„French police make woman remove clothing on Nice beach following burkini ban.“ These words transcribe an image that flowed over the media this past summer, crystallizing the tensions that underpin questions of identity, religion, and representation at a time where the only thing worse than globalized terror propaganda is the possibility of Donald Trump becoming the next president of the United States (and vice versa). In this context, the image of a veiled woman surrounded by armed cops and stared at by bikini- and speedo-clad onlookers became a symbol of the deep and wide-open wound of identity quid pro quo in a post- 9/11 world. Alternately romanticizing it and fomenting fear towards it, the mainstream representational system of the West preserves an idea of the Middle East as a „serious“ subject matter, burdened with religious and poilitical subtext. DIS This is probably why so many artists from the region have obsessively pursued struggle narratives and a rhetoric of the past, creating works that reinforced what Moroccan scholar Mohamed Rachdi coined as a „tacit commission“ from the ORIENTAL West, arbitrarily linking authenticity with trauma tic backstory and dramatic storytelling. Through three extensive interviews, a round table, two think pieces and a visual insert by art collective GCC, this section is dedicated to a new generation of artists who are bringing nuance to this fossilized system of ISM thought, mining the intersections of technology, culture and identity politics. Through the work of these creators—who, in confronting media stigmatization and tokenism, challenge the question of representation and the expectations placed upon their production, and refuse to act as „native informants“ or spokespersons for a whole region—alternative narratives and a new visual language emerge. Refusing to settle comfortably within the confines of a hackneyed „political art,“ these changers would rather foster a discourse that is playful and provocative, blending politics and pop culture with social satire and salutary self-deprecation. ASAD RAZA Sophia, earlier this year I invit- called „TLs“ between us, which stands for „The ed you to take part in the residency program Litany.“ We would see stuff in the world, just I was doing at the Boghossian Foundation, walking around in reality, and say „That’s a TL,“ held in the Villa Empain in Brussels. There, in because there’s so much information in each collaboration with Léo Parmentier, you edited of them. There’ll be like 80 photographs that over 100 videos which together form a work you grab off Google that will be yellow boots or SOPHIA called The Litany, which premiered in „Black a phobia or a certain type of shampoo, and so Friday,“ your ongoing solo show at the Whit- there’s all of this stuff flowing in less than a sec- ney Museum. I am now in Brussels with Léo, ond, pattering across the screen. It took a lot of so he can join us in this conversation. Since hand-cutting to get the litany to be as dense as it we last saw you in Brussels, editing the films needed to be. for the Whitney show, maybe we can start by discussing what led up to that. AR You and Léo seemed to work together very smoothly. I saw that in Brussels, and it AL-MARIA SOPHIA AL-MARIA Yeah. Over a year ago, I struck me that Léo comes from cinema, and had the wonderful idea to make over a hundred Sophia, you also have a double-life in art and videos, all of which would be played on the floor cinema. Did that help you to communicate? at the Whitney Museum. These videos would have to be hyper-dense in terms of information, SAM We have similar references, so that’s defi- and they would all have to relate to the underbel- nitely the case. I’m also not as skilled—I mean, I ly or the darkness behind the really pristine con- learned Premiere from Léo while we were in the sumer world that we live in. I’ve always edited ev- Villa. A lot of it was like hunting; we were hunting erything myself, and as you know, Asad, when I and gathering on the Internet, and towards the came to the Villa, I was freaking the fuck out! end, Léo was coming up with lots of ideas, too. So many of the TLs were things that I could imag- LÉO PARMENTIER I remember… ine but was unable to do myself—for example, there’s one I’d had a dream about, where it’s just SAM I was sort of having a major crisis, and my a hand on a screen, with spinning brands on the producer, Anna Lena Vaney, sent me a bunch fingers. So this strange thing starts to happen of CVs before sending over Léo. It was compli- when you’re working with somebody, where you cated, because I’d never used an artist assistant don’t really know where one person’s work ends before and felt conflicted about doing that, but and the other one begins. We’re just going back over a hundred videos is a lot. I’m really amazed and forth, helping each other get to the place that at the incredible collaboration with Léo that has needs to be reached. The work took a huge step resulted in the crazy work we’re about to mount when Léo just started going for it, going through here in its final form. That’s my side of the story. the rushes I shot in Doha and marinating in them. LP When Anna Lena called me, I thought AR You went to Doha, and though you are it was just to help an artist with the techni- not a regional artist, your work deals with that cal details—video settings and stuff like region in a way that people have found signif- that—but no, it was actually a real collabo- icant. I wonder if that has significance for you, ration. I’m used to doing feature films, not and how that worked with Léo coming in? art films, so that was amazing, because I had to discover this other world. It was also SAM The main film was shot in Doha, but the really intense, because we edited more films on the ground were made almost entirely Through a collaborative search into the Internet’s than 60 videos in two weeks. It was kind of from the Internet. I think there’s a direct correla- underbelly, the Qatari-American artist stepped out of the a race. But in working together, we found tion to the Internet and the space of the mall be- that we have similar socio-political ideas of ing a sort of non-specific, global place. There’s Gulf into the global experience of the consumer world, the world and got along well in the work. specificity in each particular location the mall hunting for polarized extremes, paradoxes and ironies. has decided to land, of course, but basically, if SAM It’s funny, because a sort of slang lan- you’re in Hong Kong or Capetown or wherever, guage started to develop—like the works are you get the same shops and the same experi- Interview by Asad Raza Portrait by Mathilde Agius 67 DISORIENTALISM ence of being nowhere. So increasingly, I think, SAM Yes. Agreed. even though a lot of my work is shot in the Gulf, this project was a means of talking about some- AR The example of Drake, or other people thing—a more global experience of now—that who play different roles on different proj- feels like a trap. A lot of the works are based on ects—on one track, they put down a rap for extremities and paradoxes and ironies. someone else; on another, they produce the record; on another, they are the main person. LP Like seeing what people have to live That seems of our time. So Léo, what changed through on the other side of the planet for you over the working process? while other people unbox their new iP- hones … LP I learned a lot. This was a new kind of collaboration for me. Usually, I have the SAM Or doing their makeup. director sitting next to me saying, „You should try this or try that,“ or „I will be back AR It makes me think that perhaps identity in three days, just try some stuff.“ This was is less something that you have, that you’re different, because we were seeking some- unequivocally expressing in your work, than thing together. I think we agree that we something that you’re actually exploring—an were pretty lucky to be working together. undefined category that is being played with, It was luck. searched for, or otherwise investigated. SAM Yeah. It’s going to be interesting. We have SAM I will say that, having written a memoir, conversations about Léo being a „ghost artist,“ I’m tired of myself. Since then, I’ve really tried to because so many of the videos are his. I had a project into other worlds and think more broad- friend who worked for a very famous artist for a ly about things. The subject matter that we were long time, and in making that work, he ended up dealing with in this work makes one feel really with repetitive stress injuries that made it impos- misanthropic. That’s why having someone to sible for him to do his own. I didn’t want to just work with on it was great.