Monira Al Qadiri by Yasmina Haddad
Monira Al Qadiri is one of the few female multimedia artists in the Gulf region who’s unafraid of tackling corruption, religion and patriarchy. Born in Senegal and raised in Kuwait, she left her home country aged 16 and spent a decade in Japan, where she received a PhD in intermedia art in 2010. Five years ago she relocated to Lebanon. Consequently she has developed a sharp eye for cultural nuances, and her work deals with shifting customs in the Gulf region, often taking a critical stance – an approach shaped by her upbringing. “Kuwait isn’t as micro-managed as other Gulf countries,” Al Qadiri says. “So that keeps things kind of loose, you have more freedom.”
“Being funny allowed me to get away with a lot of things” – Monira Al Qadiri
Experimenting with gender roles is one of Al Qadiri’s main themes. For instance in “Abu Athiyya” (“Father of Pain”) from 2013, she plays the role of a man singing the Iraqi lament “Mawwal”. By performing the folk song the artist also comments on the disappearance of this kind of eulogy from the local culture. In the 2008 video “Wa Waila” (“Oh Torment”) she goes one step further by playing the male lead while having male dancers play female roles. Through her theatrical depiction of sorrow and lost love, she reflects on the fluidity of gender roles while posing as a low budget entertainer. Such gestures could seem contrived, but her subtle sense of humour lends it sophistication: “I noticed that being funny allowed me to get away with a lot of things,” she says. Moreover, Al Qadiri is equally fearless in addressing Islam. In 2014’s “Muhawwil” (“Transformer”), she animated Kuwaiti Islamic figurative murals in a four-channel video installation. These murals highlight a shift in religious discourse within Gulf societies, which once only allowed for calligraphic depictions but now are giving into the power of pop culture and mass-production of images. “I do fear for my life sometimes,” she admits, “but so far nothing bad has happened.”
Through her involvement with GCC, a multidisciplinary collective, she has also begun to reflect on the Gulf ’s relationship with late-capitalist consumer culture. In 2014 GCC collaborated with electronic musician Fatima Al Qadiri as part of the group show “Here and Elsewhere” in NYC’s New Museum, where they transformed the façade and lobby with 4K video installations exploring the influence of technology and geopolitics on the province’s future.
Indeed, her current prospects are shaping up nicely, too. This summer she will unveil another exhibition at Beirut’s Sursock Museum, and she’s currently preparing for a show at Art Dubai in spring while in residency at the Rijksakademie in the Netherlands. Entitled “The Color of Polycarbonates”, it will examine what might happen when the world runs out of oil through a typically ambitious performance. “I’ve never worked with dancers before but I’m developing a synchronised swimming routine” she explains. “But without water.”
https://vimeo.com/85593700
Taken from SLEEK 49
Upcoming exhibitions
8-29 January 2017 – “Attempts to Read the World (Differently)” solo presentation at Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, the Netherlands
18 January – 18 February 2017 – “Muhawwil (Transformer)” solo exhibition at VCUQ, Doha, Qatar