Susan Hefuna
xcultural codes
Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg
New publication
Susan Hefuna – xcultural codes
Hardcover, 20 *24 cm, 200 pages, 96 color and 32 black-and-white illustrations
German/English
Edited by Hans Gercke and Ernest W. Uthemann
Contributions by Negar Azimi, Bryan Biggs, Leonhard Emmerling, Hans Gercke, Rose Issa, Tracy Murinik, Berthold Schmitt
ISBN 3-936 636-15-x
January 2004
This publication was published by the Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, Ringstrasse 19 B, D-69115 Heidelberg, phone: 0049-(0)6221-649 20-0, fax: 0049-(0)6221-649 20-20, contact@kehrerverlag.com, www.kehrerverlag.com
The book “Susan Hefuna – xcultural codes” appears on the occasion of the solo exhibition of the artist, which will be presented under the same name in the Kunstverein Heidelberg, in the Stadtgalerie Saarbrucken, in the Bluecoat Arts Centre Liverpool, at the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, and in the Galerie der Stadt Backnang in 2004 / 2005.
Apart from her latest works, this first extensive publication on the work of the Egyptian-German artist Susan Hefuna also presents numerous projects and exhibitions realized by the artist in Africa, the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany in the course of the last three years.
Susan Hefuna grew up in two very different cultural spheres and her work thematizes the cultural difference in numerous ways, by using a variety of media like drawings, installations, photography, and video. Key motives are the grid elements such as the Mashrabiyas characteristic of Egyptian architecture, elements which she uses in multifarious ways as a point of departure of her work: overlapping grids and frames which are openings and separations at the same time, simultaneously hiding and revealing. “Susan Hefuna’s art, located at the point of suture of two cultures, and alien and familiar to both to the same degree, is political and private, precise and open at the same time.” (Hans Gercke)
This richly illustrated catalogue book is additionally illuminated by contributions of international authors writing from their different cultural perspectives: Negar Azimi (Cairo), Bryan Biggs (Liverpool), Leonard Emmerling (Berlin), Hans Gercke (Heidelberg), Rose Issa (London), Trace Murinik (Cape Town), Berthold Schmitt (Saarbrucken).
Susan Hefuna (born in 1962) has presented her work internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions, among them “Photo Cairo” (2003); Photo Biennale Bamako (2003); “Via Fenestra” Marienkirche, Frankfurt/Oder; “DisORIENTation” in the House of World Cultures, Berlin (2003); “Harem Phantasies” in the CCCB Museum in Barcelona; “Shatat” in the CU Art Galleries, Boulder (2003); Townhouse Gallery, Cairo (2000); “Mapping the process” in the Sharon Essor Gallery London; “Al Nitaq Festival” in Cairo (2001); “navigation xcultural” in the National Gallery South Africa, Cape Town (2000).
Susan Hefuna – xcultural codes
Hardcover, 20 *24 cm, 200 pages, 96 color and 32 black-and-white illustrations
German/English
Edited by Hans Gercke and Ernest W. Uthemann
Contributions by Negar Azimi, Bryan Biggs, Leonhard Emmerling, Hans Gercke, Rose Issa, Tracy Murinik, Berthold Schmitt
ISBN 3-936 636-15-x
January 2004
This publication was published by the Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, Ringstrasse 19 B, D-69115 Heidelberg, phone: 0049-(0)6221-649 20-0, fax: 0049-(0)6221-649 20-20, contact@kehrerverlag.com, www.kehrerverlag.com.
Exhibition dates:
Kunstverein Heidelberg, February 1 – March 14, 2004
Stadtgalerie Saarbrucken, April 3 – May 16, 2004
Bluecoat Arts Centre Liverpool, May 29 – July 17, 2004
Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, October 10 – November 3, 2004
Galerie der Stadt Backnang, November 27, 2004 – January 23, 2005
“…Today, there are a significant number of photographers in Egypt, if not a majority, who remain true to the legacy of their largely European forbearers, arguably compromising self-expression and opting to capture desert scenes, pharaonic imagery or other pieces of Egypt’s exalted history in popularized representations of the country.
It is given such a context that Hefuna’s first photographic works in Egypt were particularly jarring. Employing an antiquated pinhole camera, perhaps the most low-tech of image-capturing devices, Hefuna captured scenes from the Delta that were anything but picturesque, showing them in 2000 at Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery of contemporary art. Out of focus, laden with dirt and dust and often taken in seemingly surreptitious fashion, these were the original un-postcards…. ”
(excerpt fromNegar Azimi’s text “A Deception of Sorts”, in: Susan Hefuna – xcuktural codes)
