“H*TEL DYSTOPIA ROOM #25/55”
AL BASTAKIYA ART FAIR DUBAI 2010
MARCH 15-21,2010
DUBAI, UAE
Every time we check into a hotel room it becomes our biological home for a while and then we leave.
«A prime location in Dubai puts H*TEL DYSTOPIA, Room #25/55 right at the top of any list of Bastakiya Art Fair’s best spaces. Add to that a superlative range of services, not to mention superbly displayed artworks on paper in a unique contemporary style, and the experience is guaranteed to satisfy the most discerning customer. »
In Ethiopia, exhibiting works of art outside usual art venues is more of a necessity than a choice. One such experiment is called H*TEL DYSTOPIA, a concept that relocates and refocuses art experiences in various venues. H*TEL DYSTOPIA breaks from archetypal notions of what a commercial gallery could be, featuring artists who create critical projects that reflect our present circumstances, and who produce works of seminal importance to Ethiopia’s contemporary art scene. With this as a base, H*TEL DYSTOPIA strives to nurture the floor with cutting-edge strategies that will encourage the formation of collectors and active publics. The extreme flexibility of the exhibit’s interlocutors addresses the problem of how the artwork relates to its context, a key to this collaborative enterprise that constitutes a premise, not an outcome.
“Aida MULUNEHʼs main fear is to lose her memory. She is afraid of losing the glances, hands, landscapes and everything that fate has presented to her. She wants to record them for the future, as testimony and confirmation that she has not made anything up; like evidence in a trial that is continually changing. What else could this trial represent but identity? Not identity in the legal sense, but the kind of identity that makes us into who we are. There are days when we wake up entirely deserted in a hotel room. For a few - nearly endless - seconds, our distraught gaze tries to grab on to something that will tell us where we are.”
Simon Njami
https://atelierlk.art/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/H_TEL-DYSTOPIA-Room-25-55.pdf