THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY ! ARTIST PROFILE P. 2 • A TONIC OF TRAILS P.4 HOME AND AWAY P. 6 • ISTANBUL BIENNIAL P.8
The light is failing, as twilight creeps into the late afternoon, a flimsy scarf my only refuge from the biting air, thinly disguised by the warmth fighting to retain its place in the ever-bright sun. And yet… Golden orange, gently, silently descending from the branches above and begging me not to forget those smiles, broad as the evenings long, and though our tongues still sample delights from afar, our souls remember ever the spice of stepping out of the every day. Leaves tumbling, bodies stumbling back to the grind, and yet the race already begun as local tradesmen tempt us to prepare ever earlier for winter chill festivities. From white to white, our rituals stand fast, never to disappear as we sway to their beats, enchanted and in some way tired, perhaps, yet still fiercely penetrating, we are unable to ignore. So, from field festival to Mela, school run to Halloween we charge, bonfire night just a breath between us and the close of 2013. As we celebrate the changing of the seasons, the changing of ourselves, our hungry spirits … are you a festivalite? Sooree Pillay
13.10.2013 / #6
THE MONTH AHEAD AT NAE EXHIBITION: Not Necessarily in the Right Order Common Culture explores the social significance of carnival, festival and cultural identity. From 27 September to 12 January, free! VOCAL: Black History Month special An exploration of issues affecting African/AfroCaribbean commmunitites in Notttingham. Thursday 10 October, 6:30-8:30pm, free! Film screening: Better Mus’ Come This film follows warring political factions in 1970s Jamaica. A dramatisation of real historical events such as the Green Bay Massacre. Friday 11 October, 7-8:45pm , £4 / £3 concs Gallery TourS Exchange your opinions about Common Culture’s exhibition with our visiting Egyptian artists Nahla Megahed and Sara Abed. Saturday 12 and 26 October, 12pm, free! Live @NAE featuring RAM1 Come to celebrate and support exciting new talent from Nottingham. Thursday 17 October, 7:30-9pm, £4 / £3 concs LAUNCH: Caribbean through a lens A selection of The National Archive’s collection of Caribbean images. Thursday 24 October, 5-7pm, free!
Submissions to Sooree@nae.org.uk Deadline 2nd Monday of every month! This issue of ‘The Exchange on Sunday!’ has been put together by: Sara Abed, Bethan Davis, Maria Rosaria Digregorio, Skinder Hundal, Nahla Magahed, Mohammad El Nahas, Sooree Pillay. Set in Merriweather, printed at NAE on Office Depote Lilac 80 g/m².
family festival Day: festival 3013 Step away from the everyday and explore with us your vision of the future! Saturday 26 October, 11am-5pm, free!
2 • ARTIST PROFILE
KASHIF NADIM CHAUDRY by SOOREE PILLAY
“Colour, violence, form and beauty...” This is how Kashif Nadim Chaudry describes the heart of his work. As we sip tea and mull over the world, I am surrounded by exactly that. From the chicken heads meticulously stored in a box two feet away, to rich fabrics, animal skulls adorned with cloth, hard and yet delicate arabesque sculptures regard me, I look straight ahead, above the imposing and fascinating pieces of the puzzle that made up his exhibition at Lakeside in 2012, Memes, where I first encountered his work. So I ask, how did it all begin? Nadim speaks gently of moments spent with his mother, his grandmother and his father, to whom he attributes much of his early influences growing up in Nottingham. “My mum was a tailor, and her mum was also a tailor... she would come with a bag of knitting or a bag of crochet... my mum and her would sit together and gossip and cook, all sorts of stuff, and I would get involved as well... I asked my mum to teach me” He speaks of entering colourful Asian clothes shops “like a sweet stores”, then later realising an interest in “drawing, sculpture, printmaking, putting colours together, working with different materials”, and as I cast my eye once again around his studio, I am transported with him back, yet ever present in the here and now. As we talk more, I track his path, being inspired by his ‘A’ level tutor, Chris
Sooree Pillay is, was, and will be for a while longer...
