Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeAl Fadhil
*1955, Basrah, Iraq, lives and works in Lugano, Switzerland.
Al Fadhil, is a multidisciplinary artist (painting, installation, photography, performance, video art) who studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (Italy). He has participated in many international art events and workshop residencies. He worked at the “Cité Internationale des Arts” (Paris) in 2000, 2004 and 2005, Dubai Art Symposium 2004, and Taipei Art University 2005. He has held exhibitions in various venues across Europe and other continents including the Bonndorf Museum (D), 2000; Sharjah Biennale (UAE), 2003; Venice Biennale, off performance (I), 2003; Rome University Museum / MLAC (I), 2004; Emergency Biennale I, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (F), 2005; Kuandu Museum, Taipei (TW), 2005, and the Punish Kamp project, Berlin 2006.
Amer & Nasser. Iraqi Brothers / Iraq / 2003 / 4'25 / 4:3
How can one talk about death without showing the dead? Or, experience suffering without seeing the wounds? A possible answer is found in Amer & Nasser, a videogram excerpted from a documentary on the 1991 rebellion of Iraqi people, which turned into a bloodbath: the slow pace of the images allows us not really an observation, and investigation, of the two "martyrs" identity, rather it poses the questions: "Why did it all happen", and "Where were we"? The two blindfolded faces apparently emanate serenity and resignation, but they also hide a terrible anguish. The slow pace of time, this time, marks the steps of the sentenced ones, and the pushes and shoves of the soldiers, like it had lost its way. The obsessive slowing-down of the movement leads the mind’s way into the maze of the afflicted soul. In front of the camera-spectator, the passage of the brothers led to an army truck, while a somber flute announces the imminent trespass of life into death, looks like one towards the unknown in an unreal atmosphere.