19.07.–09.09.2007
Exhibition

All clear?
Contemporary Art from Egypt

Opening: July 18, 2007, 8 p.m.
Opening speech: Hemma Schmutz, director of Salzburger Kunstverein and curator of the exhibition

”All clear?“ Discussion with the artists, Moderation: Amer Abbas, July 19, 2007, 8 pm

Aniconism, Idolatry and Symbolic Order of Sexes“ Lecture of Christina von Braun (Humboldt University, Berlin), July 25, 2007, 8 pm

”Demonstration“ film- and videoprogram, Curated by Emanuel Danesch, August 3 and August 10, 2007, 8 pm

All clear? - the securing of the reliability of our communication and understanding of the rhetorical repetition of a formula. We also think we see clearly when we observe the Arabic world and the world view of the Muslims. The group exhibition ”All clear?“ attempted to present a differentiated depiction beyond the medially hawked stereotypes. Our picture of the Orient or the Arabic world is still completely characterized by projections, western attributions and colonial access. The strong medial presence of topics such as Islam, the Iraq war or digesting the events of 9/11 does not always lead to an improved understanding - quite the opposite: deeply rooted clichés are often reproduced, especially on the level of political images. The current interest of cultural institutes in the Arabic world can have a balancing effect here and contribute to a better understanding of religious and cultural differences. The Salzburger Kunstverein was focussing the exhibition on a clearly defined region, Egypt, as a contribution to this current debate. Any questions which are virulent as far as being connected to the topic and should be mentioned in the exhibition included reception, processing or rejection of western art strategies, the reversal of representational politics, the question of political areas of tension and their being made an own artistic subject of discussion in Egypt.

Artists: Ghada Amer, Hamdi Attia,
Halal Elkoussy, Mahmoud Khaled,
Maha Maamoun
Curator: Hemma Schmutz