Exhibitions
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La sábana
From February 27, 2015 until April 19, 2015Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. and from 4:00-7:30 p.m. Sundays, from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe exhibition halls (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
Monday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. and from 4:00-7:30 p.m. Sundays, from 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Free entrance until the event’s capacity is reached.
Casa Árabe exhibits the work of Egyptian artist Ahmed Keshta
Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid is hosting an exhibition of work by Ahmed Keshta until mid April.
The exhibition, given the title La sábana (the “sheet” or “shroud” in Spanish), is made up of five photographs and one large-format sculpture, displayed for the first time. They describe his experience of integration in Andorra, the country where he resides.
La Sábana is a project designed in response to one of the great concerns we are experiencing at the present time. After paying a visit to Casa Árabe in late 2014, this center inspired Ahmed Keshta (Egypt, 1978) to make a very unusual sculpture, a sheet/shroud/rug made only of hangers which are linked together to form geometric motifs. Far above the floor, they hang from the ceiling, floating over viewers’ heads. The artist warns: “They are hangers. They are not a shroud, and they are not holy. They are hangers.” Therefore, this ambiguous sculpture –could this be the Holy Shroud worshipped by Christians, or a prayer rug used by Muslims, the saggadah?– uses religion as nothing other than a pretext –“they are hangers”– to provide shelter for all types of activity. It is a cloak which isolates individuals physically and spiritually from reality, alienating their judgment.
The work is accompanied by a series of five photographs titled Integration. These images show the artist in Andorra, his place of residence, dressed fully in white, in an attempt to integrate into the Principality’s snowy landscape. Formally, the image is one of pristine beauty, but it conceals a grey reality, which consists of the difficulty in achieving full integration, the impossible “whitewashing” of a set of physical and cultural features. After eleven years living and working in Europe, with his 2,890,800 minutes of daytime and 2,890,800 minutes of night, as the photographs indicate, the process is not yet complete, if any such thing is even possible. This skepticism is confirmed by a mathematical theory, because the very concept of integrating, a sum of infinite factors, infinitely small, entails an unfinished process, by definition. However, if both rational thought and current circumstances tell us that full integration is impossible, then aren’t imagination and art more necessary than ever?
The exhibition, given the title La sábana (the “sheet” or “shroud” in Spanish), is made up of five photographs and one large-format sculpture, displayed for the first time. They describe his experience of integration in Andorra, the country where he resides.
La Sábana is a project designed in response to one of the great concerns we are experiencing at the present time. After paying a visit to Casa Árabe in late 2014, this center inspired Ahmed Keshta (Egypt, 1978) to make a very unusual sculpture, a sheet/shroud/rug made only of hangers which are linked together to form geometric motifs. Far above the floor, they hang from the ceiling, floating over viewers’ heads. The artist warns: “They are hangers. They are not a shroud, and they are not holy. They are hangers.” Therefore, this ambiguous sculpture –could this be the Holy Shroud worshipped by Christians, or a prayer rug used by Muslims, the saggadah?– uses religion as nothing other than a pretext –“they are hangers”– to provide shelter for all types of activity. It is a cloak which isolates individuals physically and spiritually from reality, alienating their judgment.
The work is accompanied by a series of five photographs titled Integration. These images show the artist in Andorra, his place of residence, dressed fully in white, in an attempt to integrate into the Principality’s snowy landscape. Formally, the image is one of pristine beauty, but it conceals a grey reality, which consists of the difficulty in achieving full integration, the impossible “whitewashing” of a set of physical and cultural features. After eleven years living and working in Europe, with his 2,890,800 minutes of daytime and 2,890,800 minutes of night, as the photographs indicate, the process is not yet complete, if any such thing is even possible. This skepticism is confirmed by a mathematical theory, because the very concept of integrating, a sum of infinite factors, infinitely small, entails an unfinished process, by definition. However, if both rational thought and current circumstances tell us that full integration is impossible, then aren’t imagination and art more necessary than ever?