Brierley, his journey has taken him to London twice, finally settling at Goldsmiths, London: After completing two years of study in history of art at UCL, he says, “... I realised it wasn’t for me... so I moved back to Nottingham and heard about this amazing foundation course in Mansfield West Notts College... it was probably one of the best courses I have been on. From there I got a place at Goldsmiths... I never looked back.” Having been influenced by his experience of London, he returned to Nottingham, and I ask him about the development of his own practise. He has a twinkle in his eye as he explains: “Theatrics is a big part of my art practise. I think it is also a big part of my personality as well actually… There is something about drama that I really enjoy, and the exhibitions that I really have enjoyed have been very ostentatious, very colourful. You are left with this real experience of having been somewhere and seen something.” Nadim describes his first exhibition shown at New Art Exchange in 2010, Even the Animals, as also “very theatrical, a performance frozen in time of five animal sculptures that were almost praying to skeletal deities”. As we move on to Memes, presented as part of his residency at Lakeside in 2012, the theatre of his work found another home. This immense exhibition, full of rich textiles, gigantic architectural structures reminicent of religous spaces, and an eerie use of light and shadow in the third space, where a mechanical hand moved hair from one end of the room to the other. It is an exploration of ritual and religious signifiers, of homosensuality, and the
3 • THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY!
passing down of cultural experience as just a few elements of this multi-layered piece. “...I was able to work in all three gallery spaces... I like my work to have some kind of relationship to the gallery setting, so the way in which sculptures were placed, you had to walk around them in a certain way and certain things were revealed to you. Lakeside were incredibly supportive.. I think I did my most ambitious work there.” As we turn to more recent projects, I am keen to speak about Nadim’s recent work with New Art Exchange for Mela 100, a celebration of one hundred years of Indian cinema and poetry. Transforming Primary Studios, Nottingham, into an immersive cinematic experience, he took the audience on a journey from hundreds of brightly coloured night lights, suspended from the ceiling, to strips of cloth and a shaft of light beautifully demarcating a stage space for traditional Kathak dance, then upstairs to the cinema space, filled with white cushions on a white floor, and a blue canopy gently floating above our heads, we watched the Bollywood classic, Pakeezah. “When Skinder asked me if I would be interested in doing this, he said ‘we would like to put on a Bollywood film, the choice is yours’, it had to be Pakeezah which itself is very theatrical. A lot of the dance performances you see in that film are in spaces where people are sitting on a white floor with white cushions, it’s all very classical. I wanted also to use lush fabrics and for it to be as colourful as possible because of the whole Bollywood theme.” I want to find out Nadim’s perspectives on the world of Asian cinema, and how it has evolved: “I think I have become somewhat disinterested in Bollywood. I like the classics, and really like the independent asian filmmakers... I think there is something very real about what they do.” As we move to current projects, Nadim is currently working as artist assistant
to an American Artist, Patssi Valdez, in preparation for the next exhibition to be shown at Nottingham Contemporary. He speaks of plans for now and the future: “I am also going to be exhibiting as part of the Asian Trienial in Manchester next year, and will have a solo show at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, which is a fantastic opportunity...I would like to get my voice to a wider audience and something like the Asian Trienial is going to enable me to do that... I’d also like to go to India and sit with a master embroiderer for a period of time, be taught specific skills.” As we draw to a close, I am still fascinated by Nadim. I am left wanting to delve deeper, know and see more of his work. I am struck by his modesty, and the disappearance of the hour we spent as he softly guided me through his journey. Of the thousand questions that remain for me to ask, and having seen the quiet and gentle, yet effervescent energy of this artist, seen the violence and the beauty in his work, been drawn in and at the same time pushed into my own space of selfreflection, his notion of art is the one I rest with: “For me, art is a very important part of being human, especially in the textile tradition, which is very much about learning skills from people who have been doing it for many generations or who are older than you, then passing that on... It is the audience that brings a piece of work to life. It is whatever you think it is. All an artist can hope to do is in some way touch you, make you question or see something differently.” For me, Nadim has and continues to do that.
To find out more about Nadim’s work, check out his web page: http://kashifnadimchaudry.com
4 • A TONIC OF TRAILS The team at New Art Exchange is constantly out and about searching for great art and inspiration. In this section we are creating a trail and connection to places we visit and artists or instigators. We are keen on sharing with you because they inspire us or touch us deeply. We call it ‘A Tonic of Trails’. The term tonic is musical in its tone and rhythm and certainly intoxicating in its mix.
l Day estiva ber F y l i Fam Octo ay 26 Saturd m-4pm 11a
Birmingham Public Library, designed by Francine Houben from Dutch architect group Mecanoo.
