Poetry and portray by Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal within the KINDL –
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To start with is the phrase. Opening the primary room of an artwork exhibition with a show case stuffed with novels and lists of revealed books is audacious. Curatorially, there isn't any hesitation right here: it's about literature, about writing, about symbols and phrases. And sure, additionally about artwork – as a pictorial expression of phrases.
The double exhibition with works by the artists Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal on the KINDL is to be understood because the final a part of an exhibition trilogy on the oeuvre of Etel Adnan. The Lenbachhaus in Munich made the beginning and exhibited oil work, tapestries and drawings in 2022. In a barely modified kind, this main retrospective migrated to the K20 in Düsseldorf.
Etel Adnan as a poet and thinker
The exhibition on the KINDL is just not supposed as a retrospective, however moderately to point out different points of Etel Adnan’s work. All three exhibits have been conceived by the curator Sébastien Delot, who has a deep friendship with Adnan and Fattal. The KINDL doesn't give attention to the artist Adnan, who got here to portray late, however on the early poet, creator, feminist, journalist and thinker Adnan. This lady can't be described with a single phrase, she carries many identities inside her.
Adnan’s mom got here from Cyprus, her father from Syria, she was born in 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mom tongues are Greek and Turkish, however she grew up in an Arabic setting. Since Lebanon was beneath French occupation on the time, she went to a Catholic women’ faculty the place French was the language of instruction. She discovered English whereas learning in America.
Escape to Paris
She retains coming again to Beirut. So additionally in 1972 as a longtime journalist for 2 French newspapers. Right here she met and fell in love with the Syrian artist and artwork critic Simone Fattal. There was no sensational popping out, it wasn’t an enormous matter. The connection between the 2 ladies was merely a truth and have become a task mannequin for a lot of ladies within the area. Their free time collectively in Lebanon didn't final lengthy. In 1975 the bloody civil struggle broke out between Arab nationalists and pro-Western Christians, which was to final 15 years.
Unable to face up to the stress within the nation, the 2 ladies fled to Paris in 1976. There Adnan processed the atrocities skilled throughout this struggle in her novel Sitt Marie Rose, written in French. Fattal based The Submit-Apollo Press in San Francisco in 1982 simply to have the ability to publish this novel in English. The novel turned a hit and has since grow to be a traditional of anti-war literature. A replica of the Sitt Marie Rose is within the aforementioned showcase within the first room.
Phrases alone aren't sufficient
One other guide by Adnan, which is learn by a feminine voice in a sales space within the second exhibition room, exhibits how carefully interwoven her literary work is with navy conflicts. The Arab Apocalypse is a guide of poetry through which Adnan makes use of poetry to jot down towards the Algerian Battle. Right here the boundaries between phrase and image grow to be blurred. She replaces some phrases with characters she invented. This generally is a squiggle, a circle, an arrow, a daring dot, hatched areas or a cross. Phrases alone are now not sufficient for her to have the ability to specific what strikes her.
And what all the time strikes her is her deep eager for stability and safety. Their origins, their lives and their experiences are formed by upheavals, flight and destruction. Phrases, archaic types and pure colours, however, are authentic and unchangeable for her.
From the window of her condo in Sausalito, California, she will be able to see Mount Tamalpais. As an indication of immovability, she paints it many times for years, in all variations and colours, turning into increasingly summary till the mountain lastly consists solely of geometric shapes product of pure shade. In an interview she says: “Mount Tamalpais regularly turned my dwelling. For Cézanne, Sainte-Victoire was now not only a mountain. He was absolutely the. He was portray.”
A few of their depictions of the mountain may be seen within the exhibition. They're characterised by being simple, real and common. them is grounding and energizing, as Fattal writes within the catalogue. Cloud sculptures product of glazed clay by Fattal are positioned in entrance of those photos as if in a dialogue.
Along with the mountain, Adnan additionally addresses the moon and the solar numerous instances in her artwork. Highly effective entities shifting about untouched by human tragedy. A touching brief movie can be proven within the video room for the primary time. In it, Adnan tells of her enthusiasm for Neil Armstrong, the primary man to stroll on the moon, and the way she as soon as nearly met him. The view of our earth from area places the conflicts between folks on earth into perspective and all of a sudden makes them seem as a unit. What stays is grandeur.
Etel Adnan was not in a position to expertise any of the three exhibitions. She died in Paris in November 2021 on the age of 96.
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