2021

at Noorderlicht International Photography Festival, Groningen

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Artists:

Alaa Abu Asad, Sergi Casero, Jacob Dwyer, Emirhakin, Maria Khatchadourian, Sherida Kuffour, Micheline Nahra, Sarane Mathis, Walid Raad, Ceola Tunstall-Behrens, Liza Wolters

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co-curated with Rawad Baaklini

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The exhibition Splintered Thoughts and Fragile Plots suspects that some truths are like poetry. That they are skilfully formulated hints alluding to something much greater. Before they become truths, they are ideas that are nameless and formless; not yet born, but already felt. Once identified and perceived as truths, they take form as beliefs that are transferred, embellished and rhetorically intensified.

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Eleven artists explore mannerisms towards truths in eight artworks and three performances. Photographs, paintings, video and audio-visual installations show us how easily truths can be tangled or untangled from a story. Just like the words in a poem, the works shed a sideway light onto the ways of the world, exploring tales that cannot be judged as true or false. Rather, they reassess what truth is in the first place; inherently intangible, evasive, yet present. It becomes the material of poetry.