Hussein Shikha – ‘Huriya, Huriya, Huriya, Huriya’

Hussein Shikha is multidisciplinair kunstenaar, grafisch ontwerper, schrijver en onderzoeker. Zijn werk omvat experimentele film, animatie, textiel en interactieve installaties. Hussein neemt de manipulatie en transformatie van het Zuid-Iraakse tapijt (met al zijn filosofieën) als uitgangspunt om kunst en design vanuit Oosterse en niet-Oosterse perspectieven te begrijpen. Op die manier onderzoekt hij mogelijke verschuivingen naar een inclusievere en minder Eurocentrische perceptie van kunst en design. 

De vlag die hij maak­te, op uit­no­di­ging van 019 en Cas-co, com­bi­neert de geschie­de­nis van vroe­ge com­pu­ter­tech­no­lo­gie en pixels met het maken van tapij­ten. Huriya bete­kent vrij­heid in het Arabisch. Husseins eer­ste gewe­ven tapijt is momen­teel te zien in Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerpen, als onder­deel van hun semi-per­ma­nen­te collectie.

De vlag wordt geïn­au­gu­reerd met een per­for­ma­tie­ve rond­lei­ding door Hussein Shikha en Yasmina Reggad*, per­for­man­ce­kun­ste­naar en regis­seur, schrij­ver, onder­zoe­ker, dra­ma­turg en onaf­han­ke­lijk cura­tor. De rond­lei­ding start aan Cas-co en ein­digt met het hij­sen van de vlag.

Hussein Shikha is a multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer, writer, and researcher. His work entails experimental film, animation, textile and interactive installations. Hussein takes the manipulation and transformation of the southern Iraqi carpet (with all its philosophies) as a starting point to understand design from Eastern and non-Eastern perspectives. In so doing, he examines possible shifts towards more inclusive and less Eurocentric perceptions of design.

Invited to con­cei­ve a flag for 019 and Cas-co, the pie­ce blends the his­to­ry of ear­ly com­pu­ter tech­no­lo­gy and pixels with car­pet-making, Huriya mea­ning free­dom in Ara­bic. Hussein’s first woven car­pet is cur­rent­ly on view at Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp, as part of their semi-per­ma­nent collection.

On the ope­ning night, and depar­ting from Cas-co, a Performative Guided Tour will lead us towards the hoi­sting of the flag with Hussein Shikha and Yasmina Reggad*, per­for­man­ce artist and direc­tor, wri­ter, researcher, dra­ma­tur­ge and inde­pen­dent curator.

*Yasmina Reggad is a per­for­man­ce artist and direc­tor, wri­ter, researcher, dra­ma­tur­ge and inde­pen­dent cura­tor based in Brussels, Belgium. She co-foun­ded and was the cura­tor at aria (artist resi­d­en­cy in algiers) and pre­vious­ly wor­ked at the Delfina Foundation (UK) and Art Dubai Projects (UAE). Recently, she was cura­tor of Zineb Sedira​’s solo pre­sen­ta­ti­on Dreams Have No Titles at the French National Pavilion — the 59^th Venice Biennale (2020−2022), and artis­tic direc­tor of the first edi­ti­on of the Bienal das Amazônias (Brazil) in 2020 – 2022.

As a per­for­man­ce artist, she con­ducts research and devel­ops pro­jects that inves­ti­ga­te alter­na­ti­ve sys­tems of know­led­ge and artis­tic modes of pro­duc­ti­on as well as explo­re per­for­ma­ti­ve metho­do­lo­gies infor­med by past and pre­sent mili­tant acti­ons and practices.

Yasmina Reggad has cre­a­ted per­so­nal pro­jects that span dif­fe­rent gen­res from per­for­man­ce and lec­tu­re-per­for­man­ce to dan­ce pie­ces, and sound inter­ven­ti­ons and (pira­te) broad­cas­ting. Her works is often based on uncon­ven­ti­o­nal audio-visu­al and docu­men­ta­ry archi­ves, and ope­ra­tes as a com­pa­n­ion to the prac­ti­ce of essay wri­ting. Her work was recent­ly sta­ged at at Performa at Roma Tre University (IT); The Mosaic Rooms (UK); Beursschouwburg, KANAL – Centre Pompidou and Kaaistudio’s (Belgium); La Cantine Syrienne de Montreuil, Cité inter­na­ti­o­na­le des arts, Les Rencontres à l’échelle — Mucem; and Chimurenga’s PASS Liberation radio for Documenta 15 (Tanzania), among others.