Snapshots
of the Arab Image Foundation
On
Difference #1 / Lokale Kontexte - Hybride Räume
Württembergischer
Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
21 May - 31 July 2005
Curator's Statement
One of the main challenges facing the Arab
Image Foundation, custodians of the newly gathered, visually rich
cultural heritage, has been intellectual rather than technical or administrative.
The founders treated the collections
in classical fashion through thematic publications and exhibits. But as
the young organization began to grow with members from diverse corners
of the contemporary art world, the established norms of representation
and presentation were challenged and supplanted with innovative concepts
and methods.
“What is” became “What if.” A photograph or series
of photographs were no longer simply objects that manifested the intent
of their creator or the evidence in their content, but rather as a palette
of basic elements, which in aggregate form, supported whole new treatments,
and in the hands of the member artists, told new stories that each alone
could not.
In Snapshots of the AIF for On Difference One, I sought to showcase two
types of approach. Some of the featured work utilizes materials from the
archives of the AIF in innovative fashion and in new media; and the rest
was selected from personal oeuvre which reflects the bi-directional influences
of the classic notion of an archive and the more contemporary conceptual
approach of appropriating existing content.
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