AND DID THOSE FEET
28 June - 31 August 2012

Al Hoash Gallery is pleased to present Tom Bogaert's first solo show in Jerusalem. The works featured in the exhibition are linked together through Bogaert's larger ongoing project 'Impression, proche orient' (IPO), an art project referencing issues relevant to the contemporary Near East society including the changes, politics, artistic identity and the new Arabs. The exhibition at Al Hoash Gallery networks the region as a whole and will include works from IPO in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.

The symbolic references of the individual IPO chapters are quite simple, but through twisted starting points such as cucumbers and cars in Jordan, simple images of representation become building blocks for deeper analysis. In Syria it was the story about eye doctor Bashar al-Assad: like a tragic story from One Thousand and One Nights. In Palestine, Tom Bogaert worked with Ariel washing powder bought in the West Bank settlement of Ariel and Nablus ants. In Lebanon, the artist fixed broken glass curb markers and presented maps of Beirut salvaged from car glass repair shops. 'Empire state-building' deals with the failed attempts at state-building by imperialistic outsiders in Iraq.

The works on view are the result of the artist's tangible and intangible experiments of the past three years. Drawing on his experience as a European living and working in the East, it is the artist's intention to interpret understandings of the region - or lack thereof - from the inside out. As an outsider with the privilege of being given access to the inside, the aim is to use irony, gesture and narratives from the region by means of artistic production.

More information: www.alhoashgallery.org - http://tombogaert.org

Image: Emerson Lake and Palmer performing  'Jerusalem'  in 1973 - 35mm slide projection on processed meat 'Siniora Al Quds' - Tom Bogaert, 2012