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Karímu na Kolbence vyfotil na začátku podzimu 2014 Pavel Nečekal.
Karima at Kolbenka, Prague, in a photo taken in early autumn 2014 by Pavel Nečekal.
Dopis kurátorce výstavy.
Letter to the exhibition curator.
Studie k tématu odívání muslimských žen.
Study for the theme of Muslim women’s garments.
Vyšívání arabského ornamentu na burku.
Embroidering a burka with an Arabic ornament.
Autoportrét z budovy berlínského Greenhouse,
kde sídlí Bonobo komunita, ve které Karíma žije.
Self-portrait from the Greenhouse, Berlin,
home of the Bonobo community of which Karima is part.
Exception, 2013, fotografie v lightboxu.
Exception, 2013, photograph in lightbox.
Náčrty trámu, 2013.
Wooden beam sketches, 2013.
Kdo zná Karímu Al-Mukhtarovou,
zná i její práci.
Those who know Karima Al-Mukhtar in person
also know her work.
Jak z této smyčky vyklouznout?
Jak neslyšet nezamýšlené významy?
Jak neúmyslně nesprávně použít podobnosti?
Jak rozeznat ticho,
když zní jak vítr.
How to escape from this snare? How to
avoid listening to unintended messages? How
to avoid an unwittingly improper use of
ambiguity? How to discern silence, if it
sounds like wind?
Nemám v úmyslu přepočítávat slova pro popis
práce Karímy, jež jsou překryta vrstvami
osobních významů, přání, strachu a srdnaté
nejistoty.
I have no intention to count the words
describing Karima’s work, words which
happen to be embedded in layers of personal
meanings, intentions of fear and daring
uncertainty.
Vlastně nemám v úmyslu ani nic říkat,
psát o mentálních, vizuálních stopách 3D
artefaktů, ať jsou odkudkoliv, či pro
kohokoliv.
Nechci popisovat průsaky z poetických her
do autentických metafor a naopak. Neumím
jen tak vnímat vědomé „zrady“, co jsou
autentickou bolestí uprostřed současného
provozu umění, kdesi mezi jakýmsi Berlínem
a neznámou Prahou a naopak.
Nevidím důvod psát o dívání se skrze
fyzické prožitky, aniž bych si připustil
neukončenost v nenapsání vět, slov.
Neukončenost chutí, či vůní v jejich
nepojmenování.
Kdo vlastně postrádá cíle, touhy a jejich
činy? Kdo nazírá na jednotlivé momenty
prolnuté přítomnosti, aniž by neztrácel cit?
Ano, pachy se skutečně překrývají a skutečně
nemizí. Kdo jsou ty probuzené bestie, co
tříští naše kosti? A tak se začínáme bát
vzpomínek, jež jsou uvěřitelnější než
bezprostřednost dne. Bez návratu, jen tak
bez milosti trýznivé ve svých stínech,
v transcendenci všech následných proher,
ovšem krásné pro rozpomínání. Je pak tedy
naše identita oním smyslem pro udržování
smyslu, který tu není pro nás, ale my pro
něj? Kdy prchavost intimity umění lze
souběžně chápat i cítit transpersonálně
v jednotlivých, rozdílných osudech lidí
a situací. To není zlo ani dobro, ani
hodnotové kritérium, ani pud sebezáchovy,
ani naděje, či předpoklad, nebo únik,
úzkost, strach z konečnosti, prázdnoty,
je to prostá volba, nominace za neúčast.
Není to o nic nepochopitelnější než samotná
zvědavost, pýcha a zbabělost. To znamená
jediné, vzájemně se paralelně sdílet skrze
proměnlivě plynoucí významy a danosti
existence. Vše v pohybu v celistvosti
tvarové psychologie.
escape, an anxiety, a fear of the infinite
or the void: It is a simple choice, an
appointment for abstention. By no means is
it less inconceivable than stark curiosity,
pride, and cowardice. The message of this
is singular: namely, that of the need for
us to share one another in a parallel
process, through transiently fluid meanings
and constants of existence. Everything
in motion, in the wholeness of gestalt
psychology.
Text Jiřího Davida věnovaný Karímě.
Jiří David’s text dedicated to Karima.
Actually, nor do I have the least intention
to say or write anything about the mental,
visual traces of 3D artifacts, wherever
they may come from, or whoever they may be
intended for.
