(PHILADELPHIA, PA) Exhibition at Twelve Gates Arts hosts international and US-based artists examining the trauma of counterinsurgency.

CLEAR-HOLD-BUILD
September 6 – October 23, 2019
Twelve Gates Arts

ARTISTS: Bisan Abu-Eisheh, Dena Al-Adeeb, Shabir Ahmed Baloch, Samia Henni, Khaled Jarrar, Vladimir Miladinović, The Propeller Group, Farideh Sakhaeifar, Hồng-Ân Trương

CURATORS: Shimrit Lee, Joshua Nierodzinski and Nataša Prljević of HEKLER

Address: 106 N. 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Wednesday through Saturday

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

September 6, 6-8.30pm, Soft opening;
September 13, 7-9pm, Official opening with an artist talk Clear-Hold-Build-Archive with exhibiting artists Bisan Abu-Eisheh, Samia Henni, Nora Elmarzouky, Manager of Friends, Peace, and Sanctuary Project at Swarthmore College, moderated by curator Shimrit Lee. The panel will focus on the use of archives as an artistic medium with which to address the legacies of counterinsurgency. For more information click on the button below.
September 19, 2019 4-7pm, A People’s Tribunal: 28 Exhibits, a performative tribunal that brings together a group of artists, activists, and scholars to account for the impact of global counterinsurgency doctrine. With storytelling, installation, and song as "evidence," the tribunal interrogates the rhetoric that has fueled the lasting trauma of the U.S. War in Iraq, while building a collective archive that fosters alternative spaces of restitution for evaluating the war on terror.

Organized by Dena Al-Adeeb, Shimrit Lee, Nataša Prljević, and Farideh Sakhaeifar.

Photo credit: Twelve Gates Arts, Sahar Irshad, and Jelena Prljević

(Filadelfija, PA) Izložba u Twelve Gates Arts ugošćuje međunarodne i američke umetni*e koji ispituju traumu izazvanu protivpobunjeništvom.

OČISTI-ZADRŽI-IZGRADI
6. septembar – 23. oktobar 2019.
Twelve Gates Arts

UMETNIC*: Bisan Abu-Išeh, Dina Al-Adib, Šabir Ahmed Baloh, Samia Heni, Khaled Džarar, Vladimir Miladinović, Propeler grupa, Farideh Sakhaeifar, Hong-An Truong

KUSTOSI/CE: Šimrit Li, Džošua Nierodzinski i Nataša Prljević iz HEKLER-a

Adresa: 106 N. 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Radno vreme galerije: 11:00-18:00, od ​​srede do subote

JAVNI PROGRAMI

6. septembar, 18-20.30h, tiho otvaranje;
13. septembar, 19-21h, zvanično otvaranje i panel Očisti-zadrži-izgradi-arhiva sa umetnic*ma Bisanom Abu-Išeh, Samijom Heni, Norom Elmarzouki, menadžerkom projekta Prijatelji, mir i svetilište na koledžu Svarthmor, koji moderira kustosica Šimrit Li. Panel će se fokusirati na korišćenje arhiva kao umetničkog medija pomoću kojeg se može pozabaviti nasleđem protivpobunjeničkog delovanja. Za više informacija kliknite na dugme ispod.
19. septembar 2019. 16-19h, Narodni tribunal: 28 dokaza, performativni tribunal koji okuplja grupu umetni*a, aktivista i naučnika kako bi objasnili uticaj globalne doktrine protiv pobunjenika. Uključujući pripovedanje, instalaciju, pesmu i pokret kao „dokaze“, tribunal ispituje retoriku koja je podstakla trajnu traumu američkog rata u Iraku, dok gradi kolektivnu arhivu koja neguje alternativne prostore restitucije za procenu rata protiv terorizma.

Organizatorke: Dina Al-Adib, Šimrit Li, Nataša Prljević i Farideh Sakhaeifar.

Foto: Tvelve Gates Arts, Sahar Irshad i Jelena Prljević

Twelve Gates Arts and HEKLER are pleased to present Clear-Hold-Build, a group exhibition with an accompanying series of public programs that examine the lasting trauma of global counterinsurgency. Clear-Hold-Build is co-curated and produced by Shimrit Lee and HEKLER, an artist-run collaborative platform founded by Joshua Nierodzinski, Jelena Prljević, and Nataša Prljević.

Clear-Hold-Build takes its name from a counterinsurgency strategy in which military personnel clear an area of insurgents, sustain that expulsion by physical barriers, and then win support of the populace for the government and its policies. While its core tactics have deep historical precedents in colonial strategies of pacification and control, General David Petraeus outlined the strategy most explicitly in his 2007 Field Manual on Counterinsurgency Operations, which informed the US-led surge in Iraq and the War in Afghanistan.

