Ibrahim Quraishi: Lost Codes

Ibrahim Quraishi is interested in learning about the relationship between bodies and object inspired by the collection of Robert Wilson. Specifically he is interested in the relationship certain religious communities have to their scared rituals and how those rituals are embodied through the empowerment of their chosen objects.

In the case of Lost Codes, he will immerse himself in two local communities of the Watermill area to better understand the dynamic of rituals; specifically in the East Hampton Jewish Community and the Shaker Community.

Lost Codes is not about copying the rituals of sacred communities but will explore the importance of codes, bodies and objects inside these two specific communities. The aim is to immerse oneself in the environment and be empowered by the Jewish as well as the Shaker community to further create an installation using Robert Wilson’s objects of which many come from different religious and spiritual realms.

Lost Codes is part of our continued partnership with ArteEast.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

IBRAHIM QURAISHI (1973) is an artist who works with different mediums like photography, photo painting, video, film, installation, performance, dance and theatre. His primary interest is the exploration of the understanding of visual performativity and its relationship to the broader cultural perspective.

As a son of a former diplomat and coming from a region with a considerable amount of historical, artistic, social fluctuation over the past 1000 years and immediate familial / ancestral roots connected to Yemen, Uzbekistan and Pakistan his approach to the world is that of a traveler. Traveling is about moving and not settling down. Moving into the unknown, rather than settling in one specific place. This might explain his approach towards the different art forms and mediums. The medium is never up front at the start of a new project. The content will always determine the project and then the requested medium will be found and thus explored. Borders between the body, observed reality and the unconsciousness are often blurred in his work. The work can bring forth experiences of alienation in which an ideal body no longer knows whether it is in a real physical space or inside the fleeting image of itself.

Defined by a nomadic existence, but currently based between Amsterdam and Berlin, Quraishi often divide my time in multiple cities while escaping the conventional rules of engagement in researching, teaching and creating works for spaces and institutions like Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Kerala India), National Museum Singapore, Savvy Contemporary Berlin, Art Dubai 2013, Art International Istanbul, La Rada: Contemporary Art Space (Lugano), The Sara Charlton Charitable Foundation & Christie’s London, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Corrosia Expo (Almere), Manifestly Present/ Parallel Event Manifesta 9 Genk (Belgium), X Baltic Triennial (Vilnius) curated by Ann de Meester (de Apple Gallery Amsterdam), BAM Next Wave Festival (Brooklyn / New York ), UNC North Carolina Art Center (Chapel Hill), 4th Baku Biennale, Art Rotterdam, Bastakiya Art Fair (Dubai), Japan Foundation Tokyo, Asia Society (New York), Centrum Beeldende Kunst (Dordrecht), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), MassMoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), The Kitchen (New York), ImPulstanz (Vienna), Springdance (Utrecht), Shanghai World Expo 2010, Schauspielhaus Wien (Vienna), Toneelhuis (Antwerp), Grand Theatre de la Ville Luxembourg, Mannheimer Mozartsommer Festival (Mannheim), HAU: hebbel-am-ufer (Berlin), Centraal Museum Studio (Utrecht), ArtCena (Rio de Janeiro), biPod (Beirut), Africa Center (Cape Town), iDans (Istanbul in conjunction the Biennale) Downtown Arts Festival (New York), ExMachina (Quebec City), amongst other places. Quraishi is currently a member of the Fine Arts Faculty at Gerrit Rietveld Acadamie Amsterdam, Universität der Künste Berlin, Netherlands Film Academy Amsterdam and has also been teaching at the Hogeschool Voor De Kunsten (Art University), Amsterdam since 2007 and Das Arts (Amsterdam School for Advanced Research on Theatre) with co-mentor Gabriel Smeets. Currently in Residence at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center & ArteEast New York and upcoming Artist in Residence (2014-2016) at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston Texas. Graduated of Columbia University / Columbia College BA (New York, USA) & Maters from Universiteit Utrecht (Utrecht, The Netherlands)

– Ibrahim Quraishi is currently represented by Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam

GABRIEL SMEETS studied visual arts, arts history and arts journalism in the Netherlands. As an artistic advisor he created works with the Dutch theatre company Paralyse D’Amour, choreographer Krisztina de Chatel, visual artist Marina Abramovic, fashion designer Aziz Bekkaoui and artist Ibrahim Quraishi. He was the dance editor for the Dutch monthly magazine TM (Theatermaker).

Smeets has also been the moderator in different panels where he did live interviews with Pina Bausch, Alain Platel, Andre Gingras, Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten, Wayn Traub, Meg Stuart, Hooman Sharifi and Boris Charmatz a.o. as part of performing arts festivals like the Holland Festival, Het Theaterfestival, Something Raw and Springdance. Smeets is also the co-author of Why all these questions? The Mouson – Springdance/dialogue in Frankfurt 2002, published in 2003 (Theatre Institute of the Netherlands). In 2005 Gabriel Smeets received the Dutch Foundation for the Performing Arts Award as a fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University in New York. In 2005-2006 Smeets was the guest curator of DTW, a theatre for contemporary dance in New York, where he presented a series of panels on contemporary dance called Dance Unwrapped. Smeets worked as a mentor at DasArts, the Amsterdam school for advanced research on theatre and dance were he, in close collaboration with co-mentor Ibrahim Quraishi, developed the semesters block called The Political Body. Since 2007 Smeets is the artistic director of the School for New Dance Development (SNDO), a department of the Amsterdam School for the Arts.