São Paulo – A video exhibition set to open in São Paulo on August 30th will feature work by four Arabs. The show “Unerasable Memories – A Historical Take on the Videobrasil Collection” will feature 18 pieces by internationally known artists, including Lebanon’s Akram Zaatari and Walid Raad and Morocco’s Bouchra Khalili. The videos depict social or political conflicts from personal and artistic perspectives.
The featured artworks address subjects such as the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese, the military coup d’état in Chile, the September 11 attacks in the United States and civil war in Lebanon. The event is curated by the art director of Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba), the Spanish-born Agustín Pérez Rubio, who researched Associação Cultural Videobrasil’s collection of 1,300-plus artworks.
The exhibition is a partnership between Sesc São Paulo and Videobrasil, and is the first major show based on the association’s own collection. According to Videobrasil itself, its archives contain over 3,000 titles, including publications, documents and videos. In addition to the show itself, the event will feature meetings with artists, curators and researchers.
The show will include The Mapping Journey Project, by Morocco’s Bouchra Khalili. In the video, refugees and immigrants trace back their path from Africa to Europe on a map and tell their stories. Khalili studied film at Université Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle and visual arts at École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts of Paris-Cergy. She lives and works out of Germany.
Another Arab artist featured is Lebanon’s Zaatari, who lives in Beirut. He is a co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation and has exhibited internationally on several occasions. At Sesc, Zaatari will present “In This House,” a 30-minute video about Ali Hashisho, a photojournalist who was a member of the Lebanese resistance and led a militia that occupied a Christian household for six years.
In a lecture-performance, Walid Raad, also from Lebanon, will explain and show a project he has created whose goal is to reconstitute and document civil war in Lebanon from a unique perspective. He lives in Lebanon and is an assistant professor of art at the Cooper Union University in New York.
Lebanon’s Rabih Mroué is yet another Arab in the exhibition. He studied Theatre at the Lebanese University, in Beirut, and is a board member at the Beirut Art Center. In his video, Face A Face B, his voice is heard singing a song that combines the melody of a communist tune and lyrics about militants of the Lebanese resistance. In the narrative, he intertwines his own personal history – his older brother lived in Soviet Union – and the Lebanese war.
The other artists are from Brazil, Colombia, United States, Zimbabwe, China, France, Kenya and Argentina. The exhibition opens on August 30th at Sesc Pompeia, but visiting begins on August 31st and will continue until November 30th. Admittance is free.
Unerasable Memories
August 31st to November 30th, 2014
Sesc Pompeia, Clelia Street, 93 – São Paulo – SP
Visiting from Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm and on Sundays from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, free of charge
Information: http://www.sescsp.org.br/programacao/39560_MEMORIAS+INAPAGAVEIS
http://site.videobrasil.org.br/exposicoes/memorias/agenda
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
