Скачать или смотреть Wafaa Bilal: Canto III

The Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery is pleased to present the work of Iraqi born artist Wafaa Bilal in a virtual exhibition that will open on April 6, 2021 through April 1, 2022 in New Art City.

Wafaa Bilal is known internationally for his on-line performative and interactive works provoking dialogue about international and interpersonal politics. Bilal’s work explores tensions between the cultural spaces he occupies —his home in the comfort zone of the U.S. and his consciousness in the conflict zone in Iraq.

Produced as part of Bilal’s virtual artist residency at the Thompson Gallery, this exhibition presents project documentation, prototypes, and designs for a 2U cube satellite constructed in partnership with the Digital Media Arts Program at SJSU, which will be launched into orbit in 2022.

The work is an anti-monument that parodies a 1990’s proposal by Saddam Hussein’s followers in the Ba’ath Party to launch a golden bust of the despot into orbit. Thirty years later, the cubesat designed by Bilal, will be launched into lower orbit and will periodically transmit images of the miniaturized monument against the dramatic backdrop of space to the gallery via a selfie cam. Canto III is a parody of monumentality that considers both the hubris and absurdity of the notion that a leader can and should be remembered forever, and the idea that the toppling of a monument can erase past trauma and create a new era.

Significantly, unlike the original monument intended during Hussein’s reign, Bilal’s project will collect oral histories, narratives, and a wide range of cultural products, from poetry to recipes in digital format from Iraqis and Iraqi-Americans. His hope is that the active involvement of the Iraqi people will “help emancipate them from the trauma they experienced living under Saddam's regime but at the same time, point out how cultural artifacts are the bonds that bring us together.” Through these recorded accounts, the project centers the resilience of the Iraqi people and immortalizes their lived experiences.

In conjunction with the opening of this virtual exhibition, Bilal will participate in a panel discussion with Andrew Blanton, Associate Professor of Digital Media Art, San José State University; Nada Shabout, Regent Professor of Art History and Coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas, Denton; and Alena Sauzade, Director of Galleries and Collections, San José State University.

View the exhibition
http://NewArt.City/show/Canto-III

More about the artist
http://wafaabilal.com/

For more information & other events
http://www.sjsu.edu/ThompsonGallery