Art is provocation.
We need provocation to move forward.
We need provocation to move forward.
I’m trying to highlight the ambiguity
and the complexity of the situation
and the complexity of the situation
Majida Khattari
Heavily veiled women and men walk down the catwalk while nude white women wearing large turbans and high heels walk up on the opposite side. The two models at one point face each other. The pace is slow. The nude models all look alike. The all-body veils are like sculptures, each different from the other. One model discards layers of the veil as if peeling off its skin, while another veiled model moves in an erratic pace, struggling to get out of the garment.
Those who saw the performance in Paris were describing Franco-Moroccan artist Majida Khattari’s April fashion show at the Cité Internationale. Press reports said the artist “successfully brings the audience to look at her interpretation.” Khattari told the French press that this fourth show was her most radical.
“These are extreme situations … extreme images extracting issues of the burqa and captivity outside the religious realm … Women are subdued not only because of religion. We also have to comply and conform to aesthetic norms to look young and beautiful, always.”
Laws are unnecessary to decide people’s dress. “It’s absurd to create laws to tell us that veils need to be banned in public places” [as France and Belgium have done]. “We are in France because it protects our freedom,” Khattari said. It is as if governments are saying women are “[incapable] of making their own decisions.” It is as if governments are assuming that women “must have chosen to wear the veil because they are completely dominated ─ that there could be no other reason for such a choice. I’m sorry, there are many women who wear the veil out of their own free will.…”
The commotion around the burka goes beyond that piece of cloth. It is far more complex, Majida Khattari says.
“I’m trying to highlight the ambiguity
and the complexity of the situation.”
Sources and notes
Franco-Moroccan artist Majida Khattari was born (1966) in Erfoud, Morocco, and lives in Paris. She completed her studies in Casablanca, Morocco, and Paris, France. Since 1996, Khattari has been organizing performance art runway shows centered on current affairs and politics, women and society, women in Islam, and religion. Her work, in some way relating to a variety of veils, spans more than a decade and is particularly relevant amid contemporary debates.
The Martine and Thibault de la Châtre art gallery is showing a selection of her photographs until June 19. One of the photographs at the gallery revolves around the issue of the burqa, the veil worn from head to toe by some Muslim women.
“Franco-Moroccan visual artist Majida Khattari unveils her burqas” (Daphné Segretain), April 12, 2010, http://www.france24.com/en/20100412-franco-moroccan-visual-artist-majida-khattari-unveils-burqas
J’adore Chador: Majida Khattari’s Art (Nicole Cunningham Zaghia), May 11, 2010, http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/r/3702/
“Burka crosses over to art” (bagnetto, Radio France Internationale, English service), May 16, 2010, http://www.english.rfi.fr/culture/20100516-burqa-crosses-over-art
http://www.english.rfi.fr
The French government on May 19 approved a draft law to ban garments that cover the face in public. Said to target the burka and niqab worn by some Muslim women, the bill will be debated by the parliament. With passage of a law in April, Belgium became the first European country to ban the burka.
“French government adopts burka ban bill,” May 19, 2010, http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20100519-french-government-adopts-burka-ban-bill
No comments:
Post a Comment