Workshop "Backwater" by Ali Cherri
Backwater
- Maekawa Saori – DR, The City Museum of Rikuzentakata submerged following the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami.
The handwritten note writes: "Please do not take the museum’s collections away. They are important treasures that will enable us to restore our the environment, history, and culture of Takata. (City Board of Education)”
A workshop led by Ali Cherri, in the context of the Académie vivante 4
In collaboration with ESADTPM and the Réseau Cinéma
From December 12 to 15, 2017 at Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research
Insects and small animals of all types are buzzing above stagnant and muddy waters, giving us a multilayered picture of a gloomy and dull misery, both invasive and disturbing. Masses of mud, shapeless but not amorphous, engulf and corrode everything.
Very few spaces embody the periphery of human existence as well as swamps. Neither quite land nor water, swamps have long been considered dreaded spaces, places with unknown dangers from which "miasma" and "scents" escape. Their waters would be fundamentally contaminated and dangerous spaces, enigmatic and ghostly landscapes that would cause death and disease.
Under the direction of the artist Ali Cherri, the workshop takes as starting point the imaginary around mud as an element that is corrosive but from which life can grow nonetheless. It will engage with mud-filled spaces such as the Fukushima archaelogical museum buried after the tsunami, the Merowe dam on the Nile in Sudan, or the Louvre’s storage spaces after the 2016 flood. During four days, the issue of dirty water and pure water will be addressed through a program of films, texts, and visits to cultural or natural sites.
Ali Cherri is a video and visual artist. His recent project looks at the place of the archaeological object in the construction of historical narratives. His solo exhibitions include Dénaturé at Galerie Imane Farès, Paris (2017); Somniculus at Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC, Bordeaux (2017); From Fragment to Whole at Jönköpings Läns Museum, Sweden (2017); A Taxonomy of Fallacies at Sursock Museum, Beirut (2016). His work has been exhibited in international museums amongst them Centre Pompidou, Paris (2017); MAXXI, Rome (2017); Le MACVAL, Val-de-Marne (2017); Guggenheim, New York (2016); Aichi Triennial, Japan (2016); Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju (2016). He’s the recipient of Harvard University’s Robert E. Fulton Fellowship (2016) and Rockefeller Foundation Award (2017).
The Académie vivante program is supported by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
The Backwater workshop is supported by Réseau Cinéma and ESADTPM.
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