Inci Eviner is an artist whose work has appeared in biennials around the world, from Venice to Sharjah. Qatar’s Mataf: The Arab Museum of Modern Art removed one of her videos from an exhibition at the last minute, accusing the museum of censorship.
The video is titled harem (2009), revisits 19th-century engravings by the Frenchman Antoine Ignace Melling, who visited Istanbul, the city where Avina is based. In a text written by Avina, she noted that Merlin’s engravings, “contrary to the Orientalist tendencies of the period, have no dramatic or seductive expression. The women, depicted with almost scientific precision, look like It’s like being abandoned by the times.” The video then brings the sculpture to life and edits the characters into the sculpture.
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Merlin’s prints are owned by the Lusail Museum, a Qatari museum of oriental art expected to open in 2029. The institution organized Mataf’s current investigation into Jean-Léon Gérôme, the 19th-century French painter whose images of North Africa and the Middle East were critically acclaimed at the time and now favored by scholars their arguments, one of which appeared on the cover of Edward Said’s famous book Orientalism.
Featuring 350 works, the Mathaf exhibition showcases contemporary responses to Gérôme’s art, including newly commissioned works by Babi Badalov and Nadia Kaabi-Linke.
On November 2, the opening day of the show, Eviner was told: harem Will no longer appear on Gérôme programmes. Get it in one email art newsMathaf director Zeina Arida told Eviner that “at the request of the Ministry of Culture, the work ‘The Harem’ was not included in the exhibition ‘Seeing is Believing: The Art and Influence of Jerome’.”
evina told art news She received a personal apology from the exhibition’s curator, Sara Raza, and she received no official reason for the show’s removal harem.
“I feel that the circumstances surrounding my work being removed from the exhibition raises a question [of] How women’s rights and freedom of speech and artistic expression change according to local values or become universal human rights,” Avina wrote in an email. (Qatar faces “deep discrimination,” according to 2021 Human Rights Watch report system.)
harem His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the British Museum in London, and the Bonnier Museum of Art in Sweden. Elsewhere, it caused no controversy.
A representative for Mathaf confirmed that Eviner’s work had been removed but had no further comment. Qatar’s Culture Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Avina said canceling harem This raises questions about Mathaf’s goals as an institution. “The Matav Museum invites curators, artists and other art professionals from around the world to legitimize the way they use contemporary art,” she wrote in an email. “We have to question how contemporary art exhibitions can be a useful tool to demonstrate that the art world is part of a democratic society. Is it possible to consider contemporary art without critical faculties?”
