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| [2006-03-09] 카이로 비엔날레 (International Cairo Biennale of Art) |
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| 아트투어 |
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1) 국가 : 이집트
2) 주소 : 카이로, 이집트
http://www.coartnews.co.za/html/frame9.html
3) 장소 : Zamalek의 Art's Akhnaton 갤러리
4) 전시
- 제7회 이집트 비엔날레
․ 전시기간 : 1998. 12 -
․ 큐레이터 : Joseph Kosuth (미국)
․ 전시특징 : 다른 비엔날레와 달리 카이로 비엔날레는 AICA (국제 미술평론가 협회)에서 선정된 심사위원들이 뽑은 젊은 작가들에게 주는 UNESCO상이 있다는 것이다.
특히 이번 비엔날레 시작 다음날 있었던 미국과 영국군의 이라크에 대한 일방적인 무차별 공격은 아랍뿐만 아니라 이집트인들에게도 큰 충격을 주었고, 이는 비엔날레 심포지엄과 토론에도 많은 영향을 미쳤다.
그러나 아프리카, 아시아, 유럽, 아메리카의 다양한 문화와 사고를 공유하기 위한 심포지엄과 작가들을 위한 행사 등 이집트 당국의 상당한 지원도 큰 효과를 발휘하지 못한 채 카이로 비엔날레는 큐레이터들의 엄중한 선정기준에서가 아닌 일부 무분별한 작품 선정의 결과로고전하기도 했다.
The Cairo Biennale: A prize for SA
By Emma Bedford
Not only was South Africa represented at the Seventh International Cairo Biennale which opened late last year, but Berni Searle brought home a Unesco award. Unlike the Biennale prizes, the Unesco prizes were awarded specifically to young artists.
First prize went to the Egyptian brother and sister team of Amal and Abdel-Ghani Qenawi whose enormous, other-worldly metal tunnel and hydroponic dome seemed at once a massive seed incubator and a means of extraterrestrial communication. Second prize was awarded to Berni Searle for a photographic installation exploring aspects of her identity. Third prize was shared. Marwan Rechmaoui from Lebanon produced resin, wire and plaster structures reminiscent of the raw, exposed skeletons of bombed buildings which implicate the viewer in their reflective glass surfaces, while Chilean artist Arturo Ignozio Tapia's huge crates packed with rows of submachine guns and stamped "made in the USA" are indictments of American aggression.
Searle's installation Red, Yellow, Brown consists of three life-size photographs of her supine body covered in paprika, turmeric and cloves. This work from the 'Colour Me' series explores the racial classification "coloured" by which she was defined under apartheid legislation. The term remains contentious and continues to be debated in post-apartheid politics, particularly in the Western Cape. According to Searle in a pamphlet produced for the Biennale, she covers her body in various colours "in an attempt to resist any definition of identity which is static". The use of spices in her work refers to the trade in commodities via the Cape Dutch colony in the 17th century which was inextricably linked to the history of slavery. Central to her work is the consideration of gender.
As a woman exploring issues around being black in a post-apartheid context, Searle was the ideal choice for Cairo. Her heritage, by which she can claim ancestry from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Germany and England, made it patently clear to many that there is no way that we can claim any regional, cultural or religious exclusivity. For Berni, visiting Cairo was like a pilgrimage that allowed her to explore the rich diversity of her heritage in Arab and Muslim traditions.
Egypt's relationship to Africa was an issue that generated debate. According to Egyptian artist Adel El-Siwi, "the representation of African artists and curators at the biennale ?allowed Egypt, for the first time, to open a true dialogue with African art, enabling us to conceive of new dimensions for ourselves, beyond our relationship with the West" (quoted in Al-Ahram Weekly). While the presence of African artists and symposium delegates must be celebrated, the paucity and poor quality of some of the work from Africa indicates that channels of communication between Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa need to be developed and strengthened.
In contrast to the Unesco judges, the Cairo Biennale judges, including Okwui Enwezor, artistic director of the second Johannesburg Biennale and recently appointed director of Documenta XI, awarded prizes to esteemed artists such as Joseph Kosuth, Mona Hatoum and Nancy Spero.
Kosuth's installation was one of the most beautiful and epigrammatic works to be seen. On the greyish-green walls of the Centre of Art's Akhnaton Gallery in Zamalek was written the text: "What does it mean?" Repeated in the five languages associated with Egypt - hieroglyphics, classical and contemporary Arabic, English and French - the questions are reflected, along with the visitors, in the mirrored doors along one wall. Probably the single question most often asked in relation to art, and more so in the case of conceptual art, it also alluded to questions around the meaning of the Biennale itself as well to notions of cross-cultural communication. However, in the context of the air strikes against Iraq, ordered by Bill Clinton the day after the opening of the Biennale, the question took on a chilling significance.
The implications and effects of the bombardment unleashed by combined US/British forces were flashed across every television screen and became the constant topic of conversation in Cairo. Speakers at the symposium made reference to the bombings. American artists and academics repeatedly distanced themselves from them. In light of this, it was impossible to walk into Kosuth's space, see that question and oneself reflected in the mirrors and not be forced in the most profound way to consider one's own position in relation to such global aggression.
Also taking up the theme of war, Lebanese-born British artist Mona Hatoum positioned herself unequivocally. On a huge billboard in the grounds of the Akhnaton Gallery was an image of her face in profile. She is staring at a diminutive soldier standing on the bridge of her nose with a gun pointed at her forehead. Beside this, in huge text, shrieks the message: "OVER MY DEAD BODY". Beyond the billboard is a small room carpeted with prayer mats each depicting a skeleton while a troop of toy soldiers marches relentlessly across the back wall.
However, all was not gloom and doom. The exquisite beauty of Egyptian-born German artist Susan Hefuna's computer-manipulated enlarged photographs seemed to refer both to architectonic abstraction and the decorative traditions of Arab culture such as mashrabias and fabric patterning. In sharp contrast, Swiss artist Heinrich Luber projected images of himself doing a variety of unlikely things with strange forms. Both mind-boggling and hilarious, they seemed to be intended to question the very idea of effective communication.
Nancy Spero's delicate figures disporting themselves across a double-volume wall celebrated the lives of women throughout the ages and in diverse cultures. In the catalogue Nancy Spero: Seventh International Cairo Biennale 1998, Marilu Knode points out that by "evoking the passage of women's lives mostly forgotten in 'official' tales of history based on conquest, war, and power, [Spero] shows us that history can be rewritten".
While the Cairo Biennale presented some exciting works it suffered, in my opinion, from too much ill-considered work, the result of indiscriminate selections made by national selectors rather than according to a tightly framed curatorial vision as was the case in the second Johannesburg Biennale. However it did provide a platform for artists and symposium delegates from diverse cultures within Africa, Asia, Europe and America to meet and exchange ideas.
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