TERRA MEDITERRANEA: IN ACTION

TERRA MEDITERRANEA: IN ACTION

HALLE 14, Leipzig

curated by Michael Arzt & Yiannis Toumazis

Artists: Ana Adamović, Marwa Arsanios, Bank of No, Sofia Bempeza, Banu Cennetoğlu, Marianna Christofides, Tom Dale, Haris Epaminonda, Hackitectura, Lia Haraki, Timo Herbst & Marcus Nebe, Elizabeth Hoak-Doering, Eleni Kamma, Mahmoud Khaled, Zissis Kotionis, Mona Marzouk, Panayiotis Michael, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Nira Pereg, Polys Peslikas, Alexandros Pissourios, Ran Slavin, Paola Yacoub

An exhibition about the liquid continent with more than 20 artists, coming from different countries like Greece, Israel, Egypt and Cyprus. TERRA MEDITERRANEA: IN ACTION looks – from an artistic perspective – at the Mediterranean and the effects of the worsening crises there. It focuses on the potential of art as an intellectual mediator and a way of overcoming cultural sign systems.

For the essay film Days In Between (2015), the artist has been visiting the Balkans for four years, at first seeking out sites along littoral borders, where the course of the boundary remains indefinite. After having lost the entire first block of footage, the data on the hard drive not being retrievable, she sets out anew, only to witness that the places do not exist anymore in the same way. Topography changes insomuch that landscapes seem to vanish and observations ‘antiquate’. The approach of the film extends accordingly, now focusing on loss, omissions, disappearances without trace. The spiralling vacuum of stereotypes and metaphors, the appropriation of geological terms in justifying contingent cultural facts that characterizes the gaze of the West onto the region comes to the fore. Rivers become amphibious, both solid and liquid, as they separate bank from bank whilst connecting along their course. The film itself gets into flow: As a recurring attempt of approaching – the very constant failure and beginning anew within this process becomes part of an immersive narrative.