78 | 2002

The main feature in this issue is the Dossier – Images du Monde Arabe, a project concieved by Catherine David for Camera Austria that marks the start of an ongoing focus on articstic positions in the Arab world. The concept of the archive played a crucial role in putting together the dossier, a compilation of hystorical and current positions: the Fondation Arabe pour l’Image, an institution founded by artists, among others, in Beirut in 1997, sets out to collect and preserve photographic documents from the entire Arab world, with the aim of allowing historians, theorists, but also photo and video artists to draw upon the the collection for topical projects. The essay „Saving Face“ by Jalal Toufic and the article „Mapping Sitting“ by Akram Zaatari and Walid Raad in this issue document artistic/analytical approach, illustrating the Foundation’s historical and theoretical work and collecting activities; the video installation „Replay“ by Lamia Joreige and Akram Zaatari’s print version of „Her + Him Van Leo“ conceived for this publication ( a transcript of a film shot in collaboration with the recently deceased Egyptian photographer Van Leo) are one example of the current artistic approach to and handling of the archive: artists are taking recourse to existing historical material – be it of private provenance and/or of documentary quality – and weaving it into autonomous works based on their artistic and political positions.
It was also important to us to steer clear of the Euro-centric and/or exotic view of the Arab world, working instead with artists who can provide an insight into the status of historical and contemporary image production in the Arab world by virtue of their biographical background and their methodical approach of working with source material.  This is impressivly documented by the contributions by Yto Barrada (Morocco / Paris), Fouad Helmi (Egypt), Hashem el Madani (Lebanon), Randa Shaath (Cairo). We would like to express many thanks to the artists, Catherine David, the organisers of the Fondation Arabe de l’Image and, last but not least, our translator Wilfried Prantner for their great cooperation on this project.

Parallel to this we are also presenting three artistic positions from Austria: Ingrid Simon, Lotte Lyon and Tatiana Lecomte are artists from a younger generation who have probably long been familiar to an initiated circle of art producers but who, we feel, have not been able to impact sufficiantly on an art scene with ist mesh of powerful galleries that has changed so profoundly in recent years. We would like to give them the space they deserve, as examples for this generation. In her work „Present Continuous“ Ingrid Simon methodically takes up conceptual artistic techniques; in her politically motivated photo-text montages created in Italy she focuses on refugees and their arrival in a new world in which diefferent linguistic laws apply and must be learned in order to survive. Lotte Lyon, in contrast, assumes a strict sculptural position. The fact that today the concept of sculpture must be understood widely and independently of specific media is illustrated by her photographic works with which, among other things, she investigates the (absent) body. Tatiana Lecomte, on the other hand, represents a distinctly photographic position – a rarity in Austria among young artists. Her different series must be seen as parts of an overall complex of works, with which she develops and promotes her own language of images. She intentionally only hints at topics, her stand-alone image compositions appear ostensibly unprententious, and yet her camera view bespeaks emotional involvement without provoking voyeuristic views.

Christine Frisinghelli, Maren Lübke