)Magazin4; Emergency Biennale (VII), Centre A, Vancouver (Canada); Museo Cantonale d’Arte , Lugano (CH), Talking with Ahmed inside the project What’s New?; Radio sur internet, P. de Tokyo Paris, CCS Paris, MAMCO Geneva; Umwandlung, Berlin (D); Emergency Biennale (IV), Riga Exhibition Hall, Riga (Latvia); The Nightly News, Luxe Gallery, NY (USA) 2007; If you see something say something, Mori gallery, Harbour/Gallery 4a, Sidney/Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown (Australia) 2007.

About the works: Amer & Nasser, 2003 How can one talk about death without showing the dead? Or, experience suffering without seeing the wounds? A possible answer is found in “Amer & Nasser”, a video-gram excerpted from a documentary on the 1991 rebellion of Iraqi people, which turned into a bloodbath: the slow pace of the images allows us not really an observation, and investigation, of the two “martyrs» identity, rather it poses the questions: Why did it all happen, and Where were we? The two blindfolded faces apparently emanate serenity and resignation, but they also hide a terrible anguish. The slow pace of time, This Time, marks the steps of the sentenced ones, and the pushes and shoves of the soldiers, like it had lost its way. The obsessive slowing-down of the movement leads the mind’s way into the maze of the afflicted soul. In front of the camera-spectator, the passage of the brothers led to an army truck, while a somber flute announces the imminent trespass of life into death, looks like one towards the unknown in an unreal atmosphere. Home sweet home, 2006 In the frame of a specific project, during the summer of 2005, Al Fadhil based in Europe, asked his brother Ahmed to take pictures of their parents’ place in Iraq as the life conditions of the people inhabiting the house are reflected in it. To achieve an unbiased transmission of the facts, the artist always prefers to be backed by unprofessional help. And that is again the way he worked on his family’s house. In a dramatic sequence, the pictures tells about the living conditions of a family (the artist’s) that could be the prototype of a society suffering from the consequences of endless wars. With the same images, the video home sweet home was conceived. Back on Earth, 2005 A bullet appears, emptied though of its aggressiveness and consequently turned neutral. From the darkness of the screen/space, it comes forward in a quick succession of movements almost drawing a coil. As the pace slows down, the shape of four bullets become visible. They move away, out of the square in a tense atmosphere and along with menacing noises. It all briefly fades away and the four elements reappears in an almost visceral state; they all meet at the centre and fade again to go back to their initial state. The background is made of magnetic and spatial sounds. The video is hypothesis of escape of the man from himself and his return to an embryonic state. Iraq Diary, 2000/2004 Researching on on Iraqi reality, in 2000 Al Fadhil asked an Italian citizen travelling to Iraq as volunteer to become a sort of additional eye for him by filming anything he would encounter with an out-of-date camera. Out of the eight-hour material delivered back, the artist conceived this seventy-minute documentary.

Al Fadhil
20.01.07, 17:00