I don’t want to describe cases of poetic
games seeping up into the realm of authentic
metaphors, and vice-versa. There’s no
way for me to take in automatically those
deliberate “betrayals” which are indeed
a genuine cause for concern in the context
of the contemporary art scene, being
committed somewhere on the way between
a city called Berlin and a little known
place called Prague, and vice-versa.
I see no sense in writing about visual
perception through the prism of physical
experience, without admitting to myself
the incompleteness of not writing certain
sentences, certain words. An incompleteness
of tastes or scents, resulting from their
not being named.
After all, who would miss aims, aspirations,
and their consequent acts? Who would survey
individual moments of a composite present
time, without at the same time losing the
sense of feeling? Indeed, smells do overlap,
and indeed, they do persist. Who are those
awakened beasts that crush our bones? Hence
our incipient fear of memories which turn
out to be more credible than the immediacy
of the present day. Without return, just
like that, mercilessly tantalizing in
their shadows, in the transcendence of all
subsequent failures, and yet beautiful in
retrospect. Is then our own identity that
sense of keeping a sense that is not here
for our sake, but rather, for whose sake
we are here? A moment where the fickleness
of art’s intimacy can be simultaneously
perceived and felt transpersonally, through
individual, disparate fates of humans
and situations. What is concerned here
is neither evil nor good, nor is it even
a criterion of value, an instinct of selfpreservation, a hope, an anticipation, an
Dekorativní parazit, studie k vyšívání do trámu, 2014.
Decorative Parasite, study for wooden beam embroidery, 2014.
23/10/2014
Berlin
Hi Monika,
Sorry about making you wait so long for this text. I did try several times to sit down and write it,
but there must be some invisible barrier between pc and Karima, which keeps tampering with the transmission of ideas. Therefore, here I am writing in hand, after a long time. Hope you can read it.
It’s been over a year now that I’ve been dividing my time between life in Berlin and Prague. I believed I was on a study visit here, but in fact, somehow unwittingly, I moved in here. I’ve commuted between
here and Prague regularly, once in a fortnight.
What do these two places mean to me personally?
Prague: tradition, routine, sense of responsibility.
Berlin: discovery, freedom, experimentation.
What has influenced me most in Berlin? Cohabitation with people from around the globe. Lately
I’ve been realizing the importance for Czech artists of solving the question of identity. I myself have thought
about it a lot. My mum comes from Slovakia, my father from Iraq, but I was born and grew up in Prague. You
know, it doesn’t really matter where one hails from, as after all it’s we alone who shape our future. That’s
why I can tell you that my name is Karima, and my home is this entire planet. (Whereby I wish to suggest that
now, in my new work, I don’t deal with the question of identity, as I know who I am.)
Unlike most Academy students, I never went to a prep course, and nor did I frequent a secondary-level art college. Therefore, I have from the very start expressed myself through that which I’ve known to
be closest to me: namely, the idea, and the body.
To me, the visual was never really important. However, this has now changed. I’ve come to feel
a need to learn and to discover. I’ve got to know more about work with material. Nobody here blames me
for having my first try at something, at my age. I guess this is due to a different system of training. In many
countries, students don’t receive their first serious instruction in the techniques of drawing, painting and
so on, until they get to the academy level. In contrast to that, back home it’s taken for granted that you’ve
already acquired all this knowledge and skills. Until quite recently, I did mostly series. The individual works
were based on a system that I’d made up (in the form of instructions). But then, I’m no longer amused by all
the systems. Moreover, what I’ve come to miss in my previous works is an element of suspense. I’ve come to
observe our scene back home with different eyes. (Perhaps this might make happy Jirka and Milan.) I now
tend to believe that our “conceptual mainstream” is merely a void and academic form. What I miss there is
a message, and a sense of enjoyment. I sometimes feel that those artists back home are much rather writers
of philosophical novels. For my part, I no longer play this game, and therefore I’ll probably never really make
it in the Czech Rep.
Now I see I’ve forgotten to tell you something about my new exhibition. I might try and break the
information down to several points. Actually, I reckon there’s hardly any need for a lengthy text, since it’s
my works alone that should speak for themselves.
* I’m fascinated by shop windows
* I’m fascinated by material
* I’m fascinated by tradition
* a beam is a tree
* burka is a new fashion line
* the sound of a metro train invariably scares me
* glass is a many-coloured thing
Dopis kurátorce výstavy.
Letter to the exhibition curator.