[spectre] (fwd) rev. exh. art from islamic countries at MoMA

[Andreas Broeckmann]

(cross-posted from the Sarai Reader-List)
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list


http://www.observer.com/20060403/20060403_Tyler_Green_culture_newsstory1.asp
MoMA Keeps the Walls Clean;
Islamic Show Sans Politics


As an Iranian-American artist who was effectively exiled from her
homeland, Shirin Neshat was happy to be included in an exhibition of
artists from the Islamic world.  But when the opportunity came-Without
Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking opened at the Museum of Modern Art
on Feb. 26-Ms. Neshat was upset.

Without Boundary is the most important exhibit MoMA has launched in at
least a decade, and it's the first exhibition of contemporary art from
the Islamic world in a major American museum since 9/11. The show
features 14 artists from Islamic countries, an Indian born to Muslim
parents, and two Americans (Mike Kelley and Bill Viola were added late
in the show's development). Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey and Pakistan
are represented in the exhibition, though nearly all of the artists
from those countries now primarily work in the West. The exhibition is
a reminder of the difficulties that museums face when it comes to
merging-or not-art and politics.

"My immediate reaction was, how could anyone today discuss art made by
contemporary Muslim artists and not speak about the role the subjects
of religion and contemporary politics play in the artists' minds?" Ms.
Neshat said. "For some of us, our art is interconnected to the
development of our personal lives, which have been controlled and
defined by politics and governments. Some artists, including Marjane
Satrapi and myself, are `exiled' from our country because of the
problematic and controversial nature of our work."

Ms. Neshat is right: Many of the artists in the show have addressed
the exilic condition and geopolitics in their art, but you wouldn't
know that from Without Boundary. There's not a single reference in the
show to the United States being at war in two Muslim countries, to its
running intelligence operations in others, to its "war" against an
Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization, or to how the civil
liberties of many Muslims have been affected by the governmental
response to 9/11. Without Boundary often seems more a product of RISD
than Ramallah.

Much of the work in the show, such as Shahzia Sikander's painted and
drawn manuscript-style works, or Rachid Koraïchi's silk tapestry,
update traditional Islamic media. Mona Hatoum and Shirana Shahbazi
present takes on the traditional prayer mat, as does Mr. Kelley. What
relation Mr. Kelley has to the other artists on view is unclear,
except that his piece pokes traditional Islamic art in the arabesque.
Artists such as Emily Jacir, Ms. Hatoum and Ms. Neshat, who are best
known for aestheticizing complicated sociopolitical situations, are
represented by less sensitive work.

"Given the conservative nature of the United States and the
restrictive policies in American institutions, there is not the
freedom to directly address certain sociopolitical situations like
Iraq and Afghanistan," Ms. Jacir said.

That artists included in a show at the Museum of Modern Art would
speak out against that show is highly unusual. MoMA is the most
powerful art museum in the world, and the pressure from gallerists and
collectors to not criticize the museum is intense. Outspokenness can
hurt relationships that could lead to important sales or inclusion in
exhibitions. For Ms. Neshat and Ms. Jacir to be willing to speak out
is an indication of the complicated politics involved in this kind of
show-and of how the show's apolitical nature has frustrated its artists.

MoMA has ensured that its presentation elides global affairs. Museum
director Glenn Lowry even wrote an essay for the magazine ARTnews
about the exhibit, an uncommon step for a museum director to take.
"The tension between old and new, past and present," he wrote, "is
still being played out today as artists from the Islamic world
confront the challenge of making contemporary art for an international
audience grounded in European values and ideas."

The show's introductory wall text also steers viewers away from
thinking about geopolitics: "This exhibition addresses the application
of the unexamined rubric `Islamic' to contemporary artists," wrote
curator Fereshteh Daftari. (Ms. Daftari was unavailable for an
interview, according to MoMA, as was Mr. Lowry.) "In the complex
expressions that draw inspiration from different traditions and defy
simplistic categorizations, these artists belie the mentality of
division and the binary oppositions of present-day politics."

In other words: There are no politics here. Come look at the pretty
things that are all, somehow, `Islamic.'

"What I found disappointing was how, when Glenn Lowry wrote a lengthy
article discussing the exhibition, he managed to reduce his discussion
and analysis of so-called `contemporary Islamic art' to only those who
avoided the subject of politics all together," Ms. Neshat said, adding
that she had already shared these thoughts with Mr. Lowry. "Much of
the discussion remained on, for example, how certain artists have
succeeded in transforming traditional Islamic art and aesthetics into
a contemporary interpretation.

"My conclusion was then that either Mr. Lowry had a distaste for
political content in art, or that by avoiding discussion of political
artists, he was avoiding political discussion altogether."

Like her art, Ms. Neshat's frustration is born from her biography. She
was born in the Shah's Iran, but left as a teenager to attend school
in the United States. During the Islamic revolution, one of Ms.
Neshat's friends was killed, and the new government, headed by the
Ayatollah Khomeini, stole her family's farm. Ms. Neshat decided to
stay in the United States. Then, after a 1996 visit home-and just as
Ms. Neshat's artwork was beginning to receive substantial
international attention-the Iranian government detained her as she was
leaving Tehran International Airport for home.

