In Zigzag In Blood On Carpet
2020–21
blood, watercolor, pencils and pen
30 x 23 cm (closed); 150 x 23 cm (open); leporello
Artist’s Statement
It was with great relief that I received the booklet from Abed. Even if the coronavirus kept many of us apart, we were all united by the impossibility to meet up, by the fragility of possibly losing a loved one or not being able to see them.
It was compounded by the fact that Beirut was going through a revolution, which allowed the government to get rid the streets of those revolting.
In my own bedroom, I revolted to myself, using my own blood as a free ink, or to create spots on the empty white pages, which I rarely use in my practice. I ended up, as many artists did, looking at myself in the mirror and making sketches and shouting.
When I was able to travel again, I took the artist’s book with me to Beirut. And because I had to be confined, I ended up working on the Leporello in my home in Beirut.
عندما تلقيت الكتيب من عبد القادري، شكّل ذلك مصدر ارتياح كبيراً لي. وَرغم أن فيروس كورونا قد تسبب في فصل الكثيرين منا عن بعضهم البعض، إلا أننا تشابهنا جميعاً في استحالة اللقاء وهشاشة الاضطرار إلى فقدان أحد أفراد الأسرة وعدم قدرتنا على رؤيته. وزاد الأمر تعقيداً واقع أن بيروت كانت تمر بثورة أتاحت للحكومة التخلص من الثائرين في الشوارع.
في غرفة نومي، تمردت على نفسي باستخدام دمي كحبر مجاني أحياناً، أو لإنشاء بقع على الصفحات البيضاء الفارغة، والتي نادراً ما أستخدمها في عملي عادة. انتهى بي الأمر، كما فعل العديد من الفنانين، بالنظر إلى نفسي في المرآة وعمل بعض الرسومات والصراخ ببعض الكلمات التي لم أستطع مقاومتها. أصبحت الأمور البسيطة، مثل تتبع مجرى شرايين يدي، أمراً مهماً أيضاً بالنسبة لي في تلك اللحظات.
عندما تمكنت من السفر مرة أخرى، أخذت الكتيب معي إلى بيروت، ولأنني اضطررت للخضوع لإجراءات الحجر الصحي، فقد انتهيت من العمل على الرسومات في منزلي في لبنان.
Biography
Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Lebanon) is a visual artist in Beirut and Amsterdam who uses video, painting, drawing, text, embroidery, and performance to explore feminist issues, track patterns of microhistory, and bear witness to the impact of conflict and displacement. Her practice utilizes oral documentation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and wordplay to explore themes of memory and loss. She learned the double bass at the National Conservatory of Music in Lebanon, before studying painting at the Lebanese University in Beirut and fine art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 2008, Al Solh founded NOA magazine, a collaborative initiative co-edited with Fadi El Tofeili, Mona Abu Rayyan and Jacques Aswad, and later, NOA Language School in Amsterdam, which functioned as a temporary research platform for investigations into the relationships between language and immigration. Al Solh has had exhibitions at Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai; and Art Institute Chicago. She has also participated in the Sharjah Biennial; Busan Biennale; Documenta; and the Istanbul Biennial, among others. She is the winner of the ABN AMRO Art Award, is shortlisted for the 2023 Artes Mundi 10 prize. Her video Rawane’s Song won the jury prize at Videobrasil in 2007.
Mounira Al Solh – In Zigzag In Blood On Carpet
Quarantined in Amsterdam; For Cities Under Quarantine