After a shortage of art this summer, September comes with many new exhibits. The Townhouse Gallery for Contemporary Art is always on spot with the latest and gutsiest artwork that often includes instillations, video and animations.
The new exhibition that uses both the factory and gallery space opened Sunday evening. Entitled the “Sound of Silence, the exhibition is a combination of photography, video, paintings, animations and instillations, reflecting the diversity in contemporary art worldwide.
The five artists displaying their work flew over from Austria a year ago to check out the city hosting their show. To them, Cairo was a completely different experience in comparison to the European countries they were used to.
Constantin Luser, Susi Jirkuff, Hermann Huber, Josef Dabernig and Katrin Plavcak toured the metropolis taking in sights, sounds, sentiments and aesthetics. Each went on to create their individual interpretation of that experience.
Amer Abbas, the exhibition’s curator, is an Iraqi born artists who lives and works in Vienna. He told Daily News Egypt that the choice of the title was partly inspired by the Simon & Garfunkel song of the same name, which was constantly played in the group’s hotel in Cairo.
“We thought of many titles but we chose this one because it holds two contrary meaning: sound and silence, said Abbas.
Walking into the factory space downstairs, Dabering’s collection are bound to grab the attention: nine digital pictures in consecutive order portray a deserted football pitch.
The photographs exude a sense of tranquillity and silence at first because of the emptiness. At a closer look, it is hard to miss the juxtaposition of this silence and the destruction strongly visible in some parts of the field that are falling apart.
In sheer contrast, another instalment is sure to turn heads with its awfully disruptive sound. Coming out of a car battery are a bunch of wires and a small metal object. “It is the part that is connected to the brakes of a car. When you step on it, it makes this sound, explains Abbas, “the artist used local material to create an artistic structure that makes music.
Moving on, a number of paintings from Plavcak cover much of the factory space. All her paintings share the same theme of damage between cyber space and Cairo buildings or machinery. The artist uses a theme of inverting overlapping images while keeping it within the boundaries of pleasant looking murals and incorporating plenty of grey and other dry colors.
Jirkuff also attracts the eye with an abstract representation of a palm tree, which looks as though it were painted using a green marker. However, it is a digital print.
From afar, the “tambourine igloo house by Luser looks like a beehive shrouded with mystery. The life-size igloo is made, as the name suggests, of tambourines with the skins built outwards. From the inside, the cozy house is filled with oriental instruments like the tabla and nay (Arabian flute) and is only big enough to host one person – tightly.
According to Abbas, this artist uses musical instruments in his work in Vienna.
The highlights of the upstairs gallery are the works of two artists. Jirkuff whose artwork also appeared downstairs, displays a series of short animations.
She uses the simplest form of animation. For example, she portrays two hands (only the outlines with no details), each holding a pill: one blue, one red. Sounds familiar? You guessed it; this piece is inspired by the Matrix and represents “the universal gesture of having a choice.
Another simple animation depicts a bellydancer’s navel during a routine.
The other artist dominating the gallery is Hubar. He focuses on what was once a department store built by Austrian Victor Tiring in Attaba Square, 1910. Throughout the years, it has functioned as a warehouse, a sweatshop and squatters residence.
Hubar filmed a video that shows the daily activities that go on in the building. He also displays monochrome photographs that concentrate on the beautiful architecture still visible in the building, again while juxtaposing the damage and graffiti.
It’s interesting to see Cairo through the eyes of outsiders. Unfortunately, a common theme of damage, ruin and bygone glory is apparent throughout the “Sound of Silence.
