Mireille Kassar: The Recital of the Western Exile

Mireille Kassar
"The Recital Of The Western Exile"
From the 22nd March to the 18th April 2018 Opening 21st March 2018, 18 - 21.30
Screening and catalogue curated by Marco Izzolino

We are delighted to present „Recital of The Western Exile“ an exhibition showing two lms by artist Mireille Kassar, opening on the 21st of March 2018 at Senesi Contemporanea in 25 Dover St, London.

Senesi Contemporanea is delighted to present two films by the artist Mireille Kassar: The Children of Uzai, Anti Narcissus (16’) and Recital of The Western Exile (9’) bear witness to the artist’s long-term artistic and intellectual research that advocates independence and creative autonomy.
Mireille Kassar is deeply involved in a multitude of mediums such as film, painting, music and writing - each field is explored in its own right, distinctively expressing her central creative concerns. Her work is distinguished by unusual influences for our time, reciting ancient writings or sentiments.
She is furthermore inspired by space, time as well as humankind whose cultural influences were undermined by the approach of our age, yet they can be magically redeemed through the art practice.

Kassar dispossesses her medium and resists the archival, the recollecting and re-contextualising of a past. The mediums of her choosing are able to restore authority upon her art practice, in the context of our bio-political age, they reclaim the link with original form of art, the auratic.
Sound is emphasized in her practice, as a form of expression as well as a medium to gain a better understanding of her work and is one of her main artistic influences. The sound of silence has an equal influence on the artist’s work. In her practice she chooses to listen to the silence, left externally by the noise, “the great silence”, as she titles it. The imagery in her film work The Children of Uzaï, AntiNarcissus translates to a creation of sound and melody, as the outline of the children playing, blends in with the background of the sea and waves, creating visual and vocal layers. Their invisible voices are individually recognizable, despite their separate resonances, creating a unity in their voices, some kind of chorus.
Récit de l’Exil occidental narrates a symbolic initiation path to the light trough the watercourse of the Amazon river, delineated by Shiab al- Din Yahya Sohravardi in the XII century. The East is the place where the light, interpreted as the knowledge, resides; it is also where the river flows. The traveller, trough the experience of such travel, transcends the adversities and is able to see the light.
Mireille Kassar creates a space of involvement in the mystery of life, real and idealistic. The mystery of oneself that resides in the consciousness of the own uniqueness, however it appears exclusively in recognition to the relationship with the other. This is the idea rooted in her poetry.

Mireille Kassar Bio

Born in Lebanon (1963), Paris and Beirut based artist Mireille Kassar has developed a rich and varied body of work that includes paintings, drawings, music, films, writings and installations and has been exhibiting internationally since 1996 (Fondation Joan-Miró, Barcelona). She graduated from «Ecole Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux Arts de Paris» and «Université Panthéon Sorbonne». She is the Art Director at «Amar Foundation for Arab Music Archiving and Research» and an Art Professor at «Ecole Spéciale D’Architecture» in Paris, France.
Mireille Kassar is furthermore represented by Agial Art Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon

Recent exhibitions and projections:

March 21st - April 18th 2018: “The Recital of the Western Exile" Senesi Contemporanea, London, UK
September 22nd 2017: BienalSur
- “Poetics, Politics, Places“, Museo Provincial Timoteo Navarro,
Tucuman, Argentina
- "The tale of the western exile”, Migliorisi Museum, Asunción,
Paraguay
September 9th 2017: "JEUX, RITUELS ET RÉCRÉATIONS”, Centre Georges Pompidou 40th anniversary, Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille, France
March 23rd 2016 - February 6th 2017: "Dear Friends”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
September 24th 2016 - October 23rd 2016: "BIAS”, Cassaro Alto, Palermo, Italy
September 2nd - October 1st 2016: "Rencontres improbables (the secret encounters of Kusama Kalthoum)”, OQBO Gallery, Curator and Artistes Mireille Kassar & Jayce Sallloum, Berlin, Germany
September 9th 2016: "the meandering line”, SEE YOU NEXT THURSDAY Gallery, Vienna, Austria
May 24th, 2016 - June 5th, 2016: "BIAS”, Palazzo Donna dalle Rose, Venezia, Italy
December 5 - 6th 2015: "Festival OVNI”, Nice, France
October 10th - November 30th 2015: "Nel mezzo del Mezzo”, Palazzo Riso, Palermo, Italy
August 4th - November 15th 2015: "Dust”, Center for Contemporary Art Ujadowski Castle, Warszaw, Poland
August 4 - 30th 2015: Staatsgalerie "Stuttgart.
July 24th 2015: "The Children of Uzai, AntiNarcissus”, New Horizon Festival European Short Films, Wroclaw, Poland
April 13th - May 24th 2015: "Energy and Creativity", Università degli Studi Interni Milano, Italy
February 5 - 16th 2015: “The Children of Uzai, AntiNarcissus”, 65th Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) and in the Selection Forum Expanded, Berlin, Germany
October 1st 2014 - March 1st 2015: "Poetry and Exile”, British Museum, London, UK
2014: Art Dubaï, UAE
May 21st - June 28th 2013: Agial Art Galery, "The Conference of the Birds", Beirut, Lebanon