Mounira Al Solh

Nogueras Blanchard continues the exhibition series The Story Behind in its space in Barcelona, with Recicling men with sculpture from Stamps Sketches and Short Stories serie de Mounira Al Solh (1978, Beirut).

Much contemporary art is recreated in the story about himself, stories that mediate between the work and the viewer to convey the intent of the artist, explain the work process underlying images or echo the more proper interpretations . Tell and explain the interpretative univers what has become an element of the work. The cycle The Story Behind presents a group of works in which stories, whether fictional or real, embody the oral world and parallel accompanying images.

In the process of creation and design of postage involved a series of political decisions. Mounira Al Solh focuses on some stories that could have happened to propose commemorative stamps of these events. In a hypothetical and unlikely agreement between Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the United Kingdom, these countries decided to create a commemorative stamp. Al Solh invented here four situations that might be important enough for the four countries to be held with a seal.

Hypotheses, fictions and a broad sense of humor characterize the artistic production of Mounira Al Solh. Playing with the effect of the unexpected, it focuses on stories that may seem slight but serve as an excuse to start a conversation. Anecdotes, strange situations and even personal develop in micro-economic and micro–aesthetic, or as in the case of the project at hand, micro–political issues. Mixing the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Francis Bacon, Rafic Hariri and Gerrit Rietveld Al Solh builds memorable encounters, that may seem innocent and harmless but actually are caustic.

Mounira Al Solh lives and works in Beirut and Amsterdam.

Mounira Al Solh studied painting at the Lebanese University in Beirut and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Ansterdam where he has been resident in the Reijksakademie. Solo exhibitions at CCA Glasgow, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, the SFIR–Semler gallery in Beirut and the Kunsthalle Lissabon in Lisbon. Among his group exhibitions include New Museum, NY; Marrackech Biennale 5, Marrakech (curator: Hicham Khaldi); Artificial Amsterdam, Appel, Amsterdam (curators: Gerardo Mosquera and Rieke Vos); Manifesta 8, Murcia (curator Cuauhtémoc Medina), 11th Istanbul Biennial (Commissioner: WHW Collective).