Tarek Atoui
Cevdet Erek
Mohssin Harraki
Maha Maamoun
Ossama Mohammed
Otobong Nkanga
Hassan Soliman
Ala Younis
Artists offer history a chance to revisit its mistakes, which can be irretrievable. Using their access to personal and collective historical narratives, artists present viewers with a reflection of what, in their view, demands to be recorded and commented on within the timeframe and context of their work. 'Outre mesure et programmes radio (Maps, Timelines, Radio Programs) is a two-part deliberation on our understanding of the construction of history.
Guest curator: Ala’ Younis, in the framework of La Galerie’s annual residency for curators
Outre mesure et programmes radio (Maps, timelines, radio programmes)
In the framework of the annual residency programme for curators at Noisy-le-Sec,
La Galerie is hosting Ala Younis, a curator from Jordan. Selected by La Galerie’s
board via a call for candidates to achieve her project “Outre mesures et programmes
radio” (Maps, timelines, radio programmes), Ala Younis will be in residence from 13
April to 9 July.
Artists offer history a chance to revisit its mistakes, which can be
irretrievable. Using their access to personal and collective historical narratives,
artists present viewers with a reflection of what, in their view, demands to be
recorded and commented on within the timeframe and context of their work.
“Outre mesure et programmes radio (Maps, Timelines, Radio Programs)” is a two-
part deliberation on our understanding of the construction of history. Basic tools
of interpretation such as maps and personal timelines are here re-invented to
reference a state, or to record the pulse of a society undergoing perpetual change.
The first part is an exhibition project showing artworks that explore
individual positions within larger collectives and construct specific narratives within
more general, shifting social, economic and political contexts. While history is
unmade and rewritten with shapes imposed and disfigurements tolerated, personal
narratives are inherited, lent and borrowed across epochs and generations.
The second part is a series of workshops in which local residents and visitors to the
exhibition are invited to study elements of the exhibits, and experiment with
constructing timelines and maps themselves. The workshops aim to produce sound
pieces in the context of the project to be broadcast on local and web radios during
the period of the exhibition.
The exhibition will open at La Galerie on the evening of May 27, 2011, in the
presence of the artists and contributors to the project. On the same evening, sound
artist Tarek Atoui will present his performance Un-drum 3/Semantic Scanning
Electron Microscope in the open space around La Galerie. Residents of Noisy-Le-Sec
and exhibition guests are invited to share this event.
In the video work Domestic Tourism II (2009), Maha Maamoun looks
through a collection of scenes from Egyptian feature films made against the
backdrop of the Pyramids. She shows different ways in which these icons of the
past are appropriated from the timelessness of the tourist postcard, and re-
inscribed into complex and dynamic narratives of the city.
In problemè 5 (2010–11) Mohssin Harraki illustrates the infinite divisions and
branchings interconnecting hereditary rulers. Each set of sequences is a ruling
family tree different in its shape, length and country of origin, yet can be
interpreted in the light of generational calculations and historical references. The
work also exists in a video version.
Cevdet Erek’s first prototype of the Ruler series was made in Cairo and covers the
period 1974–2007 using a scale of 1cm = 1 year. Since then, Erek has built a
collection of plastic rulers that function as tools for interpreting personal
timelines. The 4th prototype, showing the dates of the foundation of Turkish
Republic and of the 3 coups d'état, was made in Antwerp to no specific scale. In
the video Studio , two hands impulsively beat selected notes from the timeline of
someone’s life. In the context of the project at La Galerie, Cevdet Erek develops a
new prototype for his ruler collection.
Ruler Near, is a time-scale that depicts the years from 1993 to 2030. The
proposed ruler contemplates past and future on the same line, and is produced in
large edition to be shared through the exhibition.) even if you are still looking for
the length and cost of production.
