La exposición Desorientalismos forma parte de una línea de investigación de este museo sobre la producción artística en el Norte de África y Oriente Próximo y está basada en Orientalismo, el conocido ensayo de Edward W. Said publicado por primera vez en 1978. En ella se procura indagar en una geografía producida por el colonialismo y caracterizada por la intención de "orientalizar lo oriental" en las representaciones culturales. En este sentido, el título de la muestra hace alusión tanto a esa herencia, como al sentido de desorientar (o perder la orientación), que puede, a su vez, propiciar el dibujar otras cartografías diferentes a las proyectadas por la historia occidental. Andalucía, por su pasado, participó de la visión orientalizante como bien atestiguan numerosos viajeros románticos y, por geografía, es un espacio tangente y fronterizo. Además, como bien señala Said en el prólogo a su libro en la edición en español, "Andalucía...es un gran símbolo", puesto que no sólo el Islam formó parte de su cultura durante varios siglos, sino que también puede ser un modelo en el que "las culturas comparten", frente al viejo modelo de dominación imperial.
En el recorrido de la exposición unas obras se van relacionando con otras, pudiéndose, a su vez, producir otros encadenamientos, puesto que Desorientalismos sólo es el inicio de otras que vendrán en próximos años para continuar investigando en el proceso iniciado con muestras individuales como las de Ala Younis o Bouchra Khalili. Así, la migración de las formas, y como estas se transmutan y resignifican en el tiempo y en el espacio, inician un recorrido marcado por lo formal, con especial relevancia de la yuxtaposición y el camino de ida y vuelta que va del arte tradicional no occidental al movimiento moderno, simbolizado quizás por el término arabesco y su cuestionamiento por Kamrooz Aram y Amina Agueznay. Las cuatro obras de los años 70 de Gülsün Karamustafa, situadas en un espacio de transición, sirven de comentario y nexo con los anteriores, así como con la visión de Ariella Aïsha Azoulay sobre el conflicto fruto de la herencia colonial y sus derivas en el presente. Avanzando en el recorrido, tanto Teresa Solar como Asunción Molinos Gordo, dos artistas españolas con una fuerte vinculación con Egipto, cuestionan con sus trabajos la visión orientalizante de lo oriental. Por último, Asli Çavusoglu y Jumana Manna investigan en tradiciones culturales -la música y el color, respectivamente- para hablar sobre comunidades enfrentadas: la turca y la armenia, por un lado y por otro la israelí y la palestina.
The exhibition Disorientalisms, part of the museum’s ongoing enquiry into artistic production in North Africa and the Near East, is based on Edward W. Said’s famous book Orientalism, first published in 1978. The show attempts to explore a geography invented by colonialism that aims to “orientalize the oriental” in cultural representations. The title of the show alludes to this legacy as well as to the idea of disorientation, a loss of bearings that can generate cartographies other than those drawn by Western historians.
Thanks to its historic ties with the East, Andalusia participated in this orientalizing vision, as attested by numerous Romantic travellers, and its geographical situation makes it a tangential border zone. Moreover, as Said accurately noted in the preface to the Spanish edition of his book, “Andalusia is a great symbol”, not only because Islam was a part of its culture for several centuries, but also because it exemplifies a social model in which “cultures share”, as opposed to the old model of imperial domination.
Connections emerge between different works along the exhibition itinerary, and these in turn may lead to other links, for Disorientalisms is only the first in a series of shows planned for the coming years, as the museum continues the investigative process begun with solo exhibitions like those dedicated to Ala Younis and Bouchra Khalili. The migration of forms, and how they are transformed and resignified over time and in space, begins a tour marked by the formal, with a special emphasis on juxtaposition and the two- way road from traditional non-Western art to the modern movement, perhaps best symbolized by the term “arabesque” and the questions that Kamrooz Aram and Amina Agueznay raise about it. Gülsün Karamustafa’s four works from the 1970s, displayed in a transitional space, elaborate on and serve as a nexus between the preceding pieces and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s vision of the conflict that is the legacy of colonialism and its current ramifications. Moving on, the works of Teresa Solar and Asunción Molinos Gordo—two Spanish artists with strong ties to Egypt—challenge the orientalizing vision of the oriental. Finally, Aslı Çavuşoğlu and Jumana Manna use cultural traditions—music and colour, respectively—to talk about two sets of communities in conflict: Turks and Armenians, and Israelis and Palestinians.