Birmingham Public Library Skinder Hundal’s trail Birmingham Public Library, Designed by Francine Houben from Mecanoo, a Netherlands based Architect firm, this magnificent building has just launched within a new festival in Birmingham, the Four Squares Festival. It stands 60m tall and is the largest public library in Europe. It boasts colourful roof top gardens overlooking the urban industrial sprawl, shopping mall style escalators, open places to study and relax, children and families section and a memorial gallery dedicated to play write William Shakespeare with a semi-circular concave glass view of the city. It is both an energising and inspiring experience. The public programme for the opening season has been curated by Lisa Meyer from Capsule. As part of the opening programme I attended a moving and powerful speech by American preacher Jesse Jackson, commemorating 50 years since Martin Luther’s famous ‘I have Dream’ speech. It was a tremendous moment. Watching Soweto Kinch translate his latest album based on the seven deadly sins into a theatre piece directed by Jonzi D was also a brilliant and energising moment. Although the Library has cost an unimaginable amount of money I believe the investment long term will transform and support the socio economic dynamic in Birmingham and strengthen the Midlands. It was a great decision to make this happen!
5 • THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY!
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Mela 100 Skinder Hundal’s trail This year Nottingham Mela Network celebrated the magic of 100 years of Indian Cinema and 100 years of Indian poetry, commemorating Rabindranath Tagore (the Shakespeare of the East) receiving his Nobel prize for literature in 1913. The event spanned over 2 weekends, 5 venues. This years Mela was the 25th since launching the first ever Mela in the UK. That’s right Nottingham claims the first ever national Mela, thanks to Apna Arts and the energy of pioneers like Pabinder Singh the founder. This year there were many memorable moments. For me however there were two in particular. Nadim Chaudry’s textiles and sculptural installation at Primary and screening of Pakeeza was absolutely a magical retreat from reality. I felt as if I were immersed in a dream and in the film itself. I watched the whole film in awe wrapped in the environment. I felt the pulse and essence of Nadim’s thought and was onoured to experience it breathe as the night unfolded. As the sun set the installation came alive. The evening also included Kathak performances by Manushi dance in the costumes intspired by the film.
Zoe Rahman’s Tagore at New Art Exchange performed with her brother Idrus and Bengali vocalist Sahana Bajpaie was presented in a complex web of visual interpretations created by the NAE team:Roshni Belakavadi; Andy Lindley; and Maria Rosaria Digergorio. This included Satyajit Ray’s documentary film about Tagore was presented through the architecture of NAE’s square windows becoming live TVs. The live feeds of Zoe’s fingers showed an intricate maestro at work, as she stroked with elegance the Tagore compositions. What presence. Kyaa Baath! Zoe and her team of musicians combined with the visuals created a memorable and immersive moment of magic. Tagore would have smiled! Of course there was the brilliant reinterpretation of ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ a pop video film directed by artist Sooree Pillay and music of Birmingham’s underground ‘Urban Junglee’ of old Shan Bansil, Pritpal Rai, Shivani Mair, Raju Mali and guest Jasmine Rogers as 100 dancers from across Nottingham also joined in with Jay Pollit’s choreography – what fun – I think AR Rahman would be proud!
6 • HOME AND AWAY
Zoe Rahman, Idris Rahman and Sahana Bajpaie performing at NAE for Mela 100, a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore (7 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas)
Common Culture and Director of Programme Melanie Kidd in conversation about their NAE exhibition ‘Not Necessarily in the Right Order’ (26 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas) Café team ready for NAE’s birthday Mohamed Elnahhas (26 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas)
7 • THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY!
