"CURATING THE TRUTH"

THE SAINTS - Artwork series

Reorienting the Orient

In January 2010, my gallery in Brussels received a message from two young American curators, Till Fellrath and Sam Bardaouil, inviting me to participate to an exhibition project in « Mathaf », the museum of Doha (Qatar). In his message, Sam Bardaouil, the curatorial director of "Art Reoriented", a new artistic platform focusing on projects in the Middle East based in Munich, New York and Beirut, presented  the project "Told / Untold / Retold" as « an international event covered by international general and art press and media. For this opening, the exhibition brings forth the idea of art as story telling where each featured artist is a narrator with their own story to tell be it personal or collective ».  https://vernissage.tv/2011/02/14/tolduntoldretold-at-mathaf-arab-museum-of-modern-art-doha-qatar/

S.Bardaouil wrote : « I would like to invite one of your artists, Hassan Musa, to be amongst the artists who the museum would like to commission new works from to be acquired for the permanent collection and to be revealed in the above mentioned exhibition. Hassan's work has a language which transcends geographic boundaries and  any exploration of works by artists from the Arab world would not be complete without him being represented in it as his work presents the international community with a unique story as well as a departure point in genre and style ».

To tell « the truth », I knew nothing about « Art-Reoriented », nor  about the “Mathaf », before  I received the mail of Sam Bardaouil. But each time I read  someone praising my work I feel very happy. Maybe because I know that there are so many good artists and so many attractive art works in the world today, that it is becoming almost impossible to pick one particular artist from the crowd and justify your choice. So why me ?! Of course I am not going to answer this stupid question ! (I can also ask :Why anybody else ?!). 

To tell « the truth »,(once more), I liked the idea of showing my work with  some good artists I know , ( Ghada Amer, Kader Attia, Lara Baladi,   Abdelkader Benchamma, Mounir Fatmi, Amal Kenawy,  Hassan Khan, Youssef Nabil, Walid Raad, Zineb Sedira, Khaled Takreti,  Akram Zaatari…etc.) 

The « truth» (encore !), is that, I loved the encouraging words of Sam Bardaouil and that was inspiring enough to make me dig out an old project with the untold part of the most told and retold story of the Arabe narrative tradition : « The Thousand and One Nights ». Everybody knows the marvelous tales of The Nights  with their Sindbads, their Ali Babas, their Genies in the Magic Lamps and Flying Carpets etc., but few can tell the dark bloody horrifying origin of the Nights. This untold part of the Nights is crucial for the understanding of the situation of women (and men) in the contemporary Arab world (and beyond).

The tales starts with a Sultan of Baghdad slaughtering his wife because he discovered that she loves another man. After that, the Sultan started taking new wives and slaughtering them the second day because he couldn’t trust women anymore. The people of Baghdad was so worried that they escaped the town to save their daughters. Scheherazade, who was the daughter of the Sultan’s Vizir, begged her father to marry her with the Sultan because she wanted to save the women of Baghdad. She convinced her father that she knows how to stop the killing. From the first wedding night, Schehrazade started telling a fascinating endless story that lasted the whole night and the thousand nights after. Every night each tale generated new tales and the Sultan, captured in the charm of story telling, gave up his murderous penchant of slaughtering wives. At the end of 1,001 nights, Scheherazade told the Sultan that she had no more tales to tell him. But she knew that the Sultan had fallen in love with her. He spared her life and made her his queen. Scheherazade dominated the Sultan by her literary wit and managed to stop the massacre. She lived in peace with her husband and never mentioned the bloody past period in her repertory.

Artificial Orient

The trouble with the Nights starts when the readers get caught in the delicious literary trap of the narrative. They share complicity with the Sultan’s crimes when they follow the wonderful tales pretending not to see the heap of slaughtered young wives lying in the entrance of the Nights. Each one of these slaughtered ex- wives should have a story worthy of being told. This is where my work  in « L’ Alphabet de Schehrazade » ( Grandir publisher, 2000) offered me the opportunity to deal with the problematic question of the « Told, untold , retold » project. My book, « L’ Alphabet de Schehrazade »,  was designed to tell the singularities of each of the victims in the nights before the Nights. https://www.editionsgrandir.eu.

The  general complicity with the Nights immoral principals is  silently shared by story tellers who never questioned the ambivalent attitude of Scheherazade towards both the murderer  and the victims. The Nights ignore all standards of morality. Scheherazade accepted to marry the murderer Sultan, pretending to save women, then when she had access to power she betrayed her initial  political project: Justice for women. Instead, she became a good housewife interested only in her family.

From a religious point of view, since the tales refer regularly to traditional Muslim principals, the Nights ignore  stipulations of Muslim law : Murderers are to be executed, unless relatives accept compensation(« Diya »). But the murderer didn’t only escape God’s punishment, he also won an honorable status as the happiest repentant in history of literature. The children that Scheherazade and the Sultan  should have are condemned to reproduce the model of the criminal parents. Just like  his Excellence MBS (Mohamed Bin Sultan), who loves marrying journalists in the evening and killing them in the morning.

