Mohammed Alani – Map of the Space

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Hi Mohammed! How are you doing? Yesterday I saw the last pictures you sent. I was wondering if you want to discuss again the works for the show. I think it’s about time for us to start setting the exhibition, at least to work on texts. OK. For me it's hard to choose, because I really love your works. I think we have a similar taste and idea of art. As I told you, Ilaria and I have this idea of reasoning about imperfection. You have a lot of great works, but in order to do an organic exhibition I think we need to have a fil rouge. I spent the morning working with Massimo on your exhibition and we came up with a proposal. No Problem. We want to focus on the power of artworks to communicate something or nothing at all, and your work suggests analogical explorations from visual to verbal communication, which is interesting given that DISPLAY is inspired by the digital realm. OK. I don't know if you agree with our selection, it's just to clear our mind and to imagine a concept. We have been invited to present our past and current exhibitions (included yours) for a contemporary art course at the University of Parma. Sorry if my message is not that clear, our idea is newborn! I’m sending over an exhibition view rendering so that you can see which works we have chosen. OK.
As soon as we have the selected works, maybe we could arrange another call to better talk about your practice, and then I'll start writing. I’m a little bit late, 10 minutes. I think we need a deadline, considering we will have to launch the Newsletter and press release no later than March 24th. Can we send us some other works we totally fell in love with? Ok I will see what I have…No problem. I am free tomorrow, like 2.30 pm or after 9 pm, or Tuesday morning at 10. Tomorrow better for me.
Map of the space is nice
Perfect.

P.S.
Il testo è tratto dalla conversazione WhatsApp tra il co-fondatore di DISPLAY Massimo Allevato, la curatrice Ilaria Monti e l’artista Mohammed Alani, ed è concepito come un semplice allegato che, insieme alla planimetria dello spazio, accompagna la mostra. Le tre voci in dialogo si sovrappongono e si intrecciano alterando i nessi temporali del discorso. La conversazione, infatti, manipolata, tagliata e ricucita, diventa un unico flusso di coscienza, un pastiche di incertezze, idee campate in aria, ansia da deadline, risposte monosillabiche, pollici in alto e cuori pulsanti. Il testo volutamente non curatoriale intende assecondare la pratica artistica di Mohammed Alani, che dopo aver recuperato e accumulato centinaia di oggetti, li trasforma e contamina e decontestualizza giocando, come un bambino, con le forme, i materiali e i colori. Nel sottoporre ogni cosa al rinnovamento estetico e alla defunzionalizzazione, Mohammed costruisce una personale poetica intrisa della polvere che nel tempo si è depositata sugli oggetti da lui selezionati: la cornetta di un vecchio telefono a filo, i pulsanti di un mangianastri portatile, francobolli e cartoline dei viaggi degli altri, libri usati, penne e matite, emblematiche immagini e ritratti d’epoca. Da qui, il titolo Map of the Space: la mostra non è altro che l’approdo di queste opere in questo spazio, come alla fine di un viaggio; è il risultato di un’esplorazione nel tempo e nei luoghi di cui l’artista si appropria; è un piccolo bazar di oggetti surreali realizzati a partire da un’improvvisa intuizione estetica, tra incongruenze e contraddizioni.

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Mohammed Alani (1971 Baghdad, Iraq) vive e lavora a Bruxelles. La sua pratica artistica si configura come una ricerca del passato, della storia, di testimonianze d’uso nella vita di oggetti a cui l’artista dona una seconda vita, un nuovo futuro. Gli oggetti vengono manipolati, assemblati, distorti e riposizionati fino ad acquisire un nuovo significato, lontano dalla funzione originaria. Tra le mostre collettive più recenti: Fragments of Life, Noir de Noir Concept Gallery, Ostenda, Belgio, 2022; Between the Folds of Reality, Black Swan Gallery, Bruges, Belgio, 2022; Fertile crescent!, Pedrami Gallery, Anversa, Belgio, 2021.

https://mohammedalani.be

ENG:

Hi Mohammed! How are you doing? Yesterday I saw the last pictures you sent. I was wondering if you want to discuss again the works for the show. I think it’s about time for us to start setting the exhibition, at least to work on texts. OK. For me it's hard to choose, because I really love your works. I think we have a similar taste and idea of art. As I told you, Ilaria and I have this idea of reasoning about imperfection. You have a lot of great works, but in order to do an organic exhibition I think we need to have a fil rouge. I spent the morning working with Massimo on your exhibition and we came up with a proposal. No Problem. We want to focus on the power of artworks to communicate something or nothing at all, and your work suggests analogical explorations from visual to verbal communication, which is interesting given that DISPLAY is inspired by the digital realm. OK. I don't know if you agree with our selection, it's just to clear our mind and to imagine a concept. We have been invited to present our past and current exhibitions (included yours) for a contemporary art course at the University of Parma. Sorry if my message is not that clear, our idea is newborn! I’m sending over an exhibition view rendering so that you can see which works we have chosen. OK.
As soon as we have the selected works, maybe we could arrange another call to better talk about your practice, and then I'll start writing. I’m a little bit late, 10 minutes. I think we need a deadline, considering we will have to launch the Newsletter and press release no later than March 24th. Can we send us some other works we totally fell in love with? Ok I will see what I have…No problem. I am free tomorrow, like 2.30 pm or after 9 pm, or Tuesday morning at 10. Tomorrow better for me.
Map of the space is nice
Perfect.

P.S.
This text is taken from a WhatsApp conversation between the co-founder of DISPLAY, Massimo Allevato, curator Ilaria Monti and artist Mohammed Alani and, together with the floorplan of the space, it is conceived as a mere attachment. The three voices in dialogue overlap and intertwine disrupting the time and the thread of the conversation, whose phrases has been manipulated, cut and then stitched together. The result is a stream of consciousness, a pastiche of doubts, far-fetched ideas, deadline anxiety, monosyllabic answers, thumbs up and hearts beating. The intentionally non curatorial text aims to reflect the artistic practice of Mohammed Alani, who reshapes, reframes and contaminates the hundreds of found-objects he has been accumulating over many years, playing with shapes, materials and colors like a child. By subjecting each object to aesthetic renewal and de-functionalization, Mohammed builds a personal poetics imbued with the dust which settled in time on the pieces he chose: the handset of an old corded telephone, the buttons of a portable tape player, stamps and postcards of someone's travel, old books, pencils and pens, emblematic pictures and portraits from the past. Hence, the title Map of the Space: the exhibition is nothing more than the arrival of these works in this space, as at the end of a journey; it is the result of an exploration in time and places which the artist appropriates; it is a small bazaar of surrealistic objects created from a sudden aesthetic intuition, between incongruencies and contradictions.
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Mohammed Alani (b.1971 Baghdad, Iraq) lives and works in Brussels. His practice involves a search of the past, of history, of testimonies of a use in the life of objects to which he gives a new life and future. He manipulates them, brings them together, distorts and arranges them until they acquire a new meaning far from the original function. Recent group exhibitions include: Fragments of Life, Noir de Noir Concept Gallery, Ostend, Belgium, 2022; Between the Folds of Reality Black Swan Gallery, Bruges, Belgium, 2022; Fertile crescent!, Pedrami Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, 2021.

https://mohammedalani.be