99 Iraqi artists will be invited to make 99 paintings of oil/ petroleum on paper or canvas.
TOP is structured to take place at 99-public spaces for 33 days. It is an independently curated multi-site-showcasing 99 Oil painting of 99 emerging and established Iraqi artists living in Iraq and abroad. It is a multifaceted programme working with and around the notions of Oil and painting in the context of contemporary cultural practice. TOP consists of exhibition, public interventions, performances, lectures, discussions, and new techniques for mediating the public’s reactions to art and its contexts. With the social and political changes of the last decades in mind, TOP ask topical questions about the identity and objectives of cultural practitioner within global context.
What is the role of artist and art gallery in the 21st century? What is the state of painting within contemporary cultural practice? To what extent are we aware about the influence of geo-politic category on artist product and our percep- tion of it? Investigates how Oil (petroleum) as material and /or concept could affect the contemporariness of the outcome? Is Oil the main trigger for ongoing war in the Middle East? What sort of presentation techniques to be set in non-art gallery space and how can we create space for interpretation and reflection?
TOP aims to suggest answers to the questions outlined above, and to focus not only on the artworks themselves but also on the way we are allowed to look at and to talk about them in public spaces. Questions about form and con- tent, notions of progress, modernity and tradition are put up for argument. The apparent particularity of the business place will be tested and the relation to exhibiting painting will be explored. The visitors, the artists and the business places workers are asked to play an active role, while encouraging critical thinking about how artworks got here and what sort of engagement could create with public. It seeks to surprise and inspire the public while promoting critical, long-term thinking about art’s role in the contemporary world. The project will be seen, as an eye-catching temporary display and a prominent feature of the city cultural landscape, create places of discovery, intimacy and gathering. TOP seeks for adventurous, alternative and even radical approach of what contemporary painting and curatorial practice could be.
TOP indicates a hypothetical terrain in which, over the past four decades – an era marked by political upheavals, dic- tatorship, wars, embargo and exile – Iraqi intellectuals have had to practice the culture of necessity and survival. It is a culture that must be interpreted not in terms of established aesthetic, ethnic or political categories, but rather on the basis of the context and circumstances that have produced it. Iraqi intellectuals have been forced into this terrain because they realize the complexity and criticality of the historical role to which they are committed. Therefore the in-between of Iraqi intellectuals should be understood as producing not merely a culture of necessity, but also a new cultural practice that reflects their awareness and aesthetic position.
We cannot experience a cultural product, if we don’t understand the forces that affect its practice. In the realm of globalized ideas of progress, art has come to express a certain degree of sameness around the world. The focus of project is to employ the richness, diversity and depth of cultures to animate artistic concepts in a geo- political context. Contemporary art is not an international movement of style, which can be located within one specific culture, one single history or space, but rather as a set of cultural translations. The global condition demands cultur- ally, politically, socially and environmentally conscious art practice, and questions the notions of beauty and meaning, the conventional notions of progress and modernity
The curatorial programme provides opportunities to look at the complex dimensions of aesthetics in relation to social and political situations. Bags of Oil will be sent to the participant artists to be used in their paintings, the return empty bags will be part of info-installation include other materials. TOP will work in partnership with 99 local businesses; cafés, restaurants, groceries, gelaterias, bakeries, butchers, jewellery shops, tailor shops and fashion shops in Venice to host 99 paintings. Each painting will be set within the context of each shop by designing a suitable construction for it. A leaflet with information and map indicates the paintings display sites will be handed and organizing daily tour pro- gramme. Designing set of table and chairs for some shops that will create a distinguished ambient to the space and to have it as site for visitors to talk about the exhibition and related issues.
A bilingual Arabic-English website, includes Your Page and application form. Your Page is an open digital space for debate and the exchange of ideas, images and projects amongst Iraqi intellectuals. Non-Iraqis are also encouraged to participate in the dialogue and to become familiar with the issues discussed. Application form is designed to create access for artists both inside and outside Iraq’s borders to participate by submitting either existing artworks or new Oil paintings. This will create a space in which a diversity of practitioners will be able to form bridges between hetero- geneous Iraqi cultural communities.
