Sitting in the wine cellar-like projection room with foreign images and foreign lives flashing on the screen in front of you, a certain amount of disorientation begins to take place. What is this about? Who are these people? Why am I looking at this?
Then after a few minutes you let your guard down, relax in the quiet darkness of the space, and just take in the film.
Galerie Marian Goodman has set up a three-part exhibition of projections (short films) and in-person rencontres with some of the participating artists as a showcase of Middle Eastern visual artists speaking out about their memories and opinions.
The exhibition as a whole, called “Parle Pour Toi” means speak for yourself (and thus don’t speak for me), referring to the divergent point in a conversation where agreement ends and two separate ideas arise. It explores the hardships in the artists’ home countries, their freedom to speak against their reality, and a resistance against the standardization of ideas.
But watching through the role of films is not an exhilarating or fun experience. Some represent a daily life in the Middle East of watching TV and feeding cats; others play out the tapes of a glamorous and dying Egyptian beauty. Raw, not action-packed. Does art need to be “exciting”, though, to be significant?
This art is relevant because it pushes the viewer to look beyond his expectations of normal. The images of an older man delivering a bowl of food to a dark doorstep, then walking home through empty dirt streets are impossible to shake. An immersion in an uncomfortable, penniless Middle Eastern village is powerful. For a few moments, the viewer is in Tel Aviv with him, the viewer is giving away his own dinner, too.
“Parle Pour Toi” is a pensive and inspiring moment of suspended reality.
To get a closer look into the exhibition, gallery communications director Raphaële Coutant answered a few questions on their latest showcase.
What was the idea behind putting the short film projections in the gallery (compared to the expected paintings/sculptures/installations)?
It was Marian Goodman’s idea to do these screenings at the gallery. She and curator Marie Muracciole then together chose to bring in Middle Eastern artists as the focus. It’s easy to forget that film is also a medium of art suitable for galleries, equal to paint, bronze, or anything else.
Why are these projections important for the public to see?
I shouldn’t sat why they’re important. But they’re interesting because they’re not shown often. You’re not going to see these in a cinema; you’re not going to watch them on the internet. They’re a rare peek into daily life in other countries.
How does the meaning of the pieces change within the setting of Paris and French culture?
Where you are doesn’t matter when you’re watching the projections. As you sit and watch the short films, you’re there, with them and inside them. Paris fades away.
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The next set of films will roll continually from 12pm to 7pm June 27 through July 4. Don’t be afraid to go in and start watching in the middle of one and stop in the middle of the next. Half of the art of the films is your own unique experience them.
This final topic Transitions will be launched with a presentation Friday, June 27 at 7pm by artists Amal Khalaf, Monira Al Qadiri, and Khalid Al Gharaballi.
When the question of what to expect for the Friday evening came up, “We really don’t know exactly…” was the response. “The artists haven’t told us.”
It’s up to you to find out, but I think it’s going to be good.
Parle Pour Toi
GALERIE MARIAN GOODMAN
79, rue de Temple
75003 Paris
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm
http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2014-04-22_parle-pour-toi/
article : Amanda Hinton
