“Abdulnasser Gharem is a conceptual artist in Saudi Arabia, a country where creative freedom is hard to find. But he is also a soldier in the government army. “The army gave me the strength to have for my mission. Patience ‘
“Nobody cared about my talent ‘
[Image] Abdulnasser Gharem during his performance ‘Flora and Fauna’ in 2007By Carolien RoelantsMany young Saudis find that their country needs to change. But unlike the older generation of activists they do not believe in confrontation with the authorities. The first Saudi female filmmaker, Haifaa Mansour, made her film Wadjda about dreams and progress and hopes to put the viewers to think about. Conceptual artist Abdulnasser Gharem (1973) is another important example: “I do not crash,” he says in an interview in Riyadh. “I am looking for a new angle to look anywhere, for that to the people to submit.”There is some movement in the Saudi art scene, there have recently been two or three galleries in Riyadh. But contemporary art remains a problem in Saudi Arabia, where the ultra-conservative version of Islam puts a heavy mark on life. The clergy is still not matter whether or not music haram, religiously prohibited,. There is now a budding film industry, but there are no cinemas. There is no music or art. “They are trying to murder art,” said a Saudi intellectual.
“They,” that’s not just the clergy. King Abdullah has in recent years created a bit of space, but often the bureaucrats who apply the brakes. And they are the people themselves block change.
“Society creates blockages, they can not move,” said Gharem. Among his best known works are roadblocks and traffic signs: “I put them down for the people, so that they do not know what to do. The barriers that I make are again full of stamps. It says:. Do not trust the concrete We block ourselves by some stupid idea from any angle, without us analyze. Since I’m against. ”
Gharem is one of the most important pioneers of conceptual art in Saudi Arabia. The confusing part is that he is military, Lieutenant-colonel in the army, “about a month or six I get promoted to brigadier general.” For how can you be both a good soldier and a good artist – orders are orders against spiritual freedom?
“I come from a small town in the south. At that time, more than twenty years ago, it meant that if you were an officer. Nobody cared about my talent. The family thought it was a disaster – it is haram, what you gonna do? I was frustrated in my mission to become an artist. But the army gave me the strength to have for my mission. “Patience
In turn, the army does not want to lose him. “I’m good at technology, so there I develop everything for them. And the army like me now, recently they have considered my work as an artist and they have given me leave three years. That is the power of art. They see my usefulness to the country. ”
The right path
Gharem name made in 2003 with the work Siraat: a group of people he painted the surface of a collapsed bridge near his home town filled with the word “path”. “For a Muslim, the word means ‘path’ lots. You speak more than a hundred times a day when you pray. It is a consequence of the Muslim to find. “The right path
It was a performance, but a new path – it is the beginning of the era of contemporary art in Saudi Arabia. “The people are also looking for a new path. I searched for a common cause, which would bring to think about our vision or references or to which we seek us together. At the end, the bridge is broken. It is an end, but open-ended. ”
Photos of Siraat were banned a few years later an international exhibition – by a misunderstanding, he would Koran texts on the bridge have painted. Was later a film Siraat praised by the then Saudi Minister of Culture.
The task of the artist is according Gharem to link results and cause a connection. “He must show society: why is that? What people hide, what’s behind our backs? And he must find the common language so that everyone sees and gets involved. The art should be a platform where everyone can come and go can think about themselves and can talk about his habits and references. Is it oppressive, is it okay? I like to spend. That kind of brainstorming going But the people responsible for the change, not the artist, that is not his job. ”
Schools
At a Christie’s auction in Dubai was in 2011 Gharems work Message / Messenger for over $ 800,000 by a collector purchased – a staggering amount for a Saudi artist. All the money goes to his current performance: art education in Saudi Arabia. “Here in Riyadh, the most conservative city in Saudi Arabia. I have the project called the Amen-art foundation: ‘Amen’ occurs in all religions, it is a peaceful word, you can settle an argument with. In my childhood I suffered because I could find no other artists could meet who could advise me. No books Now I have the knowledge and credibility to help. And this I learned from the army, you are responsible for your people, you have a mission and you must succeed. ”
Abdulnasser Gharem
Abdulnasser Gharem (1973) studied at the King Abdul Aziz Academy in Riyadh and Al-Meftaha Arts Village in Abha. A group exhibition with the artists of Al-Meftaha called Shattah, continued the work of Gharem on the map. Since then he has exhibited regularly in Europe, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Palazzo Grassi in Venice. He also participated in the biennials of Venice, Sharjah and Berlin. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art purchased work from him. Art of Survival. In 2011 his first monograph appeared Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival.”
