I see no God up here by Mark Grootes is a new installation of 4 videos, weaving a narrative around the Old Testament monster Ziz and the importance of ‘the skies’ in recent global histories. Ziz, with Leviathan and Behemoth, is part of a trinity of monsters, the latter two synonymous with power and empire, as well as megalomania and the grotesque. Countries that expanded via land routes were written about as ‘Behemoth’, the king of the mammals, while sea trading countries as ‘Leviathan’, the king of the fish. Since the era of the USSR - USA Space Race, the third monster, Ziz, king of the birds, has come out of its obscurity. Controlling technology and media from the skies above, Ziz orbits the world as a battery of satellites transmitting waves of information and control. ‘I see no God up here’ is the first chapter in an ongoing series about the mythical creature, offering yet another world-historical meditation.
Listening through the cracks
28september 2022
-16december 2022
Beursschouwburg, Rue Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28, Brussels, Brussels-Capital 1000, Belgium
Free
Description
*** English ***
The exhibition zooms in and out of an unruly gathering of voices, imagining what some of those confabulations might sound like. There is some gossip, rumors are circulating, traveling through time and space. We move through fiction-telling and coded patterns, voices that shape (other) narratives while questioning the frame of proverbial tales, imaginaries, myths and memories. The ground is shaking beneath the multitude, opening up cracks through which testimonies are distorted, memories are glitched, myths are re-written. Listening through the cracks is an invitation to imagine different relations to time, embodying multifaceted future tenses and delving into the rhythms of an unwritten story. Born in Casablanca, Ghita Skali studied at Villa Arson in Nice (France) and attended the post-graduate programs of the Fine Arts academy in Lyon in 2016 and De Ateliers in Amsterdam from 2018 until 2020. Ghita Skali’s work takes as an initial impulse investigations around anecdotes which appeared in the media and have been later forgotten and / or erased. For example: the construction of an Eiffel Tower in Fez in Morocco, the imprisonment of a spy duck in Cairo, a suspicious cardiological device invented by the king Hassan II, the donkey tails of Rita McBride's sculpture stolen by the inhabitants of Monchengladbach in Germany or the declaration in 2014, of an Egyptian general of the Army pretending he invented a miraculous machine curing Aids. These intrigues and anecdotes left only fleeting traces but they reveal power relations based on mythologies, the reification of fictions and assumptions. They manifest many systems of belief and authority but also irony. Ghita Skali borrows among others the codes of the street interview, the conference, the documentary, the guided tour or the medical congress. In her approach, it is less a question of truth of the anecdote than to map out all the possible ramifications of this narration, the contradictions and dead ends of the many rumors that made it.https://www.ghitaskali.comhttps://www.instagram.com/ghita_skaliWorking nomadically between the Middle East, Europe, and North America, and currently based in Berlin, Basma al-Sharif - an artist and filmmaker of Palestinian heritage - explores cyclical political histories and conflicts. In films and installations that move backward and forward in history, between place and nonplace, she confronts the legacy of colonialism and the experience of displacement with satire, doubt, and hope.https://imanefares.com/artistes/basma-al-sharifGolnesa Rezanezhad is a visual artist and researcher based in Ghent. She works with various artistic mediums like drawing, painting, photography, and textile. She works through craftwork, mainly the one practiced by women, to look into women’s choices, everyday performances, and belongings. In recent years she has conducted a research practice in northern Iran with women rug weavers. Since rug and carpet weaving in Iran has been the main export of the country for a long time, especially in the pre-oil economy, understanding the practice and imaginations around rug weavers is a way for her to challenge the many misrepresentations about them and their craft. Golnesa has presented her research and artistic practice in various international academic and art institutes including Iran, the USA, Belgium, the UK, Austria and Portugal, among other places.https://cargocollective.com/golnesarezanezhadphoto credit: Ghita Skali
*** Français ***
Ghita Skali (Casablanca, Maroc, 1992) est actuellement en résidence à De Ateliers (Amsterdam, Hollande), après avoir étudié à la Villa Arson (Nice) et aux Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Ses projets se nourrissent d’anecdotes apparues dans les médias, puis occultées, qui révèlent des relations au pouvoir fondées sur des mythologies et reflètent des systèmes de croyance et d’autorité tout autant qu’elles expriment l’ironie. Il s’agit moins de distinguer la rumeur de la vérité que de cartographier les ramifications possibles et les contradictions qui l’ont fabriquée. https://www.ghitaskali.comhttps://www.instagram.com/ghita_skaliBasma al-Sharif, artiste et cinéaste d’origine palestinienne, travaille entre le Moyen-Orient, l’Europe et l’Amérique du Nord. Working nomadically between the Middle East, Europe, and North America, and currently based in Berlin, Basma al-Sharif—an artist and filmmaker of Palestinian heritage—explores cyclical political histories and conflicts. In films and installations that move backward and forward in history, between place and nonplace, she confronts the legacy of colonialism and the experience of displacement with satire, doubt, and hope.As Eyal Sivan once commented: “Basma al-sharif’s work makes the claim for a generation of young Palestinian internationalist artists that the Palestinian perspective is in fact stronger than the metaphor of Palestine. This notion of a Palestinian perspective, of a gaze steeped in History and splintered by geography, means refusing to be enslaved, refusing to be merely a support for projection but instead providing a critical reflection on the nature of this projectionÀ travers des films et installations qui explorent tant le passé que le futur, elle examine des histoires et des conflits politiques qui refont surface de manière cycliques, qui existent entre le lieu et le non-lieu. À travers ces mouvements incessants, elle