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Asunción Molinos Gordo (1979. Aranda de Duero, Burgos, Spain)
Asunción Molinos Gordo is a research-based artist strongly influenced by disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. In her practice she questions the categories that define “innovation” in mainstream discourses today, working to generate a less urban-centric way of understanding progress.
The main focus of her work is contemporary peasantry. Her understanding of the figure of the small or medium farmer is not merely as food producer but as cultural agent, responsible for both perpetuating traditional knowledge and for generating new expertise. She employs installation, photography, video, sound and other media to examine the rural realm driven by a strong desire to understand the value and complexity of its cultural production, as well as the burdens that keep it invisible and marginalized. She has produced work reflecting on land usage, nomad architecture, farmers’ strikes, bureaucracy on territory, transformation of rural labor, biotechnology and global food trade.
Molinos Gordo obtained her B.F.A. from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she also pursued her Master in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice. She is currently studying Anthropology and Ethnography at UNED (Spain).
She won the Sharjah Biennial Prize 2015 with her project WAM (World Agriculture Museum) and participated by Spain at the XIII Havana Biennial in 2019.
Her work has been exhibited at venues including the V&A Museum (London, UK), Delfina Foundation (London, UK), ARNOLFINI (Bristol, UK), The Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, EG), Darat Al Funun (Amman, JO), Tranzit (Prague, CZ), ART BASEL Miami Beach (US), Cappadox Festival (Uchisar-Turkey), The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, FI), Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico), MAZ Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Guadalajara, MX), MUSAC (León, ES), CA2M (Madrid, ES), CAB (Burgos, ES), Matadero (Madrid, ES) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, ES), among others.
Her work is part of public collections including TBA21, Vienna, AT; Comunidad de Madrid, ES; Fundación Calosa, Irapuato, MX; Darat Al Funun, Amman, JO.
Her project IN TRANSIT (Botany of a Journey) is currently on view at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, UAE until May 2020.
She will present a solo exhibition at IVAM (Valencia, ES) opening in June 2020.
Molinos Gordo lives and works between Spain and Egypt.
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Teresa Solar (1985. Madrid, Spain)
Teresa Solar works across sculpture, video, drawing and photography. Her audio-visual practice has been mostly focused on language, translation, and the construction of meaning. These topics remain at the core of her practice, but nowadays they are tackled mainly through sculpture. The tactile quality is fundamental in the artist’s sculptural practice, which focuses mainly on ceramics but also includes materials like fabric or metal.
Solar’s imaginary has a strong narrative drive and her creative process often begins with the discovery of a story or an idea that she later explores in depth. Her exhibitions usually function as an entire whole, creating complex worlds that either draw from literary works of fiction, Natural History or more terrestrial narratives that are close to her personal story.
Her exhibition ‘Flotation Line’ at Der Tank in Basel drew from universal works such as Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick while in ‘Ride, ride, ride’ at Matadero Madrid the central figure was Nut, the Goddess of the Night in Ancient Egypt, a celestial creature that connects to her family history.
The daughter of a Spanish father and an Egyptian mother, the artist speaks Arabic, but she can’t read or write it, and this circumstance has greatly imbued her work, in which everything is a game with transit, language and its changing translation processes. The cultural and linguistic implications of her dual identity are palpable in her work as she constantly explores the transformation of matter, her objects constituting a hybrid between the manmade, the natural and the mythical.
Teresa Solar studied Fine Arts in Madrid and later graduated with an MA in Cultural Studies from UEM (Universidad Europea de Madrid).
Recent solo shows include Formas de fuga at Travesía Cuatro Madrid, Spain; Pumping Station at Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico; Ride, Ride, Ride at Matadero Madrid and Index Foundation, Stockholm and Flotation Line at Der TANK, Institut Kunst in Basel. She has taken part in group shows at Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid, Spain; CA2M, Madrid; Haus der Kunst, Münich, Fundación Marcelino Botín, Santander; Maxxi, Rome; General Public in Berlin; Kunstverein München; CA2M, Madrid and La Casa Encendida, Madrid.
She was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and a Finalist at the Rolex Mentor & Protégé initiative, both in 2016. In 2018 she took part in the expedition “The Current” organized by TBA21-Academy and she conducted the workshop ‘White Whale, Palace of a Thousand Courtyards’, at Tabakalera San Sebastián. She took part in KölnSkulptur #9 curated by Chus Martínez in Cologne (2017-2019).
In 2020 she will take part in the Liverpool Biennial curated by Manuela Moscoso.
Teresa Solar lives and works in Madrid, Spain
Imágenes de la Exposición
Desorientalismos - Invitación
Entrada actualizada el el 29 jun de 2020
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