Kashif Nadim Chaudry’s installation for ‘Pakeezah’ screening, a bollywood classic to celebrate hundred years of Bollywood cinema (6 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas)
Skinder Hundal and Kashif Nadim Chaudry at Primary for Mela 100 (6 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas) Tech team after Zoe Rahman’s performance for Mela 100 (7 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas)
NAE’s birthday cake, ready to celebrate (26 September, photo by Mohamed Elnahhas)
8 • Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul Biennial Mom am I a Barbarian? by SKINDER HUNDAL
Istanbul, the pivot between east and west, is an extraordinary city. The 13th Istanbul Biennial (IB) curated by Fulya Erdemci, explores the power of the public space, focussing on social struggles, art and politics. Ironically the idea of presenting art in public spaces did not happen in the end. There were complex reasons for this. The title of the Biennial is a quote drawn from the title of a book written by Lale Muldur in 2006. Using Fulya’s words her theoretical axis explores: concepts of multiple public and the public domain as a political forum in light of current conditions; how multiple worlds come together, co-exist and act together; questioning whether we can translate this particular phenomenon on a universal scale; and the relationship between art and literature. The Biennial aims to search and forecast a new engaged future. Fulya tries to explore the voice of the marginalised, those daring to confront the status quo of convention or ‘civil society’ by pooling together a new language, where art is at the heart of shaping the public space. On the surface things seem to be functioning well in Istanbul. Certainly the art scene is very buoyant, with a multitude of public and commercial spaces and an entrepreneurial arts community. Also the secular choice is there, as is the religious practice of Islam. The call to prayer is everywhere and delivered with much soul
and gusto. Istanbul is a lively city, vibrant with energy and generally has a good spirit about it. However serenity, calmness and contentment is not always the reality. Since May 28th this year the Gezi resistance was born, a group protesting about the illegal demolishing of a green space in Istanbul. Due to the mishandling of the situation there have been ongoing protests by the people of Istanbul, challenging an authoritarian regime. Reports of Police brutality are rife and there is much growing descent, especially with the younger generation who feel let down in so many ways. The Biennial, which would have been planned 2 years ago, connects with this moment, forecasting the socio-political context well, even if the reality of the Biennial is often coded with the language of the contemporary art scene and academia, though it is hard to compete with the reality of the street. There are 88 artists and groups engaged across 5 main sites: Antrepo, a Greek primary school, Arter, Salt and 5533. There is much to see and the work is engaging at times, spread across the city with two venues close to Taxim Square, on the front line of action. In this location the street corners are littered with police holding rifles and shields, poised for action – a bit daunting! In fact, at times it all seems unreal, as if the police are part of the Biennial, as performers even. Fernando Gomes, an artist featuring in Istanbul, argues there is no difference between real and artistic space, everything is real.
9 • THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY!
Halil Altindere at the 13th Istanbul Biennial.
Skinder Hundal’s choice from Istanbul Halil Altindere ft Tahribad-ı isyan, presents his 2013 film ‘Wonderland’ at the Antrepo site. The film is shot cleverly across key sites in Istanbul representing a marginalised Roma community in a district called Sulukule, displaced and devalued by commercial developers Skinder Hundal and the bourgeoisie. The style is Urban, is CEO of NAE and pop-MTV-esque, using is interested in the the language, rhythms, ‘emergence’ and rhymes and movement ‘dream’. of Hip Hop. The scenes, at times disturb and disrupt our comfort zones yet are beautifully cinematic, humorous too, with the impossibility of the body distorting as it protests and attacks authority. The rapping and movements are performed by Sulukule kid’s rap group Tahribad-ı isyan who articulate rage against the concretization and sanitizing of their neighborhood, a historic Roma enclave. This work represents the protest of a very true story and is played out in the public space. It is real and reminds me that ‘the street never lies’.
Amanda Abi Khalil’s choice from Istanbul Alchemy, was one of Fulya Erdemci’s theme within her curatorial title for the 13th Istanbul Biennial which focused on public space as a political forum. The Gezi Resistance and the ongoing protests in Turkey made public art commissions impossible; rare (almost none) were the interventions in public domain. The ambitious claim for social and political change, common in the generalized curatorial discourse nowadays and especially in biennials, is a very contested topic. I was very glad and surprised to see that the biennial was free of charge, the catalogue sold for 5 TL !!!(1.66 pounds) Amanda Abi Khalil and all video works is an independent art subtitled in Turkish, curator based in Beirut. nevertheless to what extent do these measures operate alchemy and foster publicness? Sociology of arts and particularly Bourdieu’s theory on symbolic violence would be an important read here. Among the very few site-specific interventions of the biennial, Fernanda Gomes’ was brilliant.
10 • Istanbul Biennial
Fernanda Gomes at the 13th Istanbul Biennial.
