Latifa Echakhch: Les sanglots longs

Latifa Echakhch, Fantasia (empty flag), 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Kamel Mennour, Paris

Kunsthalle Fridericianum (Kassel )

August 29 - November 15, 2009

In August, Kunsthalle Fridericianum will host the installation “Les sanglots longs” by the recognized Moroccan artist Latifa Echakhch (El Khnansa. 1974)

Through her installations and video works, Echakhch critically examines socio-political issues brought about by globalization, the way national symbols are used, as well as cultural differences and social phenomena, without however assuming a cautionary or rhetorical stance.

At once poetic and political, gentle and yet critical, intimate but public, she  removes articles of daily use, culturally defined objects and national symbols from their original context to put them in a different light. Moroccan tea glasses and carpets, airmail envelopes, sugar, worthless carbon paper, as well as legal and political documents take on a new and broader significance under the artist’s gaze. 

She deconstructs the material she selects, but does not destroy it completely, so that viewers can distinguish more precisely the social codes and stereotypes resonating within it. In fact, it is this very act of de- and recontextualization that enables us to decipher and get beyond the social encoding.

In “Les sanglots longs” at the Fridericianum she will tackle the Israel-Palestine conflict. The years and numbers of the corresponding UN resolutions will be displayed on the walls, and they will then in turn be converted into a musical score for piano, which can be heard playing in the background. This musical interpretation of a political document, as one possibility for translating it into another sensory realm, serves at the same time to expand the artist’s own understanding to a different level. The installation will be completed by tapered-wise sculptures made of insulation foam that form islands commanding the entire space.

This year, Latifa Echakhch will present her first solo exhibitions in Germany. Nearly parallel to her new project at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, a second solo show will be on view at the Kunstverein Bielefeld  (September 5 to October 25,  2009).

www.fridericianum-kassel.de