The Latest at Goethe

On or below the surface, freedom or taboos: Different cultures see different meanings in the human body. The exhibition Zeichen setzen at the Bonner Kunstverein shows how people reveal themselves in the public space. On the invitation of the Goethe-Institut, curators from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Germany have made appearances and presences in the public and political spaces their theme.

The way people present themselves is a signal: Here I am. Understand me, love me or hate me. One’s own body becomes a means of expression when it appears in the public space for others to perceive. Yet, while the body can be a signal of individuality, freedom and emancipation in western societies, in others it may break taboos or awaken anxieties. Egyptian artist Mahmoud Khaled experienced this first hand.

Photo gallery: Zeichen setzen

On the final day of his stay as scholarship holder in London, during his tour about the city Khaled filmed an English family on a boating trip on the Thames. This banal scene in his video installation Safety Zoom breaks apart at the moment that the father discovers this Arabic-looking man with his camera. In near panic, he waves his own camera in the air and films his observer. In times of latent fear of Islamist terrorism, Khaled’s appearance is perceived as a threat and a “foreign body” in a British idyllic family scene.

The ambiguity of physical presences in the public space is one of the aspects of the exhibition Zeichen setzen. On the abstract level, the works by artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Germany trace the perception of the body in their society. The examination begins with the social categories of class, “race” and sexuality without serving up clichés.