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Posts Tagged ‘Larissa Sansour’
Subversion, curated by Omar Kholeif
Marwa Arsanios · Sherif El-Azma · Wafaa Bilal · Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige · Khaled Hafez · Emily Jacir · Larissa Sansour · Tarzan and Arab · Sharif Waked · Akram Zaatari 
Cornerhouse is delighted to announce Subversion, a unique group show of new and recent contemporary art which explores and rethinks modern Arab identity.
Twelve emerging and established artists use autobiographical narratives amalgamated with fiction, popular culture and subversive parody, to express the dichotomies they face as they perform multiple roles in a society which is frequently represented to the outside world in a contorted and mediated manner.
Spanning an array of techniques including installation, video, photography and sculpture, the artists collectively illustrate fragments of the distorted imagination that often preoccupies the Arab world, uncovering the contrasts of existence in a disputed political region. But instead of conforming, they approach the various masks they are expected to wear with a sense of humour whilst referencing to the duplicitous performances of their everyday life.
Emerging Gaza artists and filmmakers Tarzan and Arab will present their award- winning Gazawood project (2010), including short film Colourful Journey and a series of striking cinema poster pastiches of imaginary movies from different genres (illustrated above left). Originating from a region that has not had a functioning cinema since the 1980s and heavily relies on satellite TV and illegal DVD copies, the works on display strongly reflect the twins’ interest in and passion for film.
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Larissa Sansour: The Nation Estate
Larissa Sansour, The Nation Estate (production still, 2012)
Sketches from Larissa Sansour’s ‘The Nation Estate’ are currently on view at Cornerhouse, Manchester as part of Subversion. Click here for more info.
It has been some months now since the 20th of December 2011, when Larissa Sansour sent out a press release with the subject heading, ‘No Room for Palestinian Art’. At the time, Sansour was shortlisted for a Lacoste-sponsored photography prize by the Swiss Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. Offered a €4,000 production fee, the London-based artist was invited to develop a proposal for judging. She professed to being allowed free reign by the museum staff with whom she was in contact. However, in December, Lacoste made demands that Sansour’s nomination be revoked, deeming Sansour’s work ‘too pro-Palestinian’ to support.
The artist’s dismay continued when the museum asked her to sign an agreement, which asserted that she had chosen to withdraw herself from the competition. Within 24 hours of sending out her own press release, there ensued an outpouring of support for Sansour from around the world, gaining such leverage that – days later – the museum decided to cancel the prize altogether, and to forego its associations with Lacoste. While the ordeal could be interpreted as a depressing indication of our current socio-political condition, not to mention our increasing reliance in Europe on corporate sponsorship, the flipside is arguably reassuring. The way in which Sansour was able to gain momentum from online activists, news outlets and the press may well be evidence that an informal system of checks and balances exists within certain realms of the European cultural sphere.
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No Comments » | Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
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