In the film Step by Step (1979), Ossama Mohammed follows the stages of
submission and transformation of the individual mindset from co-existence with
nature towards acceptance of violence. Focusing on the basic education system,
the film portrays young Syrian villagers whose choice is either their parents' hard
farming life or that of a migrant labourer in the city. Instead they choose to join
the army.
Otobong Nkanga started to develop her work in progress Contained Measures of
Tangible Memories in Morocco in 2009. The work and its installation play on the
relativity of meaning and function within cultures, and examines alternate ways of
using five natural elements (mica, black soap, cassia fistula, indigo dye, and alum).
Between Nkanga’s hometown in Nigeria and Morocco, the different roles
and histories of these elelments are explored within the context of the artist’s
memories and artistic production.
Untitled (boy, bike, horse and bra), an undated painting by Hassan Soliman,
remained a work in progress until the artist’s death in 2008. To the initial picture
(1967–85), Soliman continued to add elements referencing influential events in his
life. This is a dreamy recollection of a boy’s journey through a city of alleyways:
women watching from balconies, a flying white horse, a child sitting on his mother’s
lap, a pink rose that has just come to rest on the boy's bicycle.
For his performance Un-drum 3/Semantic Scanning Electron Microscope, sound
artist Tarek Atoui has built up a library of tens of thousands of audio
microsamples. Using a system of body-activated pressure sensors, Atoui scans his
microsamples at high speed, instantly selecting and editing them via a special
analysis technique. The result is rhythmic structures involving hundreds of
microsamples played simultaneously.
The curator
Ala Younis is an independent curator based in Amman, Jordan. Through
exhibition, film, and publication projects Younis investigates the position of
individuals in a politically driven world. She graduated as an architect in 1997, and
between 2006 and 2010 has worked at Darat al Funun in Amman, successively
holding the position of assistant director, acting director and as of last year of
artistic director. She is also one of the curators for the three editions of the
Independent Arab Film Festival (Arab Shorts), organized by Goethe Institut in Cairo
(2009 - 2011).
Annual residency programme for curators at Noisy-le-Sec
Since 2006, La Galerie has hosted foreign curators for an annual three-month
residency; the aim is support for an exhibition in a French contemporary art centre
and discovery by the resident curator of the Île-de-France contemporary scene
(artists, professionals, other organizations, etc.). The annual residency for curators
at La Galerie receives the backing of DRAC Île-de-France (Ministry of Culture).
EVENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE EXHIBITION
Concert performance by Tarek Atoui during the opening
> Friday 27 May 8:00 to 9:00 pm, La Galerie
Radio workshops around the exhibition
> Saturday 25 June 4:00 to 5:30 pm, La Galerie, with Ala Younis (in Arabic and
French)
> Saturday 9 July, 4:00 to 5:30 pm, La Galerie (in French)
Off-site: round table with the artists of the show
> Saturday 28 May, place in Paris to be confirmed
Two-voices guided tour by Ala Younis, curator and Marianne Lanavère, La
Galerie’s director
In English / translated into French
> Saturday 18 June 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
For children: Saturday art workshops
• Ages 4–5:
On their own: every Saturday 4:30 – 5:15 pm
With their parents, afternoon tea included: Saturday 2 July, 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
• Ages 6–12
On their own: every Saturday, 2:30 – 4:00 pm
With their parents, afternoon tea included: Saturday 2 July, 2:30 – 4:30 pm
All La Galerie activities are free.
Contact: Marjolaine Calipel / Communication, press and publications officer
T: +33 (0)1 49 42 67 17 / marjolaine.calipel@noisylesec.fr
Image: Cevdet Erek, Ruler I, 2007
Opening Friday 27 May 2011, 6:00 – 9:30pm
Press preview 5:00 - 6:00pm in the presence of the artists
La Galerie - Centre for Contemporary Art
1 rue Jean Jaurès, 93130 Noisy-le-Sec
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday, 2 – 6 pm, Saturday, 2 – 7 pm
La Galerie will be closed on Thursday 2 June and Thursday 24 July
Admission free