Through artistic practices that appropriate satellite images and archival material, listen to oral histories and engage with the materiality of water, the works in the exhibition underline the difference between an everyday relationship to the river and to nature vs the macro plans made from looking at maps and territory from above.
“Submerged – on Rivers and their Interrupted Flow”, exhibition showcases works by Ala Younis and Alia Mossallam, Carolina Caycedo, Hashem El-Nahas, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Marianne Fahmy. “Submerged – on Rivers and their Interrupted Flow” is a full programme extends over more than two months offers screenings, talks and a workshop.
Asunción Molinos Gordo questions the categories that define “innovation” in mainstream discourses today, exploring the different forms of dominance in the intellectual enquire from the urban to the rural. She employs installation, photography, video, sound and other media to examine the rural realm driven by a strong desire to understand the value and complexity of its cultural production, as well as the burdens that keep it invisible and marginalized, often disregarded as folkloric or mythological.
The main focus of her work is contemporary peasantry. Her understating of the figure of the small or medium farmer is not merely as food producer but as cultural agent, responsible for both perpetuating traditional knowledge and for generating new expertise to meet current challenges. She has produced work reflecting on land usage, nomad architecture, farmers’ strikes, bureaucracy on territory, transformation of rural labour, biotechnology and global food trade.
Molinos Gordo won the Sharjah Biennial Prize 2015 with her project WAM (World Agriculture Museum). Her work has been exhibited at venues including MAZ Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Mexico), Delfina Foundation (London), ARNOLFINI (Bristol), The Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), Darat Al Funun (Amman), Tranzit (Prague), ART BASEL Miami Beach (US), Cappadox Festival (Uchisar-Turkey), The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki), Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico), MUSAC (León, Spain), CA2M (Madrid, Spain), CAB de Burgos (Spain), Matadero (Madrid, Spain) and La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain), among others.
Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) 27 Talaat Harb St, 2nd Floor, Downtown, Cair. Egypt
http://www.asuncionmolinos.com
Image: Asunción Molinos Gordo. “El Matam El Mish-masery” (El restaurante no egipcio)