The
photographs and
videos
of the artist and ethnologist,
Adidal Abou-Chamat,
deal with being alienated and different as well as the search for one’s
cultural identity. The urge to explore these particular themes may well
lie in her personal history, her border crossings between middle European
and Arab cultures. This being-in-between provides a glimpse into hybrid
(living) forms and endows a high level of integrity to the themes and
discourses in her work.
However, it is not only cultural differences and peculiarities but also
the assignation of gender roles, prejudices and clichés that she makes
visible female, male and queer bodies. In her
videos and
installations,
her protagonists convey questions of difference, identity, cultural and
ethnical dominance as well as marginalisation and stigmatisation through
their skin colour, clothing and habitat.
Susanne Jakob
Translation Heather Allen