SITTING ON THE SIDEWALK

We were sitting on the sidewalk; and the day felt undecided. The smell of flowers is here in front of the door of our space. A sparrow hops close, fearless, peck at a crumb that wasn’t there, and tilts its head as if asking what we were waiting for. Cars sigh at the corner. Someone laughs from a window above. The light changes, then changes again. When we stand up, our hands are dusty and our minds quiet.

Marlene Hausegger and Raed Ibrahim’s artistic research is dedicated to stories they encounter in their living and working area. They transform these stories into visual elements, which often carry political meanings.

For the exhibition Sitting on the Sidewalk, the two artists engage in dialogue for the first time and present new works on the sidewalk in front of philomena+. Raed Ibrahim sculpturally engages with the Crocus Moabiticus, a rare yet very resilient flower native to north-western Jordan. Marlene Hausegger, in her installation made of oil drums and car rims, questions global resources, climate change, and dependencies.

Through the aesthetics of identity-forming symbols, both artists highlight connections to the issues in the current political situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia.