This was meant to be a mild, balmy post about all the vicissitudes of March. All the friendliness, the bonhomie, the occasional psychosis, the work, the play, and the brilliant programme of cultural events that we’ve been benefiting from. But drama’s always just around the corner.
Jack Pereskian, the director of Sharjah Biennial, has been fired. Abruptly. Without warning. In typically efficient UAE fashion, he learnt about it from subordinates. And why? His was the head that had to roll for a piece of art that was deemed offensive.
Let’s start at the beginning. The Sharjah Biennial is one of the earliest exhibitions of art in the UAE. Like the name suggests, it’s held once every two years. It started in 1993, long before Dubai DIFC’s burnished quarters came around. Long beforeDubai’s Al Quoz’s started spawning galleries. Long before the real estate boom, and novels about things and people utterly preoccupied with fornication and money. In short, it was considered the real deal.
But Sharjah couldn’t resist. It’s long been described as the emirate that time forgot, where hidden cultural jewels lie around the corner. We’ve all bought into it, desperate to give Sharjah an identity that doesn’t rely on it being a housing compound for cheap expatriate hordes. The cultural jewels were all well and good. Then Sharjah decided to play, and couldn’t handle the heat. In typical Sharjah fashion, it decided stepping out of the kitchen wasn’t enough. It had to fire the chef, just for shits and giggles.
I’m not venting merely for the sake of it. I interviewed Persekian for a piece on contemporary arts in the Arab world that appeared in Shawati magazine, and realized he knew his stuff. Not just that, but he seemed genuinely passionate about developing the arts. Well, no more.
Gulf News was, of course, typically helpful in its statements. He wasn’t fired personally by the ruler of Sharjah, but was rather ‘relieved’ of his post. Gulf News makes it sound like a bad case of constipation.
“His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, has ordered that Jack Persekian, Director of the Sharjah International Biennial, to be relieved from his post, an official source from the Ruler’s Office, said on Wednesday, according to WAM news service.
Persekian was the Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and has been involved with the Sharjah government since he was appointed as Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial in 2004.”
Of course, other news reports weren’t that toothless. Here’s what the NYT had to say about the fiasco:
“The work, by an Algerian artist, Mustapha Benfodil, featured a large group of headless mannequins in what looked like soccer uniforms, some with wording printed on their shirts. As part of the work, graffiti in Arabic was also painted on the walls near the mannequins, which were arrayed in a courtyard near an important mosque in an area known as the Sharjah Heritage District.
In a statement, the Sharjah Art Foundation said that Mr. Persekian’s job was “no longer tenable” as a result of “the public outcry over the work.”
The statement added that the work was removed from the biennial “because leaving it on view was too risky from a legal and cultural standpoint.”
By the by, here’s the work in question.
Excellent. Just when the UAE’s trying to establish a reputation for a bona fide destination for arts and culture. The Louvre and Guggenheim on Yas Island are facing boycotts from artists for their use of cheap exploited labour. Dubai’s holding steady, but there’s no new projects in the works. Then Sharjah turns around and does this.
Yes, it appears there were public complaints, and some people apparently took offense. Regardless, you can’t have your cake and munch it as well. And my deepest apologies, but it reeks of mendacity to spend money on UAE pavilions for Venice Biennal, when art here is not just being censored, but excoriated.
Decide. Either be an artistic destination. Or don’t. Either encourage expression, or forbid it. But sometimes, the Orwellian doublespeak becomes a bit much to handle. I can vouch for the fact that Pereskian knew his business. The NYT can vouch for the fact that he wasn’t personally responsible for the artwork. Firing him was convenient and a brilliant exercise in deflection.
Well, there’s not much we can do. But this doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do. This blog will no longer cover Sharjah’s cultural events for the foreseeable future. It doesn’t amount to much more than a token gesture, but I refuse to publicize events in a place that’s a contradiction wrapped in a dilemma. It’s a shame, because friends and acquaintances are doing some great stuff there. But cest la vie. I would offer a mild suggestion to Sharjah’s artistic types: move to Dubai. And stay there. for while Art Dubai may be controlled and neutered, there’s still apparently more leeway here than in Saudi’s little fiefdom.
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What was so offensive about the piece? If one were to look at it from an Islamic point of view, which is probably the same point of view that got him fired, it’s completely ‘halal’ seeing as there are no faces on the mannequins. Is there something else I’m missing?
Well said hisham! I wanted to repost and share on my fb but it’s already been flagged as offensive content so it won’t allow…
Same here, I really don’t see any “problem” with the installation. Is the “offensive” stuff printed on the front of the white mannequins?
I am appalled by Sharjah’s decision- how can it ever progress with such extreme mindset? To me, it resembles Saudi Arabia’s government and their narrow-mindedness. It is disgraceful how the emirate fired Sharjah Biennal’s director (with no pior warning, open discussion, or give & take), or simply allowing the artist to explain his motives behind the artwork. They only took one-sided action- which seriously brings Sharjah one hundred steps backwards in the eyes of the whole world.
Good read, quite insightful.
Question though, has anyone actually tried to find out *what* it was, that was considered offensive?
I dunno. Consider it my naivety, but don’t you think that should be investigated?
