Rootless Monument in Diyarbakir
Local sculptor Maha Abu Ayyash just returned to her workshop in Amman after participating in “A Consumption of Justice” an international plastic arts exhibit in Turkey . “ Diyarbakir Arts Center ”, serving the border town, hosted the event, which was organized by “Anadolu kultur”, and funded by “Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development”. The show opened to a large public on May 1 and continues until the 22 nd .
To meet the vision of curator Beral Madra from Istanbul, the show involved artists from thirteen capital cities and Diyarbakir, dealing in varied media; photography, painting, video, installation, web art, graphic design, comics and sculpture. The participating artists are “Ali Aksakal From Diyarbakir”, “Ruben Arevshtian from Erivan”, “Maha Abu Ayyash from Amman”, “Everensel Belgin from Istanbul”, “Andrej Dercovic from Sarajevo”, “Heba Farid from Cairo”, “Lamia Joreige from Beirut”, “Panayiotis Michael from Nicosia”, “Oliver Mussovik from Skopje”, “Behrang Samadzadegan from Tehran, “Zehra Sonya from Lefkosa”, “Iliko Zautashvili from Tiblisi” and “Bassam Al Khoury from Damascus”.
When asked about the show Abu Ayyash said: “The show was excellent; really an eye-opener. I think that for a show to be good, an artist has to see as much at least as they show. In other words, this show introduced me to some new concepts and how a show about a theme can be successful by actually incorporating artworks that cause thought and pondering on the theme itself. The organizers hosted us to round table discussions that involved as well as the artists, philosophers, students, poets, journalists, cultural institute managers etc. This is of course difficult anywhere, but I think the efficient, professional aspect eased our experience, really made it worthwhile”
About her fellow artists and their work, she says, “We were 13 artists from centers around a certain periphery; a certain geography, physical as well as ethereal. While, the cities part of it is quite clear on the map, the other aspect made the show curiously attractive and cohesive. Generally, all the artwork presented very well thought out, developed visions of aspects of our common “now and here”, meaning a world of shifts and displacements, a world referred to in rarely read reports of current news, but from angles that encourage hope, life, and pondering on the viewers' part. Andrej from Saraybosna deals with found materials of pan-cultural value, i.e. national flags and scented car deodorizers. Everensel's basic art medium is the internet where he operates “anti-pop.com”, a site of posters and video inspecting popularly accepted notions and visual phenomena. One of his videos presents to the eye a global idea of a cave, complete with a waterfall, although the whole set up is synthetic. In addition, the works of Ilico and to a certain degree Ali's use different media to inspect popular notions. Ruben's work uses sculptural form to play on positive and negative space, completeness, and incompleteness. Zehra installation also dealt with extremes; light and dark, soft and hard. Our other Cypriot friend, Panikos insisted “since every thing is either east or west of Cyprus, that we should all call it the center of the universe, after all it is an island, really in the center ” and the work very much resembled this free spirit. He set up classrooms where people sat and stitched up the maps as they saw fit. The idea permeates Bassam's work as well, in the form of people granting him visas; I granted him a single entry, multiple exits visa to my studio. Heba's work also dealt with boundaries, but of different kinds, using photography of land and human vistas to which she introduced her shifts. Lamia does video installations of accounts of the “disappeared”. In this, her work and Behrang's oil paintings show different choice approaches to a similar topic. Lamia says, “Great dramas, I can handle. It is the small ones that get me”, and the work focuses on the level rarely if ever voiced, the voices that remain after a massacre. Oliver's work deals with cracks in the institutional approach to crime and punishment thought. In the end, the bringing together of such works, was a rare occasion to enjoy, indeed for me.”
About her work she said: “Well, I was hoping to bring the voice of prairies into the show. I, of course, do not know how successful I was. But I am happy with the initial feedback I got. I placed my piece on private property, in the center of the office building/shopping center where the Diyarbakir Arts Center is located. These people were very courageous in accepting to place it amongst the activity of the coffee shop/ local club, which they set up in the place. They never questioned the artwork, or myself, and that is very refreshing. Then, very early on the second morning after installing the work, I saw a five year old run wildly through my piece, touching it as he went around and enjoying the balancing act it went through under his pushing. For me the piece at least brought some joy to someone in Diyarbakir . I think generally, the piece functions well in its environment, but all of this is up to others to decide. At any rate, part of the piece is for children from the area to try to bring it back to its original rudiments, the original materials before they took shape in the form of I chose for expression. Ali, the artist from Diyarbakir , who is also an art teacher, will document this process while his students do away with my form, as much as they can. The idea of the rootless monument is a sort of opposition of words as well as form. While the sculpture is large and strong, it is light weight and flexible, and it really has no solid roots except in a time frame, which is the duration of the show”.
Abu Ayyash is currently involved in sculpting three bronzes of enlarged Roman period replicas for the “Historical Path” in “ King Hussein Gardens ”, a “Greater Amman Municipality” project and plans a show in Holland next month.
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