By surveying the impact of this style of asymmetric, low-intensity conflict over the past seven decades, artists in Clear-Hold-Build reclaim denied spaces and narratives while drawing unexpected connections across time and space. Clear-Hold-Build features works by: Bisan Abu-Eisheh, Dena Al-Adeeb, Shabir Ahmed Baloch, Samia Henni, Khaled Jarrar, Vladimir Miladinović, The Propeller Group, Farideh Sakhaeifar, and Hồng-Ân Trương. Employing a variety of media (painting, video, audio, installation, and performance), research methodologies, and social practices, the artists in Clear-Hold-Build take an expansive approach to counterinsurgency. Each artist recognizes the historical specificity of the doctrine as it has manifested in his or her location of origin, including Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Former Yugoslavia. Simultaneously, they illuminate its continued function as a global governing paradigm.

The work of Bisan Abu-Eisheh, Farideh Sakhaeifar, and Samia Henni appropriate the medium of archival knowledge production to challenge counterinsurgency practices in Palestine, Syria, and Algeria, respectively. Dena Al-Adeeb and Khaled Jarrar emphasize the embodied experience of war and displacement through performance and community engagement. The paintings of Shabir Ahmed Baloch address the role of humor in collective loss and survival in Pakistan’s Baloch community. Works by The Propeller Group, Hồng-Ân Trương, and Vladimir Miladinović trace global circuits forged by counterinsurgency networks—from the international arms trade to transnational modes of solidarity and resistance. All artists in Clear-Hold-Build investigate counterinsurgency’s deep legacy and destructive power while celebrating what has survived this ideology and issuing a resounding call to imagine a future beyond it.

Clear-Hold-Build is an extension of curator Shimrit Lee’s PhD dissertation on the commodification of counterinsurgency and is organized in collaboration with HEKLER, an artist-run interdisciplinary platform that fosters the critical examination of hospitality and conflict through collaborative programming and community archiving. Clear-Hold-Build aligns with HEKLER’s mission to create a rhizomatic network of collaborators and alternative educational environments where presentation, critical discussion, and cross-pollination of ideas can take place. As Nataša Prljević of HEKLER notes, “Clear-Hold-Build is an opportunity to bring together practices that exist on the intersection of art and social justice in the political climate of occupied territories and post-war societies. Participating artists in their respective practices diligently employ investigative methodologies to spotlight the violation of human rights while actively fighting against the ideologies of denial and erasure driven by corporate militarized capitalism. Bringing these contexts together shed light on a criminal network that we all need to fight against in solidarity.”

Twelve Gates Arts i HEKLER sa zadovoljstvom predstavljaju Očisti-zadrži-izgradi, grupnu izložbu sa pratećim javnim programima koji ispituju trajnu traumu globalne borbe protiv pobunjenika. Očisti-zadrži-izgradi su kustosiral* i produciral* Šimrit Li i HEKLER, platforma za saradnju koju su osnoval* i vode umetnic* Joshua Nierodzinski, Jelena Prljević i Nataša Prljević.

Očisti-zadrži-izgradi je naziv strategije protiv pobunjenika u kojoj vojno osoblje čisti područje od pobunjenika, održava to proterivanje fizičkim barijerama, a zatim dobija podršku stanovništva za vlast i njenu politiku. Dok njena osnovna taktika ima duboke istorijske presedane u kolonijalnim strategijama pacifikacije i kontrole, general Dejvid Petreus je tu strategiju najeksplicitnije izneo u svom Terenskom priručniku o operacijama protiv pobunjenika iz 2007. godine, koji je informisao invaziju na Irak predvođenu SAD-om i rat u Avganistanu.

Ispitujući uticaj ovog stila asimetričnog sukoba niskog intenziteta tokom proteklih sedam decenija, umetnici u Očisti-zadrži-izgradi vraćaju se na negirane prostore i narative dok uspostavljaju neočekivane veze kroz vreme i prostor. Očisti-zadrži-izgradi sadrži radove: Bisan Abu-Išeh, Dina Al-Adib, Šabir Ahmed Baloh, Samia Heni, Khaled Džarar, Vladimir Miladinović, Propeler grupa, Farideh Sakhaeifar, i Hong-An Truong. Koristeći različite medije (slika, video, audio, instalacija i performans), istraživačke metodologije i društvene prakse, umetnici u Očisti-zadrži-izgradi imaju ekspanzivan pristup protivpobunjeničkoj borbi. Svaki umetnički rad prepoznaje istorijsku specifičnost doktrine koja se manifestovala u njihovoj lokaciji porekla, uključujući Alžir, Iran, Irak, Palestinu, Pakistan, Vijetnam i bivšu Jugoslaviju. Istovremeno, oni osvetljavaju njenu kontinuiranu funkciju kao globalne vladajuće paradigme.