"They gave me just enough trouble so that the message was: I shouldn't
re-enter," Ms. Neshat said. She hasn't been back in 10 years.

On view in Without Boundary are two photographs from Ms. Neshat's
mid-1990's Women of Allah series, which questions Islamic gender
norms, and a photographic still from her 2003 film installation, The
Last Word. That the photograph is here instead of the film is strange:
The Last Word has never been shown in a United States museum. It is
intensely sociopolitical and quintessential Neshat. It shows a woman
being confronted by an interrogating oppressor, and how the beauty of
Islamic poetry gives her the strength to defy her oppressor. The film
is about hiding fear and showing strength in the face of dictatorial
oppression and, less directly, about Islam and gender.

Ms. Jacir, a Palestinian-American artist, also makes work that
directly challenges political arrangements. She is best known for art
that spotlights the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli
government. In Sexy Semite, Ms. Jacir placed personal ads for
Palestinians looking for Israeli mates in The Village Voice.  "YOU
STOLE THE LAND, MAY AS WELL TAKE THE WOMEN," one ad said. In another
work, Ms. Jacir took advantage of her U.S. passport to quickly pass
through Israeli military checkpoints and to perform tasks for
Palestinians in Palestine. She photo-documented her experiences, and
pieces from the project were shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.

In Without Boundary, Ms. Jacir's video installation Ramallah/New York
shows a series of scenes-a barbershop, a convenience-store checkout
counter-from both Ramallah and New York, displayed side by side. In
each scene, it's hard to tell which video was shot in Ramallah and
which was shot here. Ms. Daftari skipped all of Ms. Jacir's more
political work and chose to exhibit the tamest Jacir imaginable.

"Historically, any Palestinian narrative is regularly censored in this
country," Ms. Jacir said. "This makes it extremely challenging to show
work here. So now with the fact that we are living under the Bush
administration, with its policy of occupation, torture and detention,
and are battling for civil liberties, freedom of expression and
political activism, it is clear why contextualizing the political
situation some of us in the show are coming from would be whitewashed."

Historically, MoMA has been politically inclined, and it has often
been willing to exhibit work with political content. During its recent
installation of contemporary art from its permanent collection, the
museum showed South African William Kentridge's Felix in Exile, a
video in which Mr. Kentridge revisits his country's apartheid past,
and Russian Ilya Kabakov's The Man Who Flew Into His Picture, which
addresses the repression of life in the Soviet Union. But those takes
had the distance of time to soften their content.

MoMA's political involvement has extended well beyond its gallery
hangings. In 1952, MoMA inaugurated its "International Program." A
kickoff grant for the program was steered to the museum by MoMA board
president Nelson Rockefeller, who was in charge of the U.S.
government's World War II intelligence operations in Latin America.
Under Rockefeller, the overlaps between the Central Intelligence
Agency, its front organizations, and MoMA's board of trustees and
funders were overwhelming. Rockefeller even hired a museum director,
Rene d'Harnoncourt, who had worked for the same government
intelligence agency that Rockefeller had led.

"There is no prima facie evidence for any formal agreement between the
C.I.A. and the Museum of Modern Art," wrote Frances Stonor Saunders in
The Cultural Cold War, her remarkable history of the period. "The fact
is it simply wasn't necessary."

During the Cold War, the International Program circulated dozens of
exhibits that made clear the cultural glory possible in a free
society. Today, that's more difficult.

Circulating shows in 2006 is immensely more expensive than it was in
1956. Jay Levenson, the current director of the museum's International
Program, pointed out that now art is more financially valuable and has
to be insured at a higher level. Shipping costs more. The museums,
artists and collectors who circulate shows expect host institutions to
have climate control and other modern amenities. And, perhaps most
importantly, during much of the Cold War the dollar was much stronger
than it is now. Still, Without Boundary may travel outside the United
States, and maybe context will make the show seem more engaged.

"I think it's still a possibility, if someone expresses interest in
it," Mr. Levenson said. "What sometimes happens with a show if they're
put together fairly late is that it's not so easy to travel it,
because most of the exhibition centers are planning their schedule
several years in advance.

"Also, working with professionals from [the Islamic] world is
something we'd have moved into earlier, but I don't have a feeling yet
how easy it is to get people back and forth," Mr. Levenson said,
referring to the visa problems that have plagued American cultural
institutions since the federal government cracked down on foreign
travel into the U.S. after 9/11. "It wouldn't surprise me if this is
the start of some additional discussions."

Perhaps the real change between the way MoMA was involved in politics
during the Cold War and now is the maturation of the museum. Today,
MoMA is more corporate, more like General Motors or McKinsey than the
New Museum.

At least by merely opening Without Boundary, MoMA has made it easier
for smaller museums to create shows of contemporary work from the
Islamic world. Now, if a curator in, say, Des Moines suggests this
kind of show to her board and some of its members express unease with
the idea, the curator can say, "But MoMA did it. And they included
artists from Palestine, Iran and Lebanon. So why can't we? Heck, we
can even do better."

Monica Narula
Raqs Media Collective
Sarai-CSDS
29 Rajpur Road
Delhi 110054
www.raqsmediacollective.net
www.sarai.net


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