99 Iraqi artists will be invited to make 99 paintings of oil/ petroleum on paper or canvas.
TOP is structured to take place at 99-public spaces for 33 days. It is an independently curated multi-site-showcasing 99 Oil painting of 99 emerging and established Iraqi artists living in Iraq and abroad. It is a multifaceted programme working with and around the notions of Oil and painting in the context of contemporary cultural practice. TOP consists of exhibition, public interventions, performances, lectures, discussions, and new techniques for mediating the public’s reactions to art and its contexts. With the social and political changes of the last decades in mind, TOP ask topical questions about the identity and objectives of cultural practitioner within global context.
What is the role of artist and art gallery in the 21st century? What is the state of painting within contemporary cultural practice? To what extent are we aware about the influence of geo-politic category on artist product and our percep- tion of it? Investigates how Oil (petroleum) as material and /or concept could affect the contemporariness of the outcome? Is Oil the main trigger for ongoing war in the Middle East? What sort of presentation techniques to be set in non-art gallery space and how can we create space for interpretation and reflection?
TOP aims to suggest answers to the questions outlined above, and to focus not only on the artworks themselves but also on the way we are allowed to look at and to talk about them in public spaces. Questions about form and con- tent, notions of progress, modernity and tradition are put up for argument. The apparent particularity of the business place will be tested and the relation to exhibiting painting will be explored. The visitors, the artists and the business places workers are asked to play an active role, while encouraging critical thinking about how artworks got here and what sort of engagement could create with public. It seeks to surprise and inspire the public while promoting critical, long-term thinking about art’s role in the contemporary world. The project will be seen, as an eye-catching temporary display and a prominent feature of the city cultural landscape, create places of discovery, intimacy and gathering. TOP seeks for adventurous, alternative and even radical approach of what contemporary painting and curatorial practice could be.
TOP indicates a hypothetical terrain in which, over the past four decades – an era marked by political upheavals, dic- tatorship, wars, embargo and exile – Iraqi intellectuals have had to practice the culture of necessity and survival. It is a culture that must be interpreted not in terms of established aesthetic, ethnic or political categories, but rather on the basis of the context and circumstances that have produced it. Iraqi intellectuals have been forced into this terrain because they realize the complexity and criticality of the historical role to which they are committed. Therefore the in-between of Iraqi intellectuals should be understood as producing not merely a culture of necessity, but also a new cultural practice that reflects their awareness and aesthetic position.
We cannot experience a cultural product, if we don’t understand the forces that affect its practice. In the realm of globalized ideas of progress, art has come to express a certain degree of sameness around the world. The focus of project is to employ the richness, diversity and depth of cultures to animate artistic concepts in a geo- political context. Contemporary art is not an international movement of style, which can be located within one specific culture, one single history or space, but rather as a set of cultural translations. The global condition demands cultur- ally, politically, socially and environmentally conscious art practice, and questions the notions of beauty and meaning, the conventional notions of progress and modernity
The curatorial programme provides opportunities to look at the complex dimensions of aesthetics in relation to social and political situations. Bags of Oil will be sent to the participant artists to be used in their paintings, the return empty bags will be part of info-installation include other materials. TOP will work in partnership with 99 local businesses; cafés, restaurants, groceries, gelaterias, bakeries, butchers, jewellery shops, tailor shops and fashion shops in Venice to host 99 paintings. Each painting will be set within the context of each shop by designing a suitable construction for it. A leaflet with information and map indicates the paintings display sites will be handed and organizing daily tour pro- gramme. Designing set of table and chairs for some shops that will create a distinguished ambient to the space and to have it as site for visitors to talk about the exhibition and related issues.
A bilingual Arabic-English website, includes Your Page and application form. Your Page is an open digital space for debate and the exchange of ideas, images and projects amongst Iraqi intellectuals. Non-Iraqis are also encouraged to participate in the dialogue and to become familiar with the issues discussed. Application form is designed to create access for artists both inside and outside Iraq’s borders to participate by submitting either existing artworks or new Oil paintings. This will create a space in which a diversity of practitioners will be able to form bridges between hetero- geneous Iraqi cultural communities.