The Aga Khan Museum’s latest exhibit showcases work from twelve artists of middle eastern descent
By by Ayan Kassim for The Varsity, The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
Published: 8:35 pm, 13 September 2015 Modified: 9:45 pm, 13 September 2015
“HomeGround: Contemporary Art from the Barjeel Foundation” is a testimony to the heterogeneous ways that themes of diaspora, immigration, violence, and belonging can be imagined. The exhibit, located at the Aga Khan Museum, mobilizes a wealth of mediums, ranging from film, to paint, to sculpture, by twelve artists of middle eastern descent. The artists, according to curator Suhelya Takesh, are “striving for an ability to remain in place, for the rights to travel, to emigrate, to return, or to feel at home.” Takesh wants guests to note the relationship between geography and self-fashioning.
Home Ground opens with Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour’s sci-fi Nation Estate (2012), which highlights the various entanglements of public and private life in an era of political conflict. >> more
Moving from conflict to immigration, Youssef Nabil’s short film You Never Left (2010) is an evocative exploration into the process of transnational movement. >> more
Despite the range of artists, mediums, and interpretations, the need to belong somewhere is a universal sentiment that the exhibit continually reiterates. Thus, the exhibit demonstrates the cathartic nature of art, and how it can be used as a tool for healing and reconciliation.
Home Ground is a must see.
Home Ground: Contemporary Art from the Barjeel Foundation runs at the Aga Khan Museum until January 3, 2016.
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