Kaabi-Linke - A Matter of Resilience

Amman, Jordan

11 / 01 / 20 — 31 / 07 / 20

Das Kapital — Epilogue, 2020

Video installation with sound and replica of found objects, wood, and rocks; dimensions variable; 12'08"

Courtesy of the artist and The Khalid Shoman Foundation. Photo: TiKL 2020

A Matter of Resilience by Tunisian-Ukrainian artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke features five works, including one recreated for this exhibition, and two new works, one of which is a site-specific new work made in Amman. Through quiet and minimal formal gestures, the artist shows five different paths of dependency in these times of turmoil.

In Amman, the artist found a place in which the so-called ‘end of history’ seemed to have embedded itself, resulting in her new installation Das Kapital—Epilogue (2020). The reconstructed metal barrier barely upholds itself, protecting nothing but its own existence, questioning both the omnipotent influence of free-market capitalism and the authority of morally and economically corrupt regimes.

Artist led tour at Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation in Arabic and English.

The intervention Nervous Bench (2017) and the two-channel video NO (2014) each make palpable and question our relation to apparent structures of power, the resounding NO vibrating through our bodies in a collective act of hope and apparent futility.

The series of prints forming Stretched Perm (2014) envisages how history is inherently mediated through human experiences. Created here, Kula: Flock (2020) visualises a turning point in our use of fossil fuels and their destructive effect on our environment. Capturing a fleeting moment between our past and our future, the sedimentation of the lignite powder can be interpreted like tea leaves or coffee-grounds, opening up more questions than it provides answers.

— Eline van der Vliest