Past pictured in the context of present

Hard times breed courageous art and give artists their most universal themes.

The interplay between rises and falls of the leadership in their societies has provided modern Arab artists with a repertoire of themes to feed their creative process and represent the virtue of self-identification and historic moments — a fact that is evident at the ongoing exhibition, Disorientation II, in Abu Dhabi.

Where the sketchbooks of the late Ali Jabri are full of parody and tirades against the colonial and homegrown rulers of 1970s Cairo, Hrair Sarkissian's photographs of execution spaces in Syria symbolise the shockingly evident pathology of society.

Yto Barrada's automated toy model comments on the hidden power and disguised reality, distorted under the decorative preparations of an official's visit. Kader Attia's Rochers Carrés vividly draws a parallel between Algerian youth's lack of perspective and the condition of youngsters from the banlieues of European metropolises.

The diverse group of 16 contemporary Arab artists flash back to the 1960s and 1970s to explore Arab cities from the perspective in which both unity and division coexist and juxtapose their relationship and impact on the present moment.

Hope and change

"The most [embedded] component is the cycle of history, which refers to Ibn Khaldoun's theory of the rise and fall of empires," says curator Jack Persekian, the artistic director of the Sharjah Biennale.

"Seeing the present situation of the Arab world, especially the Middle East, where external forces are trying to manipulate and destabilise regimes for their personal interest, history is repeating itself. There is the same lack of hope for a better future and the feelings of failure and suffering among the oppressed.

"This exhibition is the need of the hour, as it counterpoints a Utopian era with the reality of today and at the same time creates a necessary discourse that identifies the gesture of hope and change."

An evocative mixed-media model, Qalandia 2047 initially looks grim and traumatic, but gradually delights the viewers with its amusing drama of human survival amid everyday hardship.

In contrast to the quiet disposition of artist Wafa Hourani, the work is a point-blank futuristic representation of a Palestinian camp in 2047 — a century after the camp's residents were evicted, following the division of Palestine in 1947. Qalandia camp is adjacent to the most important checkpoint that controls access to Ramallah.

In his maquette, Hourani has dressed the separation wall with mirrors on the Palestinian side to give an illusion of space to those cooped up in there, in constant expectation of a change. On the other side of the wall, a menacing airstrip with fighter jets reminds us that little has changed after 100 years.

"The second version, Qalandia 2067 shows the camp 100 years after the occupation," Hourani says, explaining his Future Cities project. "And the third version, Qalandia 2087 shows the town 100 years after the first intifada. Here the future is projected without any occupation.

A new imaginary political party, the Mirror Party, has won the elections. Qalandia's airport becomes a civilian airport instead of a military base and the checkpoint becomes a stage for public speeches. The mirrors reflect the mistakes of Palestinians so that they can learn from their past and resolve things differently."

The works of Tarek Al Ghoussein reflect the themes of barriers, displacement and longing.

"The D Series is found to be less autobiographical and more noetic compared to the preceding series but it continues my exploration of how an individual both affects and is affected by space. It examines the relationship between the subject and space, particularly the relationship between the solitary figure and the temporary boundaries that define a place," Al Ghoussein explains.

The D II Series is an extension of this theme to several UN resolutions, specifically those that address issues of mapping and displacement. The works consist of "observed locations" over an extended period of time and mild interventions in the landscape.

"The images represent an interaction between me, the weathering process and changing landscapes that result from development. Choosing locations much like a film director, I move between the abstract and the specific circumstances found in particular places," he says.

Modelled by music

The massive freestanding sculpture Portal to a Black Hole, created by Syrian artist Diana Al Hadid, is disturbingly provocative. Handmade amalgam of diverse materials, the piece resembles the musical interpretation of the black hole, rendered in the form of a spiral staircase besotted with pipe organ keys, all missing a B flat.

"In musical terms, the pitch of the sound generated by the black hole translates into the note of B flat," Al Hadid explains.

"But a human would have no chance of hearing it because the note is 57 octaves lower than middle-C. The discovery appeared quite magical to me. It could be a code to communicate with the deepest reaches of the galaxy. I wanted to create an impenetrable architectural black hole, or a portal that would play the specific key and launch a person into the unknown."

Al Hadid vigorously blends her personal mythology and sacral architecture into science fiction in a form of flawed Greek columns, gothic windows and a baroque dome. She is inspired by myths and folklore. She recasts the characters into a new narrative by placing them in labyrinths and caves to produce the metaphorical framework for her sculptures.