 The hidden wisdom in this bloody narrative is simple : it is a bold illustration of how literature can be useful as a tool of ideological manipulation. If the celebration of the Nights seems to arouse greater enthusiasm in Europe and North America than in the Middle east societies. It is probably because the Nights stand as the best emblem for this eternal Orient invented by  the colonial Europe on crusade memory. The European version of the Nights obliterates  the realities of  Arab societies trapped in underdevelopment , annexed to global capitalist market and tyrannized by local dictators.This real Orient  immersed in oil wars is different from the artificial Orient, made in Hollywood, that enchanted 20th century imaginations. As long as the Arab societies are trapped in the geopolitics of oil, no Arab society can hope for  a « spring » of liberty.

 A Lamborghini for « Madam Sebastian »

For the « Art reoriented » project, I proposed : « Madam Sebastian or the untold stories in the Arabian nights", a visual installation composed of two pieces: One sculptural and the other, graphic. The sculptural piece represents a woman in traditional black  tunic « Abaya » with tubes inserted in her body evoking Saint Sebastian’s arrows. The tubes are connected to a fountain pump hidden under the piece and sending red liquid from inside the woman’s body. The graphic piece represents a reclining woman, a 4X4meters black and white calligraphy of the Arabic letter "Fa". The sculptural piece is facing the second piece on the wall, (See joined images).

Few days after sending my project to the curators, my gallery transferred the reaction of Sam Bardaouil. A perfect piece of anthology for the curating literature of contemporary (Arab?) art. In their message « Art reoriented » curators revealed the « untold » proposition of their mission : Imposing the political authority of their funders over the contemporary art scene by « reorienting » artists in the « good » direction. Please read it, it is very instructive :


De : Sam Bardaouil/ Till Fellrath art re orient ed <sbardaouil@artreoriented.com>

Date : Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:31:27 -0400

À : Hassan musa <musa.p@neuf.fr>

Cc : galerie  pascal polar <pp@pascalpolar.be>

Objet : Update on Hassan's Proposal

We are very happy that Hassan has chosen to work with the theme of Scheherazade which fits perfectly with the concept of the exhibition.

While we appreciate the idea for a textile/painting collage and a fountain installation, we feel, given the other proposals in the exhibition and from a curatorial perspective, that it would be much stronger if Hassan focuses his work on creating a major textile piece on a scale bigger than anything he has ever done in the past in which he could incorporate the story of Scheherazade (Told) the stories of all the other women who were not as lucky as Scheherazade and his interpretation of what their stories and narratives were (The Untold stories). This way his art works become equivalent to the retold part of the concept of the exhibition.

I also need to bring to your attention that the work can not have any nudity as this is culturally offensive to some of the people in the direct sociological context of the museum and we would like to attract people and engage them and make them grow with us rather than alienate and push them away. Thank you for your understanding. 

We have also allocated up to $ 10,000 for the execution of the piece and we will also pay for the shipping, the installation and the flying of the artist and one person if needed for the opening and the installation which will be in the first week of December. The opening is on the 9th of December.

Please let me know your thoughts on this. As soon as everyone is agreed we will proceed swiftly to sign the contract and advance 50% of the commission amount to you so that Hassan can begin the work. The second 50% will be paid upon the completion of the work.  and we are looking forward to seeing you at Hassan’s studio this summer.

Once the commission is in action we also need to know the purchase price of the work which will be agreed upon as well.

Kindest regards and we look forward to your reply,

Sam

 ………………………

So, If I understand Bardaouil’s message correctly, the «  Art reoriented » curators wanted to reorient my art work and keep it for the « Mathaf» collection for only $ 10,000 ? And if the generous curators were able to « reorient » the works of the other 23 artists participating in the« Mathaf » exhibition, then the total price of 24 Arab artists should be less than$ 300,000. A little less than what one may pay for a new Lamborghini Huracan ! I know that very few Arab artists can afford a Lamborghini Huracan, but I am wondering about the type of cars a « reorientering » curator can afford ?

The  curator’s truth

To tell the truth, there is no better end for this «Reoriented tale »  than a truthful story about the true identity of the curator. According to the dictionary, a curator is the person in charge of a museum or an art collection. But in law terms a curator is guardian of a minor, lunatic or other incompetent persons.

Well, the trouble with  the curator is that today the organisation of important artistic events involves important amounts of money. Behind the money question there are people with their projects and conflicts. In this context, the curator who is in charge of 20 artist  becomes suddenly  more important than  any one of the artists he is presenting. This situation metamorphoses the curator from a simple organizer  to a designer of an event where each art work appears as  quotation of discourse that artists can not control. Here I can tell my  Big Bad Banana curator tale:

It is about a Young banana artist walking in the art jungle, when suddenly he found himself in front of Big Bad Banana curator.The BBB said : If you can tell me three things which are all true I will not eat you. 

YB said : First of all if you were really hungry you wouldn’t have asked me questions. « Well , this is true, what is the second truth ? ». 

YB said « If I knew that I will meet you  I wouldn’t have left home ».

 « Well this is also true, what the third truth ? », said the BBB.

 «  Well, when I tell my parents that I  met BBB they will not believe me ». 

“Hah ha ha, you are  a very intelligent guy but I have to eat you otherwise I will not be loyal to my reputation.”

The young banana is finally eaten by the Big Bad Banana because they do not have the same ambition.

Curators do not work for the artists nor for the art. They work for the art patron who hired them. This nude figure in my installation was not well received by the curators, "For sociological reasons" ! May Allah bless the inventors of sociology, for sociology seems to be the only monster that the curators fear. 

Hassan Musa (April 9,2020)