STUDIO: Sara Nabil

05/05/2022 to 08/28/2022

Sara Nabil, 51 %, Filmstill, 2022 © Sara Nabil

For Sara Nabil art is a form of protest and a critique of patriarchal structures – an essential means of shaping social change. In her spatial installations and photography the Afghan artist, political scientist and human rights activist, combines themes of flight, dream and identity and campaigns for the equality of women and girls. The artistic work gives her back the voice that was taken from her in her home country.

For the exhibition in the Kunsthalle Mannheim Sara Nabil has conceived a new performance project and an interactive spatial installation. With her performance for the opening on May 04, 2022 in the Kunsthalle Mannheim's atrium, she responds to the renewed seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021, whose fundamentalist worldview regulates female identity to the point of invisibility, employing gender segregation, a strict dress code and rules of conduct. Nabil’s art protest not only shows how the female body, in all its facets – from hair to clothing – becomes alienated, transformed into a site of political ideologies, cultural conflicts and power struggles, but is also a source of self-determination and freedom.

Curator: Christina Bergemann, M.A.

The opening performance for the exhibition, which took place on 4 May 2022 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, can be seen as a video installation in the STUDIO exhibition.

Video: Philippe Mainz, Alexander Thelen, David Loscher, Benjamin Breitkopf

Installation: Jürgen Galli

Designer: Tanya Tverdokhlebova

The exhibition is sponsored by:

This exhibition has been made possible by a benefit auction by ARTgenossen, the Young Friends of the Kunsthalle Mannheim.

Art is a tool through which I can achieve my goal of making contributions to make societies adhere to gender equality, principles of open society, justice and fairness.

Sara Nabil

Sara Nabil: Democracy, 2014, Fotografie © Sara Nabil

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sara Nabil (*1994, Kabul) studied political science at the Karwan University in Kabul (Afghanistan) and since 2016 art at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach on Main. Persecuted as a political artist by the Taliban, her own experience of flight and the rights of Afghan women and girls are central themes of her work.

ARTIST TALK

Sara Nabil / artist talk

STUDIO

The STUDIO is where Kunsthalle Mannheim displays contemporary art by living artists. The STUDIO provides space for unfettered transdisciplinary experiments. This is where visitors can see changing exhibitions of new work by international artists working on surprising themes and questions.