Contemporary Art Performance by former students of The UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Institute of South Asian Art (UMISAA, BNU,Lahore)

I thought you might be interested in our girls Kubra and Masooma's activities in Kabul! Please read the press report! These young women are certainly going to change things... Prof Salima Hashmi, SAF- Pakistan, Chairperson

“WWW.Conected?” 

Contemporary Art Performance in Kabul By: Kubra Khademi, Masooma Rezaie, and Zainab Haidary Date of Exhibition: 25th June 2013 Written by Razia Rezaie

 The art exhibition “WWW.Concected?” was an art performance exhibition of three Afghan artists; Kubra Khademi, Masooma Rezaie, and Zainab Haidary within the concept of contemporary art. It was placed in French Cultural Center where most of art exhibition takes place.  This art exhibition was significant in many ways which made slightly interesting in terms of the contemporary art in Afghanistan.  First of all, this art exhibition was running by a group of young women who were in search of a connection between the subjectivity of their actions within the space that contemporary art styles have created for them. Second, the impact of their work on the audience was not only amusing the artists and art critics, but also the audiences themselves.

“WWW.Conected?”  was a performance of three artists that tried to make sense of their action with three different ways.  Coming inside the exhibition you would face with an artist (Zainab Haidary) carrying a wheelbarrow full of milky white plastic. In the first glance, it seemed as if there is something inside the plastics. She stood in each corner and started hanging them.

After a few seconds following her action you realize that she actually blowing the plastics and hanging them in the walls, each corners, and sometimes on peoples shoulder or their dresses. Looking at her action encourages the audiences to help her do her job. Soon, the audiences would be attracted by a huge voice of a woman screaming constantly for a while and a symbolic movement of another woman (Masooma Rezaie) wearing black dresses in the hall.  The voice of scream was quite disturbing and made a tension for audiences to look around and search for some connectivity between the action of first woman and the movement of second woman and the scream all together.  These frightening scream led the audience to look around and start asking question. They saw the portrait of second woman in the wall and by this time they found an installation of a human (Kubra Khademi) hanged from the roof second floor with black dresses. The installation looked like two people taking each other’s hand and one sitting in the ladder and the other hanged from her foot. This art performance took about an afternoon and audiences were amazed, confused, and shocked by their art.

 Nevertheless, it took them to a certain experiences that were completely strange for them, and led them questioning themselves and other people around them about the action and its meaning. This action of questioning happened unintentionally in the audiences to make connection between their understanding of the performance and others. Everyone during the exhibition tried hardly to make some connections between their feelings and understandings and the actions of the performances. This action of connectivity which gave them a sense of hesitation, confusion and shock were in the face of many audiences and latter among the ideas       

 
What is significant about this

new phase of art performance in Kabul is the space it creates for audiences to think more critically and respond to the art and creation that they look at them. The audiences in this sort of contemporary art forms cannot leave the exhibit without listening to the ideas and thoughts of the rest of audiences and artists. They realized that they need to understand, and to make sense of the art. This process of understanding made them to take a position, share their views, and participate in the discussions and open a dialogue with the rest of audiences to insure that they comprehended just like other people. Some of them found strong attachments with some actions of the performance and they wanted other people to understand their emotions and thoughts. Some other people did not like the performance; and they thought that it is ridicules to spend their times in this exhibition because it disturbed them. This subjectivity of the performers through their action caused audience to search for new meaning and interpretation in the exhibition.

Thus, contemporary art has its first steps in Afghanistan. People rarely can think of an art that is not attached in its meaning.  Leading this sort of art performance that brings a sense of subjectivity and immediate movements in audiences’ views is what these three afghan artists aimed to create within their art. “WWW.Connectet?” can be a question as well as a link in response to the audiences that were in the process of making new sense out of actions in their society.

Photo gallery

Mr. Najam Sethi, SAF-Pakistan, Vice Chairperson interacting with SAF Scholar
Mr. Najam Sethi, SAF-Pakistan, Vice Chairperson visiting Art Gallery

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