She created a space (architectural and autonomous) within a space (Antrepo 3, one of the main venues of the biennial) not an installation but a pure ‘space-time’ underlining the fact that artistic space and real space are the same; both mental spaces, maximizing the possibilities for freedom, emotional experience and perception. What we see are very delicate objects (nails, rubber bands, threads, plastic…) that the Brazilian artist arranged and composed during a 20 days stay in Istanbul, in a space she created for the time of the exhibition, escaping all type of recuperations being the extension of an immersion in her art, the city and her surroundings. It was probably one of the most subtle intervention, yet very thoughtful, questioning alchemy at the heart of its meaning, disdaining art cliché about the readymade and just extending Istanbul’s reality in an ephemeral space, unfinished, not an artwork but something else…
Marianna Maruyama’s choice from Istanbul Carlos Eduardo Felix Da Costa (Cadu)’s small, free booklet Seasons [Estações], gives us, quite simply and at the same time satisfyingly, what we cannot have. The journal entries written over the course of one year, from a small cabin in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro invite readers to touch the impossibility of fully knowing what the artist undertook during his exploration of solitude and selfsustainability. While he provides us with an architectural model and photographs of the hand-made and custom-built space he made and lived in during this term, his words are what let us begin to understand that the individually specific and universal experience of living in a cabin Marianna Maruyama in isolation are is an artist based something that in Amsterdam. can only be lived, Through writing, not experienced sound recording, or mediated. drawing and play, she Refreshingly, Cadu looks for ways that doesn’t act as an movement facilitates authority of this an understanding of experience; doing position. so would degrade the act itself. But in a time when we are constantly questioning the value of having a small autonomous space on this planet, his work makes sense seen as a way of considering an artistic practice as a potential response. Unlike some of the works in the biennial, which have a tendency to address self-sufficiency in the ecological sense, Cadu further challenges his own preconceptions about the need for solitude and sufficiency in a spiritual and creative sense. We are left to conclude that indeed, a season has passed, but we are not certain what will follow.
11 • THE EXCHANGE ON SUNDAY!
Carlos Eduardo Felix Da Costa at the 13th Istanbul Biennial.
Isin Onal top ten from Istanbul 1) Lale Müldür & Kaan Karacehennem w& Franz Von Bodelschwingh; 2) Martin Cordiano; 3) Networks of Dispossession; 4) Sulukule Platform; 5) Toril Johannessen; 6) Vermeir & Heirmans; 7) Basim Magdy; 8) Volkan Aslan; 9) Elmgreen & Dragset; 10) Mika Rottenberg Isin Onal is a freelance curator and writer. She is currently studying for a PHD at the University of Applied Arts in the Cultural Studies department, Vienna.
Devrim Kadirbeyoglu’s selection from ArtInternationa Istanbul ArtInternational, a new and seperate initiative to IB, also launched a few days after IB’s launch, at the Haliç Congress Centre in Istanbul. Bringing together leading international and local galleries, this new modern and contemporary art fair in Istanbul aims to offer access to exciting new art from Turkey, Europe, the Middle East and beyond. Drawing on Its unique geographic location as a gateway between ‘East’ and ‘West’, the fair is well positioned to potentially become a cultural bridge across the global art world. • Koken Ergun; Devrim Kadirbeyoglu • Ekin Ozbicer; is a Turkish artist. • Zsolt Asztalos; • Nasan Tur; • John wood and paul harrison; • Eva and Franco Mattes; • Martin Cordiano/Tomas Espina; • Cevdet Erek; • Hans-Peter Feldmann; • Phil Collins; • Nezaket Ekici; • Shirin Neshat; • Didier Faunstino; • Rina Banerjee; • Samira Abassy; • Volkan Aslan; • Esyalar Ve Zaman ile Munasebetimi Kesemedim; • Egemen Kayitsiz Sartsiz
To find out more about Istanbul Biennial, check out tHIS web page: http://13b.iksv.org/en
12 • COMING UP AT NAE
BRASILIA!
Sunday 20 October 1–7pm NEW ART EXCHANGE ABC Dance School team up with Nottingham School of Samba and Capoeira Angola Nottingham to offer us a day of Brasilian dance and drumming workshops, capoeira demos and performances all over the building! Sample special Brazilian snacks from the bar, and stay for an early evening performance!
New Art Exchange 39-41 Gregory Boulevard Nottingham NG7 6BE
0115 924 8630 info@nae.org.uk
1-3pm NSOS drumming workshop £5/3 concessions 3 -4pm Samba dance workshop £3/2 concessions 4-5pm Capoeira workshop £3/2 concessions 6pm Performance £10/8 concessions