Radovi Bisan Abu-Išeha, Farideh Sakhaeifar i Samije Heni prisvajaju medij produkcije arhivskog znanja da preispitaju protivpobunjeničke prakse u Palestini, Siriji, odnosno Alžiru. Dina Al-Adib i Khaled Džarar naglašavaju otelovljeno iskustvo rata i raseljavanja kroz performanse i angažovanje zajednice. Slike Šabira Ahmeda Baloha bave se ulogom humora u kolektivnom gubitku i opstanku pakistanske zajednice Baluh. Radovi Propeler grupe, Hong-An Truong i Vladimira Miladinovića prate globalna kola koja su iskovale protivpobunjeničke mreže — od međunarodne trgovine oružjem do transnacionalnih oblika solidarnosti i otpora. Svi umetnici u Očisti-zadrži-izgradi istražuju duboko nasleđe i destruktivnu moć protivpobunjeničke doktrine dok slave ono što je preživelo ovu ideologiju i izdaju snažan poziv da zamislimo budućnost izvan nje.

Očisti-zadrži-izgradi je proširenje doktorske disertacije kustosice Šimrit Li o komodifikaciji protivpobunjeničke doktrine, izložba organizovana u saradnji sa HEKLER-om, interdisciplinarnom umetničkom platformom koja podstiče kritičko ispitivanje gostoprimstva i sukoba kroz kolaborativno programiranje i zajedničko arhiviranje. Očisti-zadrži-izgradi je usklađen sa HEKLER-ovom misijom da stvori rizomatičnu mrežu saradni*a i alternativnih obrazovnih okruženja u kojima se mogu odvijati prezentacije, kritička diskusija, ukrštanje znanja i ideja. Kako napominje Nataša Prljević iz HEKLER-a, „Očisti-zadrži-izgradi je prilika da se spoje prakse koje postoje na preseku umetnosti i socijalne pravde u političkoj klimi okupiranih teritorija i posleratnih društava. Umetnici koji učestvuju u svojim praksama marljivo koriste istraživačke metodologije da ukažu na kršenje ljudskih prava, dok se aktivno bore protiv ideologija poricanja i brisanja koje pokreće korporativni militarizovani kapitalizam. Objedinjavanje ovih konteksta baca svetlo na kriminalnu mrežu protiv koje se svi moramo solidarno boriti.”

ABOUT TWELVE GATES ARTS

We are grateful to Twelve Gates Arts for hosting and co-producing this exhibition.

Twelve Gates Arts established in 2011, is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ‘gates’ refer to the fortified gates that walled many ancient cities such as Delhi, Lahore, Jerusalem, and Rhodes - inside which lay the heart of each city’s art and culture, and today this reference offers perspectives on history and possibilities.

Twelve Gates Arts holds monthly exhibitions of contemporary and modern art by artists from countries in South Asia and the Middle East, as well as by diasporic artists from those regions. The list of artists represented comprises an impressive spectrum of established masters as well as cutting edge and outstanding newcomers. In addition to the exhibition programming, regular Salon events showcase works by artists in film, multimedia, literature and performance.

O TWELVE GATES ARTS

Zahvalni smo Twelve Gates Arts-u na organizaciji i koprodukciji ove izložbe.

Twelve Gates Arts osnovana 2011. godine je neprofitna organizacija sa sedištem u Filadelfiji, Pensilvanija. „Kapije“ se odnose na utvrđene kapije koje su opasavale mnoge drevne gradove kao što su Delhi, Lahore, Jerusalim i Rodos – unutar kojih se nalazi srce umetnosti i kulture svakog grada, a danas ova referenca nudi pogled na istoriju i mogućnosti.

Twelve Gates Arts održava mesečne izložbe savremene i moderne umetnosti umetni*a iz zemalja Južne Azije i Bliskog istoka, kao i umetnika iz dijaspore iz tih regiona. Lista predstavljenih umetnika obuhvata impresivan spektar etabliranih majstora, kao i vrhunskih i izuzetnih novajlija. Pored izložbenog programa, na redovnim događajima Salona izlažu se radovi umetnika iz filma, multimedije, književnosti i performansa.