Iman Issa / Reasonable characters in familiar places
January 12, 2016 – April 2, 2016
Kunsthalle Lissabon presents Reasonable characters
in familiar places, the first solo show in Portugal of New York-based, Egyptian artist Iman Issa,
taking place from January 12th to April 2nd, 2016.
Iman Issa’s practice spans a variety of media, such
as sculpture, video, sound, photography or text and her works can be defined by
their ability to raise questions. The exhibition now being presented at
Kunsthalle Lissabon addresses some of Issa’s most narrative works as well as
explores the artist's ability to develop a discourse through fiction.
The Revolutionary (2010) is an audio piece, based on text-to-speech software, in which a disembodied narrator traces a portrait
of a fictional character that seems to be a revolutionary and, in this process,
directs the listener's attention to this
term, inviting her to question what it really means and what it may refer to.
The exhibition also includes the installation
Thirty-three stories about reasonable characters in familiar places
(2011). This multidisciplinary project
works as a narrative that unfolds in the exhibition space. It consists of three independent, yet connected parts: a
book, several videos, images and sculptures, and an index on the wall. Although
the different sections are linked, the viewer can choose to follow these links
through or to approach each element independently.These thirty-three stories
narrate certain events or situations about common people in what one would
consider familiar places. A set of portraits of ordinary situations, emotions
and locations, all of them experienced by anonymous characters, simultaneously
familiar and abstract, but to which everyone can relate to.The other two parts
of the installation complete the details that could be missing in the text, a
sort of epilogue for the vignettes featured in the book.