29 Nov 2010

The Utopian Airport Lounge: An Exhibition of Public Art Projects

Artists: Saba Innab, Basim Magdy, Ben Washington, Luis Berrios Negron, Dina Haddadin, Regina Mamou and Rami Daher

Curated By: Juliana Irene Smith

There is a non-place in every place, and in all non-places can be recomposed. To put in another way, places and non-places, while they correspond to the physical spaces, they are also a reflection of attitudes, positions, the relations individuals have with the spaces they live in or move through.
–Marc Auge

Doesn't everyone dream about an ideal world? Does anyone actually enjoy transition? The Utopian Airport Lounge is a public art exhibition inspired by Le Corbusier's visual and abstract approach towards utopia in combination with Marc Auge's hypothesis on non-place. It has three main components, the city of Amman in comparison to a waiting area, pass over place or in this case the airport lounge, for those in waiting (even permanently so); second, what the city of Amman, like airports are 'trying' to achieve in the sense of utopian idealism, through the social and even architectural structure and third, if one dares to compare a city to an Airport Lounge that some could consider searching for utopianism, what happens to the counter argument that an airport is a 'non-place?' The protagonists are the City of Amman, the theorists, the producers (the artists) and the audience. The issue of belonging becomes the back bone of answering the question, 'Why is utopia important? Does it give one the space (or even place) to dream up the ideal situation and is this individual, ego driven or as a collective, city and society inhabitants?'

Both local and international artists were invited based on their use of structure, urbanism, public space, and installation methodologies. The personal relationships with the city vary from intense nostalgia, to knowing nothing at all. But impressions, whether distant or residual and everything between have their place in global (at times homogenous) cosmopolitans and dreamers can dream for everyone.

Although the exhibition is loaded with terminology, abstract concepts and a maze of the combining of theories, it aims at also being approachable to the audience because the concern is in the lives of the permanent and transient inhabitants of Amman. There is room to dream and fantasize about the ideal. The expected outcome is a dialogue concerning what is important for those in Amman and how can a place that is seen as a non-place make a transition into an adaptable place where identity and belonging in all sense of metaphorical utopia for the individual and society come to play.

All commissioned works exist throughout the city as of November 28th, and those who come in direct contact with the work determine its temporality or permanence. Intervention times and their locations will be announced to the public through an interactive map online through www.7iber.com

SYMPOSIUM and DEBATE:
What is the role of Public Art in Amman? And, can it address fragmentation and centralization while building common space and knowledge?

Date: December 8th 2010
Time: 6:30
Location: Makan
Moderated By: Samah Hijawi
Speakers: TBA

Sponsored By: Pro Helvetia Cairo, Goethe-Institut Jordan, European Cultural Foundation, Young Arab Theatre Fund, Turath, 7iber.com, Graphitee Production House and supported in part by the Ford Foundation through the International Institute of Education.