confronte l’héritage du colonialisme et l’expérience du déplacement avec un regard qui mêle satire, doute et espoir.https://imanefares.com/artistes/basma-al-sharifGolnesa Rezanezhad is a visual artist and researcher based in Ghent. She works with various artistic mediums like drawing, painting, photography, and textile. She works through craftwork, mainly the one practiced by women, to look into women’s choices, everyday performances, and belongings. In recent years she has conducted a research practice in northern Iran with women rug weavers. Since rug and carpet weaving in Iran has been the main export of the country for a long time, especially in the pre-oil economy, understanding the practice and imaginations around rug weavers is a way for her to challenge the many misrepresentations about them and their craft. Golnesa has presented her research and artistic practice in various international academic and art institutes including Iran, the USA, Belgium, the UK, Austria and Portugal, among other places.https://cargocollective.com/golnesarezanezhad
*** Nederlands ***
Ghita Skali heeft het verspreiden van geruchten tot kunst verheven. Haar werk begint vaak bij anekdotes die kort in de media verschijnen, zoals: de bouw van een Eiffeltoren in Fez (Marokko), de opsluiting van een spionerende eend in Caïro (Egypte), en een verklaring van een Egyptische legergeneraal die beweerde dat hij een machine had uitgevonden om aids te genezen. Deze verhalen laten niet alleen de rol van fictie in de politiek zien, ze tonen ook hoe ironie en verzinsels kunnen worden gebruikt buiten het domein van de kunst.Eén van de werken in deze expo is The Invaders, een video die ze in 2021 maakte in opdracht van het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In de jaren negentig maakte het Franse comedytrio Les Inconnus een parodie op de populaire sci-fi-televisieserie The Invaders. In hun versie waren de indringers geen aliens maar migranten. Skali maakte op haar beurt weer een remake van deze parodie. Bij haar is de wereld omgekeerd. Migranten trekken in grote getalen vanuit Europa naar het zuidelijk halfrond, waar ze auto’s wassen of op de markt werken, en door de lokale bevolking met afkeer en angst worden begroet.Ironische omkering is een strategie die Skali vaker toepast. Zo zaagde ze in 2020 een stuk ‘beslissingshout’ uit de vloer van de directiekamer van het Amsterdamse kunstinstituut De Ateliers en stuurde dat naar een inheemse stam in Marokko; een omkering van het gebruik dat objecten uit Afrika naar Europa worden gebracht. Zo verspreidt ze niet alleen bestaande geruchten, ze doet zelf ook actief aan mythevorming.https://www.ghitaskali.comhttps://www.instagram.com/ghita_skaliBasma al-Sharif is kunstenaar en filmmaker van Palestijnse afkomst die werkt tussen het Midden-Oosten, Europa en Noord-Amerika. Momenteel verblijft ze in Berlijn. Basma onderzoekt terugkerende politieke conflicten en geschiedenis. In films en installaties stelt ze de erfenis van het kolonialisme en ballingschap aan de kaak met satire, twijfel en hoop.https://imanefares.com/artistes/basma-al-sharifGolnesa Rezanezhad is a visual artist and researcher based in Ghent. She works with various artistic mediums like drawing, painting, photography, and textile. She works through craftwork, mainly the one practiced by women, to look into women’s choices, everyday performances, and belongings. In recent years she has conducted a research practice in northern Iran with women rug weavers. Since rug and carpet weaving in Iran has been the main export of the country for a long time, especially in the pre-oil economy, understanding the practice and imaginations around rug weavers is a way for her to challenge the many misrepresentations about them and their craft. Golnesa has presented her research and artistic practice in various international academic and art institutes including Iran, the USA, Belgium, the UK, Austria and Portugal, among other places.https://cargocollective.com/golnesarezanezhad
Date info
2022-09-28: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-09-29: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-09-30: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-01: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-04: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-05: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-06: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-07: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-08: 17:00:00 - 23:00:00
2022-10-13: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-14: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-19: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-20: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-21: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-22: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-10-26: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-27: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-28: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-10-29: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-11-02: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-03: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-04: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-05: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-11-09: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-10: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-12: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-11-16: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-17: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-18: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-19: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-11-23: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-24: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-25: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-11-26: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-11-30: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-01: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-02: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-03: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-07: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-08: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-09: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-10: 13:00:00 - 18:00:00
2022-12-14: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-15: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
2022-12-16: 13:00:00 - 17:00:00
Tickets
Free