@Muhammed Ali ‘Mali’ J
You can read exactly about what the work was about here: http://sharjahcallforaction.wordpress.com/mustapha-benfodils-statement/
Offence was taken to a particular text which borrows the voice of rape victims at the hands of religious extremists in Algeria, who were using religious texts to justify their crimes, and is not an attack on Islam iteself. As the artist of the work says, ‘The words have been interpreted as an attack against Islam. I wish to clarify that Sherifa’s words refers to a phallocratic, barbarian and fundamentally liberticidal god. It is the god of the GIA, or the Armed Islamic Group, this sinister sect that raped, violated and massacred, tens of thousands of Sherifas in the name of a pathological revolutionary paradigm, supposedly inspired by the Coranic ethics. Without wanting to justify myself, I must simply underline that my own Allah has nothing to do with the devastating destructive divinities claimed by Algerian millenarian movements, the legions of barbarian beards that decimated my people with the active complicity of our security apparatus.’
Good read, quite insightful.
Question though, has anyone actually tried to find out *what* it was, that was considered offensive?
I dunno. Consider it my naivety, but don’t you think that should be investigated?
@Muhammed Ali ‘Mali’ J
You can read exactly about what the work was about here: http://sharjahcallforaction.wordpress.com/mustapha-benfodils-statement/
Offence was taken to a particular text which borrows the voice of rape victims at the hands of religious extremists in Algeria, who were using religious texts to justify their crimes, and is not an attack on Islam iteself. As the artist of the work says, ‘The words have been interpreted as an attack against Islam. I wish to clarify that Sherifa’s words refers to a phallocratic, barbarian and fundamentally liberticidal god. It is the god of the GIA, or the Armed Islamic Group, this sinister sect that raped, violated and massacred, tens of thousands of Sherifas in the name of a pathological revolutionary paradigm, supposedly inspired by the Coranic ethics. Without wanting to justify myself, I must simply underline that my own Allah has nothing to do with the devastating destructive divinities claimed by Algerian millenarian movements, the legions of barbarian beards that decimated my people with the active complicity of our security apparatus.’
@Amy:
Thanks so much for your reply! 🙂
I think you put a nail on it yourself. While Islam has nothing to do with and condones what the religious extremists did in it’s name, the way I see it, offence may have been taken because that is how it was depicted.
“It is the god of the GIA, or the Armed Islamic Group, this sinister sect that raped, violated and massacred, tens of thousands of Sherifas in the name of a pathological revolutionary paradigm, supposedly inspired by the Coranic ethics.”
I’m guessing offence was taken because that’s how it was understood, that the rape was justified by the Quran (Even though, clearly it was not meant that way)
Thanks for clarifying! 🙂
@Amy:
Thanks so much for your reply! 🙂
I think you put a nail on it yourself. While Islam has nothing to do with and condones what the religious extremists did in it’s name, the way I see it, offence may have been taken because that is how it was depicted.
“It is the god of the GIA, or the Armed Islamic Group, this sinister sect that raped, violated and massacred, tens of thousands of Sherifas in the name of a pathological revolutionary paradigm, supposedly inspired by the Coranic ethics.”
I’m guessing offence was taken because that’s how it was understood, that the rape was justified by the Quran (Even though, clearly it was not meant that way)
Thanks for clarifying! 🙂
Hisham – Important and very well written piece.
Kudos.
Iteresting one my friend I love your work. You still go to Mugg and Bean>
Thank you 🙂 Keep visiting. There’s always exciting stuff going on. M&B, alas. It’s been a while. I suspect it may just have closed. The entire chain was heading for trouble.
Iteresting one my friend I love your work. You still go to Mugg and Bean>
Thank you 🙂 Keep visiting. There’s always exciting stuff going on. M&B, alas. It’s been a while. I suspect it may just have closed. The entire chain was heading for trouble.
This little episode bothered me somewhat, so I went around and found someone who actually visited the exhibit and translated what one of the actual text on the t-shirts of mannequins read.
Roughly translated: “I put God’s dick inside you and ejaculate religion into you.”
This was outside a mosque, in Sharjah, the most strict city in adherence to Islam and Shariah in the UAE. This is why I implore people to look for the whole story before drawing out a conclusion. Regardless of whether the artist meant that in a derogatory matter or a contextual matter, over here that’s plain offensive.
This little episode bothered me somewhat, so I went around and found someone who actually visited the exhibit and translated what one of the actual text on the t-shirts of mannequins read.
Roughly translated: “I put God’s dick inside you and ejaculate religion into you.”
This was outside a mosque, in Sharjah, the most strict city in adherence to Islam and Shariah in the UAE. This is why I implore people to look for the whole story before drawing out a conclusion. Regardless of whether the artist meant that in a derogatory matter or a contextual matter, over here that’s plain offensive.
Well said “Muhammed Ali ‘Mali’ J”
And i would like to add that people who commented without looking deeper into the matter just shows how people just want to jump to conclusions and show that sharjah is backwards when it stands on sound rules. How can it not be considered offensive when the art piece was located outside a famous mosque.. and regardless of the placement.. this is an islamic country and should be respected.
A.