Tarek Al-Ghoussein »

National Works

Exhibitors: Sami Mohammad, Tarek Al-Ghoussein

Exhibition: 1 Jun 2013 – 24 Nov 2013
Opening: 30 May 2013, 18

National Works
Tarek Al-Ghoussein, 1284, from (In) Beautification series. Courtesy of The Third Line and Tarek Al-Ghoussein.

The exhibition National Works explores two major works by sculptor Sami Mohammad (b. 1943) along with a new photographic production by Tarek Al-Ghoussein (b. 1962). Curated by Ala Younis, National Works disassembles symbols of grandeur in paused/post glorious times, in an attempt to re-interpret Kuwait’s modernization project.

For this exhibition, Tarek Al-Ghoussein tracks encounters with grandness in sites significant to Kuwait's history. This chapter of his K Files, a work in-progress, marks returns to sites of proportion and vastness, with an attempt to consider an individual position within a national body.

The exhibition's publication explores the emotional and theoretical contexts of works at a time when national identity was not questioned, and when modernist projects, cultural or contractual, were national works.

Works

  • Tarek Al Ghoussein's K Files consists of eight photographs, where Al Ghoussein has shot himself inside the stock market, a dilapidated palace, a football field, an old school and besides Kuwait's first oil well with the famous water towers spiking the horizon in the distance. Courtesy Tarek Al Ghoussein/The Third Line
  • Tarek Al Ghoussein's K Files consists of eight photographs, where Al Ghoussein has shot himself inside the stock market, a dilapidated palace, a football field, an old school and besides Kuwait's first oil well with the famous water towers spiking the horizon in the distance. Courtesy Tarek Al Ghoussein/The Third Line