18 September – 03 November 2011 / Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki

Opening: Friday 7 October, 20.00

Τhe Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki as part of the program Thessaloniki- Cultural Crossroads initiated by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism (with the financial support of OPAP) and as part of the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, organizes the exhibition Facing Mirrors with works by Yasser Alwan (Iraq-USA, series Mirror Image), Gilbert Hage (Lebanon, series Ici et Maintenant and Anonymes / courtesy: Galerie Tanit, Munich / Espace Kettaneh-Kunigk, Beirut), Youssef Nabil (Egypt, series You never left / courtesy: Galerie Nathalie Obadia), Hrair Sarkissian (Syria, series Zebiba / courtesy: Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki) and Raed Yassin (Lebanon, series Who Killed the King of Disco / courtesy: Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki).

Planning and exhibition organization: Vangelis Ioakimidis, Alexandra Athanasiadou
Τhe exhibition attempts to explore the different approaches of depicting a face in a portrait. The 130 works of the exhibition by presenting portraits which are staged or not aim at demonstrating to the viewer that a portrait is not just a random snapshot but the depiction of a multilayered situation. These layers, social, cultural or symbolic, can develop in different manners –by inviting each viewer to face a mirror and see the face photographed, his own self, the view of the West towards the Middle East and vice versa.

Yasser Alwan
Mirror Image
There is an invisible mirror in the images of Yasser Alwan. In his black and white images he combines portraits of different people, different moments of everyday life, random and staged snapshots, in order to create a particular mirroring: what may seem as similar, is actually very different. As the artist states: “Created from images of my long-term projects on the intertwined themes of class and power, marginality and resistance, and the vernacular, Mirror Image contrasts place, gesture, expression and object, so that the individual images become larger than the sum of their parts, so that the photos reveal a state of being rather than implying a moment plucked from time”.

CV
Born in Nigeria in 1964, from Iraqi parents. He Lived in Lebanon and Iraq before moving with his family to New York in 1972. He studied for a year in Rhode Island School of Design, and in Colby College French Literature, from which he graduated in 1986. In 1992, he graduated from his Master Course in Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service – Georgetown University. In 1992-1994 he worked in Jordan, while for the period 1994-1998 he taught in the American University of Cairo. He has given many lectures, and written articles published in newspapers journals and publications for photography. His photographs have been presented in New York, Qatar, Lebanon, Paris, London, San Francisco, Frankfurt and Canterbury. He lives and works in Egypt. www.yasser-alwan.com

Gilbert Hage
Anonymes
“Anonymity is the daily life. I intended to ward off ill fortune and reality by pulling out a thing from daily life”. Black and white male portraits at the age of 25-70 years old, without name, without control of the space they are holding, everything in front of a dark background: Gilbert Hage in the series Anonymes (2002) pays tribute to anonymity by posing at the same time questions on globalization and the and star-system. Stripped from any outside element, the viewer may have difficulty in relating a portrait to a real face.
Ici et Maintenant
In Ici et maintenant (Here and now) Gilbert Hage depicts citizens of Lebanon between the ages of 18-30 years old. All photographed in the same position, looking directly at the camera, these portraits pose questions on the notions of identity. The only element that the photographer provides is the name of the person (which in some cases may also suggest his/her religion).

CV
Born in Lebanon in 1966. His work consists of the series: Eleven Views of Mount Ararat (2009), Strings (2008), Pillows (2007) Screening Berlin (2006), 242 cm² (2006), Phone [Ethics] (2006), Beirut (2004), Roses (1999) and others. He has realized exhibitions in Lebanon and Syria, as well as in many European capitals, while he participated in thw Sharjah Biennale of 2011. He is the co-editor of Underexposed Books with Jalal Toufic. Gilbert Hage is represented by Galerie Tanit (Munich) / Espace Kettaneh-Kunigk (Beirut).
www.gilberthage.com

Youssef Nabil
Υοussef Nabil creates portraits of men and women of the Middle East, by hand-coloring gelatin silver prints. The exhibition also includes his first film (duration 8΄) also entitled You Never Left starring Fanny Ardant and Tahar Rahim.
You Never Left represents a major turning point in the career of the artist whose entire body of work has been inspired by cinema. In this piece Youssef Nabil reverently and inventively revisits the aesthetic characteristics of the Golden age of Egyptian cinema– the stars, Technicolor, the cinematic genre – creating images of an allegorical “other place” that is a metaphor of a lost Egypt. The film shows a man who has left his homeland in pursuit of his destiny, which is also a movie script, poignantly confronting the mother country.