Stories of The 1001 Nights, The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade and Ariadne's love, commingle in her mind and provide imaginative fuel.

Egyptian artist Hala Al Koussy's On Red nails, Palm Trees and Other Icons relates to the history of Cairo since its renewal under a Western model in the late 1800s.

Resemblance with the real

Born in Cairo, in 1974, Al Koussy lives and works in Amsterdam. Her photos sometimes look like reportage but are actually stage moments of everyday life in the city.

"In 2007, a butcher killed two camels in the Guiza zoo and smuggled out the meat," Al Koussy says, narrating the incident that triggered the project. "During interrogation, he revealed that he did it out of desperation, to provide food for his hungry family. The zoo was built in the late 1800s. I question the values that were important at that time and compare them to the Cairo of today. The work stands in for the flux in the visual and cultural profile of the city. The video element highlights certain activities that are on the verge of extinction."

Jordanian artist Samah Hijjawi's video performance Where are the Arabs? mimics the presentation of a speech, performed by iconic figures of (political) authority.

The two crucial factors are: the audience and their active or passive participation, and the control of the government bodies over public spaces.

"My work investigates the collective memory and its influence in the formation of social identity," Hijjawi explains. "I do not intend to bring about any change. The work provides a space, so that people can playfully contemplate a part of our history and reflect on their relationship with it in formulating our present-day personhood. This is only possible by developing a participatory nature through a wider audience."

Play with a message

Egyptian artist Wael Shawky has put up a video installation titled Telematch Sadat. Second in line of his Telematch series, it refers to a German game show, broadcast in the 1970s and 1980s, where inhabitants of two different German towns competed in a series of elaborate games in medieval costumes.

Shawky inverts the original material by replacing the German adults with children from the Upper Nile city of Asyut. The children re-enact the military (victory) parade, assassination and funeral of Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat.

"The moment of transition in society is more appealing to me than the final end. My work deals with the dichotomies and contradictions of hybrid systems of society," Shawky says, explaining his creative process in a telephone interview.

"The game show was in the form of a contest between two groups so that they could entertain the third party — the audience. Telematch Sadat relates to this concept." An essential part of the installation is a wooden model of the podium that staged the event. The fictional podium of the installation works as a seating area for the audience to watch the video piece.

Shawky adds: "Though the subject matter is realistically political, the re-staging is imaginary. Children represent neutral elements for me. They don't have any dramatic awareness; they just do what you ask them to do. The similarity between the historical event and performance is here: the act (was/is) carried on command."

As a metaphor for global politics, maps are an abiding motif for Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. Her floor piece titled Present Tense consists of 2,400 olive oil soaps from Nablus; tiny red beads have been embedded in the soap to make an outline of the map as decided by the 1993 Oslo Peace Agreement. Also marked are the territories that should have been handed back to Palestine.

"The work was originally made in 1996 in Occupied Jerusalem and was in response to my first visit to that city," Hatoum recalls.

"I came across a map with a multitude of small areas circled in red to indicate the territory that, according to the peace agreement of 1993, was meant to be placed under Palestinian control. I was thinking of the ‘still' continuing tension between people living in Palestine and Israel."

The fugacious material (soap) adds an additional transitory layer to the work. "The blocks will dissolve and the ridiculous borders will eventually disappear," she says.

Hatoum's work is poetic in mood and politically charged in content, expressing oppression, power and human frailty. Born in Beirut in 1952, she now lives and works in London and Berlin.

Lebanese artist Marwan Rechmaoui's sculptures negotiate the complex social history of Beirut and its urban development. In Beirut Caoutchouc, he meticulously sculpts the map of Beirut in the form of a puzzle composed of 60 rubber pieces that correspond to the city's 60 distinct quarters.

Embossing the installation with roads and byways, Rechmaoui highlights the urban schism to question the causes and consequences of cultural differences, affiliation and identity. The work also explores the impact of a troubled history.

An award-winning documentary titled Massaker, shot by German filmmaker Monika Borgmann and her husband Lokman Slim, is also projected for viewing. The film is an aesthetic study of six militiamen who perpetrated the massacre of Sabra and Shatila that took place during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

"It links the mental dispositions of the perpetrators with their political environment, and approaches the narratives and the phenomenon of collective violence," says Borgmann. Other artists participating in the exhibition include collaborative duo Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, exhibiting What Everybody Knows — a video series documenting the struggle, resistance and endurance of the Palestinians.

Disorientation II is on at Manarat on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, until February 20.

Layla Haroon is a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi.