Keeping the conversation going
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
My research reflects alertness to thrust creative practice from ‘applying’ a concept into ‘performing’ urgencies: catalysing the designer-researcher and public's positions toward participating in the analysis, conception, proposition and creation processes. At this historical period, when the climate, economic, governmental and democratic systems are in crises. Powers are shifting, and profoundly at stake, my research undoubtedly takes on another more relevant dimension.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
A set of two chairs and a table were installed at several public locations across the City of Chemnitz throughout one month, as an episode within the group project, ‘Rearranging the City’, curated by Pfelder and Simone Zaugg. At each location, a politician and a commoner were invited for an exclusive three-course meal. This public intervention creates a platform, which offered in addition to the culinary delight, dialogue among people, which otherwise would not meet; exchange of their views and intensively discuss topics that are urgent and relevant to their city that ranged from culture, politics, economic, closing down businesses, social gaps to city history and development. Menu with proposed topics was handed. Summaries of the conversations and documentation of the dinners were displayed simultaneously at Weltecho in a setting of audio-visual installation in progress. A blog was launched; it included an introductory page, news and documentation about the project and an open submission for the public to reserve dinner with politicians. Many individuals and institutions were contributed to the project free of charge, including local restaurants which prepared the dinners.
The 2010 Conservative manifesto: A country is at its best when the bonds between people are strong and when the sense of national purpose is clear. Today the challenges facing Chemnitz/Germany are immense. Our economy is overwhelmed by debt, our social fabric is frayed, and our political system has betrayed the people. But these problems can be overcome if we pull together and work together. If we remember that we are all in this together. Some politicians say: ‘give us your vote and we will sort out all your problems’. We say: real change comes not from government alone. Real change comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, when millions of us are fired up to play a part in the nation’s future.
Key objectives for sustainability
Who cares to care about SUStainability?
The global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) had reached 28 billion tonnes when Climate Change Summit Rio 1992 took place, then 32 billion tonnes by Climate Change Summit Tokyo 1997, got up to 34 billion tonnes, Climate Change Summit Copenhagen 34 now gets over 40. What are the expectations for The 26th UN Climate Change Conference, which will take place in November 2021, at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow?
In order to have a glimpse of how commissions contribute to the climate crisis, please have a glance at Climate change and COP26 - An open call for creative commissions. The British Council is inviting applications for creative commissions that bring together art, science and digital technology and offer innovative responses to climate change. The commissions will be part of the cultural programme in the build up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which the UK is hosting in Glasgow in November 2021. There can be no doubt that this forwarded system is one root of the cultural misery of society and climate crisis, nor that these foundations need radical reform.
Stand out
Wonder about
What are they?
Are players? or actors
Climate crisis
Human made
an individual action
across the globe
Change the scene
Stand between
Large economic
social, Political forces
Shape the Earth
The combination
Particular reality
They are individuals
Like us
made of
The environment
Thank you; thank you very much I'm very honoured to be here today and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to address you. We've been talking about saving the Amazon for 30 years. Sting held a concert to save the Amazon right here in New York and we're still talking about it… we need to defund the mechanisms the perverse tax subsidies the lending policies and the institutional investments that fuel deforestation… we need to protect the planet. Harrison Ford, UN Climate Action Summit 2019
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
(...) With 50 pounds in my pocket, I went to antique shops searching for a like baroque side cabinet to make a wardrobe out of it, opening its top panel and fix it upside down in the ceiling of the arcade in Chelsea College London. I was delighted and inspired by what I have seen but seeing the actual price of the pieces has vanished my plan. I went back to the College seeking an alternative approach; my mind sparked with a conception of ‘The Aesthetic of Zero Budget: the potentials of limitation’. Durable solutions require genuine thought and performance. I have made a wardrobe from wood offcuts. It was an uplifting experience; I have tested the sharp edge of the risk and the sublime beauty of anxiety.
Since I was graduated from MA Interior and Spatial Design course in 2009, I have been desperately searching for a wood workshop to develop my research and skills further through prototyping my designs and secure a regular income, but only short work periods were available. There are very few workshops charging unaffordable fees. However, most of them are not sufficient in terms of equipment and facilities. Designer-researcher faces a challenging vocation where no workbench to test and develop his research. During college course, students are hardly secure sufficient time to achieve the course assignments. Many students graduate with debt; the ‘lucky’ graduate may find a job in firms to execute the others’ designs, works as a salesman in furniture store, attendant in design venue or jobless, thus where and when designer-maker could develop his research? In 2010 I approached a renowned designer about prototyping my designs; he kindly replied, “Workshop space is extremely difficult to find at a reasonable price these days. I've been in business for over 10 years, and it is still a struggle for me... I am now on my 3rd business premises, and it looks like we may have to move on again in a few months. Rent is high, and space is limited.”
Key objectives for inclusion
I undertook the approval of my application to participate in the ‘Forecast’ Forum at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) Berlin 2014; although, no genuine reason was on stage. I knew from experiences and the HKW project settings I have to apply the institute’s regulations, processing my research to fit the 36 white boxes and setting them on grids according to the given instructions and template. However, the four days working on the exhibition at HKW was the most challenging, interesting, inspiring and productive period I had; it had constituted rehearse on refusal working strategy, a counterapproach to the European laid ‘siege’ against my ‘illegal’ performance. I knew beforehand that I am out of the competition even before receiving the HKW invitation. Hence, I invested whatever in hand to rehearse my impossible existence. I rehearse the momentum of ‘Now’ within the given conditions. On 3-days, I did a series of interventions at the HKW lobby and outdoor. While I was intervening in the spaces with the given white boxes, the Forecast curator and the mentor have approached me several times, “you have to set your booth at the allocated spot and design”. On Friday afternoon, the staff dismantling installation, which was a forecasted scenario. I had adhered A4 statement on the left boxes, which was removed a few minutes later. I was prepared for such 'Democratic' action too; I had other copies that I adhered to on the boxes and other spots; thereupon, they realised there is no way to stop my performance/protest.