CV
Born in 1972 in Cairo. He began his photography career in 1992. In the 1990s he worked as a photographers’ asistant in prominent studios in New York and Paris. On his return to Egypt in 1999 he further developed his unique approach to hand-painted photography, with portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world. Nabil’s distinctive technique of hand-colouring silver gelatin photographs removes the blemishes of reality and recalls the heyday of Egyptian film. His work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in venues like: The British Museum- London, Centro de la Imagen-Mexico, Galeria Leme-Sao Paolo, Townhouse Gallery-Cairo, Institut du Monde Arabe-Paris, Volker Dielh Gallery-Berlin, Aperture Foundation-New York and others. There are two publications about his work: Sleep in my Arms (2007) and I won’t let you die (2008). Υοussef Nabil is represented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris/ Brussels). He lives and works in New York.
www.youssefnabil.com

Hrair Sarkissian
The anonymity of the religion Hrair Sarkissian attempts to verge in the series Zebiba (2007). As the artist states, the Zebiba series consists of portraits of pious men in Egypt who all have the ‘Zebiba’ or prayer scar on their foreheads, caused by kneeling on a prayer rug or a Mussallah (Stone of God) and touching the ground with one’s forehead. On one level, the worshipper aspires to disinvest himself from earthly culture. Paradoxically, the desire to become invisible when facing God, renders him more visible within his social environment.

CV
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1973. He studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam). Current exhibitions: 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, TATE Modern (London, UK) and Darat Al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation (Amman, Jordan), Sharjah Biennial 10, Kalfayan Galleries (Athens, 2010), Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena (2010-2011), Thessaloniki PhotoBiennale 2010, 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009). In 2010 he was a resident at The Delfina Foundation (London) and at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center (Istanbul). Collections include: TATE Modern (UK); Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE); Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena (Italy); private collections in Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Turkey, Lebanon, Oman and UAE. Hrair Sarkissian is represented by Kalfayan Galleries (Athens-Thessaloniki). He lives and works between Damascus and London.
www.kalfayangalleries.com

Raed Yassin
Who Killed the King of Disco (2010-2011) is a multi-media installation exploring the conflicting facts and context surrounding the artist’s father’s murder. The series consists of Polaroid snapshots of Egyptian movies of the 70s and is accompanied by a short video that narrates an imaginary story about the famous Egyptian actor Mahmoud Yassin, composing a particularly personal narration of loss and violence. The series of 18 stills are selected in such a way to allow them to be shuffled and displayed in whatever sequence seems appropriate at the time. Taken on their own, the images may seem innocuous, but placed in a sequence, they hint at a narrative of betrayal and mystery, suspense and secrecy.
Using the medium of Polaroids and his fascination with old Egyptian cinema, the creator associates the personal with the historic loss: just like no one can return to the golden era of cinema, that is how neither he can go back to associate all the facts related to his father murder. In the series is included a video projection duration 5.30” as well.

CV
Born in Beirut in 1979. He studied in the theater department of the University of Lebanon. He deals with photography, video and music. He has participated in festivals and exhibitions in USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia, including: Centre Pompidou-Paris, Delfina Foundation-London, Tetra Art Space-Japan, Hi Zero Festival-Baltimore, Chicago Cultural Center-USA, Oslo International Short Film Festival-Norway and many others. He has also published ten music albums, while in 2009 he founded the music production company, Annihaya. Raed Yassin is represented by Kalfayan Galleries (Athens-Thessaloniki).

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