Dana Awartani in conversation with Luisa Duarte for the 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil.
LD: It would be important to know what “Islamic Ilumination” is all about and how it acts in the video.
DA: This work doesn’t have any islamic illumination which are usually the floral paintings that accompany calligraphy you find on manuscripts. The pattern on the floor is geometry and is inspired by Traditonal ceramic floors you find across the islamic world. Sacred geometry plays an important role in my practice and I use it a lot, its a combination of mathematics, science, spirituality and nature. And the reason for using geometry as the design of the floor in the video is too echo the traditional islamic architecture that was historically used in the region.
LD: It is clear in your work the concern to think the cultural identity of the Middle East and how much we have been missing of it nowadays. Yet, there is a work that involves the construction time of this big sandy carpet, which we haven’t watched and the short time of its deconstruction, operated by you. How do these layers or coatings act in your work?
DA: Well, the reason why I didn’t show the process of how the floor was made was because I didn’t feel it to be important, the sand is part of the artwork and not the artwork itself. It’s simply a medium or tool I used to express a sense of sorrow to the viewers. Also we live in such a capitalistic society that is obsessed with ownership and accumulating objects and wealths, so in a sense letting go of that is the real challenge, destroying something beautiful rather then trying to preserve it goes against everything we are taught. This philosophy is also routed in a lot of spiritual practices, Buddhists destroy mandalas after making them and Hindu ascetics abandon all there earthly belongings to live a simple life in order to attain the divine, so I was inspired by that as well.
LD: Is there a particular concern with the role of the women in this culture?
DA: This piece doesn’t aim to talk about gender roles or anything feminist. I just happened to be wearing an abaya because the work was commissioned by the Saudi art council and was to be shown in Saudi so I felt I should be wearing it. Also the reason why I picked to destroy the sand using a broom is because I wanted to destroy the work in a tender and non aggressive manner, so that the audience could focus more on the act of destruction rather than how I am destroying it.
LD: Tell me more about the title – ““I Went Away and Forgot You. A While Ago I Remembered. I Remembered I’d Forgotten You. I Was Dreaming””- please.
DA: The title was taken from one of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems. I really love his poetry which is usually about Palestine and he writes on the themes of loss, sorrow, dispossession and exile, he is considered one of the most important poets and is referred to as the national poet for Palestine. I selected this specific poem as the title because of the sense of nostalgia it provokes, I am using it as a metaphor to imply that Saudi heritage is so long forgotten and abandoned that hardly anyone remembers it even existed.