I am experiencing more oppressive tactics than what I had experienced under the totalitarian regime,
— But, here, you won’t be imprisoned or executed,” said a staff
"Behead a man rather than cut off his livelihood." I cited an Arabic proverb
I left for fresh air, there was a street maintenance division set a stage ready for another illegal intervention. A4 prints were jumped from my bag and stuck on the barriers: What if Mohamed redecorates the white house?
Results in relation to category
I have to confess; I am not a Loyal Swedish Post-architect knighted by The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. I also confirm that I am not a Norwegian curator, even I was awarded MA curating certificate by Oslo National Academy of the Arts in a ceremony I refused to attend. I am definitely not a British architect, although I was handed a MArch Architectural Design certificate from Bartlett-UCL. I am undoubtedly not an English designer either, regardless that I hold MA Interior and Spatial Design license issued by Chelsea College. I repeatedly saying I am not an artist; neither a Netherlander contemporary artist, although I pursued two years of Fine Art Research at JVE Academy, Maastricht. Irrespective of my four-year course at the Fashion design department, G. Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, I was not labelled as a Dutch fashion designer either. The years of pursuing a BA sculpture course at the College of Fine Arts, University of Baghdad wouldn’t be regulated on European point-based grading. Despite of being awarded these university degrees by prestigious (the cultural and artistic misery of society) institutions, participating in numerous of residency programmes, workshops and fellowships, delivering numerous of presentations, lectures and workshops, and creating enormous wide range of art and design works in visual art, architecture, interior, furniture, fashion, textile, graphic design and curating. Thus, please do not be misled by the bunch of paper that I used to curry for writing notes, you may think I am a write. One morning I waked up with a photo-camera in my hand; positively I am not a photographer! Walking on tightrope doesn’t make me a performer. However, some people think that I am a storyteller, others think that I have a shop; I let them think so. Shockingly enough that I have been stoned heavily by ‘Democratic’ societies than the societies that ruled by totalitarian regimes. I am accused by being the other. Hence, I am the other, here-fore I am
How Citizens benefit
The institution of art drags more and more in self-flattering of continuous executing of 18th century precepts that went unquestioned and unchallenged for centuries. If there were few doubts about the actual brain death of the institution of art and the paralysed art practices since the end of Dada ‘upheaval’ against the continuous domination of the Fine Arts precepts, the Covid-19 outbreak had broken down these particles of doubts. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced shutdown of all ‘live’ events, exhibitions, travel and public presentations and the academia has altered and stuck to ZOOM-class through uploading the same outdated materials. The art venues adopted a drive-thru exhibition, outdoor projecting images of their exhibits and or virtual viewing of collection, performances and speeches. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Rotterdam Ahoy have entered into a ‘unique’ partnership: a drive-thru exhibition. From 1 to August 23rd, 2020, you can drive your own or a borrowed electric car through Rotterdam Ahoy’s 10,000 m2 Hall 1 and see more than fifty high-profile artworks from the collection of the Museum. Todays’ art professionals derive ‘solutions’ from drive-thru McDonald, as contemporary people don’t distinguish between junk food and junk in museums, which is flagrantly demonstrating how contemporary societies became so ignorant to the act of seeing and perceiving. How radical are the ridiculous and pathetic contemporary realities? Nevertheless, Italy’s coronavirus lockdown didn’t stop two girls from sharpening their tennis skills; they played a thrilling rooftop tennis rally in April 2020.
Let me tell you one thing. In the world we live in, 98% of what gets built and designed today is pure sh*t. Frank Gehry response was followed by an uncomfortable silence at the press conference. “Please, you have to understand that I’m tired and a little dazed by the trip,” he said. “I’ll mumble an apology.” Obviously, dissenting voices must be suppressed democratically too
Innovative character
The 2-year Research at JVE Academy was a substantial period to investigate the precepts of art practices, theories, perceptions and the politicisation/commoditisation of art; the physicality of artwork, gallery, invitation card, press release, opening hours, audience, etc. I had concluded that ‘institutionalised art’ is about executing things according to well-known standards and signing the contract. In the following year, I performed four events in four weeks instead of a one-month exhibition at Hedah Art Centre: How is afraid of Mohamed, How to make an exhibition for people won’t come? Since then, I had departed from studio practice and exhibition precepts.
Dec 2002: I got liberated from ‘I’ as the reference to my performance, since then I am absent in the present of the third person; May 2003: I was ruptured with the outdated Western European/North American dominated art canon and –isms; Jan 2004: constructing a virtual room to sustain art as an act of urgency requires practitioner in a state of emergency; Feb 2008: I was released from the role of the maker, I become an observer of what is happening; Nov 2011: contemporary art practice; it is rather about creating a context where a thing could perform contemporarily, and approach was emerged; Rehearse on Refusal 2014, a counterapproach to the institution of art’s laid siege against my illegal performance was constituted; Mar 2018: art is an ongoing rehearsal on becoming rather than a being; in other words, art is continuous exercises on articulating researcher’s thought and performance; Nov 2018: an absolute rupture with the contemporary realities, which has engendered the necessary circumstances and preconditions for alteration from rehearsing in a virtual room into Augmented Reality to questioning and challenging the legitimacy of the commonly accepted cultural, social, and religious norms, revealing their hypocritical and repressive nature. Either you serve the mainstream, or you become an extremist.
