Open Gallery | The London Art Fair
Private View - 19 January 2016
20 - 24 January 2016
Art Projects (Stand P5)
Business Design Centre
52 Upper Street
London N1 0QH
Jasmina Metwaly, #haiku, Remarks on Medan (Tahrir Version), 2011
Open Gallery are delighted to announce our participation in Art Projects at the London Art Fair. For it, we will be presenting Jasmina Metwaly's video painting series - Remarks on Medan (Tahrir Version), 2011. Comprising of video installations, projected across three walls, the work captures twelve scenes depicting the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. Unlike sensationalised reportage from the time, Metwaly’s camera remains motionless as an impartial observer. Whilst changes unfold, her camera finds patterns and details otherwise concealed within the chaos. With an ever-growing proliferation of images and videos portraying scenes of international unrest in the media; Metwaly’s reticent approach, devoid of any sound, encourages another way of looking.
The title of the work serves as a poetic bridge into the subject matter of the videos. Remarks are comments or observations and Medan means a town square or battlefield. The work mediates on the dual meaning of Medan and the dichotomy between what each of these respective spaces denote, revealing the transition from square to battlefield.
Showcasing this tableau of Metwaly’s video paintings follows an installation with her long-term collaborator Philip Rizk at the Deutsche Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015). Although both exhibitions explore the themes of transitory sites and the political agency of mark making, Open Gallery has the rare opportunity to share this earlier solo series of video painting works with the public in the UK.
“[Remarks on Medan (Tahrir Version)] is observational yet not documentary. It shows the complexity of cultural change but avoids any simplistic narratives. Watching this series you know you are in a specific location with imbued meaning… Here we have evidence on how video painting can uncover events and cultural change without succumbing to the familiar or the reintroduction of narrative.”
Hilary Lawson, Philosopher, Documentary Filmmaker, Open Gallery Director.
Jasmina Metwaly
Jasmina Metwaly was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1982 and is now based in Cairo. She completed an MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland in 2006 and in 2009 completed a Postgraduate Diploma at the Byam Shaw School of Art at Central St Martins. She is co-founder of Mosireen – the independent media collective.
Metwaly’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Deutsche Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt (2010); Maktab, Cairo (2010); BWA Wroclaw, the 9th Goeppert Contest for Polish painters, Wroclaw (2009); Islington Arts Factory, London (2009); Lauderdale House, London (2009); and X-Ray Gallery, Lubon, Poland (2008).
Jasmina Metwaly was the winner of The Open Prize 2010 (Open Gallery’s award to artists creating video paintings) with her work Crucifixion, 2009.
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