La Colonie (SUD)

To coincide with ACCA’s current survey exhibition of works by French-Algerian artist Kader Attia, leading Melbourne-based academics, artists, performers and community activists will discuss Attia’s practice and his ongoing interest in ideas around cultural exchange, appropriation and the tangled relationship between non-Western and Western cultures in the wake of decolonisation.

The La Colonie (SUD) symposium is inspired by the Paris art-space La Colonie, established in 2016 by Attia and restauranteur Zico Selloum, as a meeting place, cafe and venue for art, music, critical thinking, debate and cultural activism. In the tradition of La Colonie, a range of ideas will be explored in relation to Attia’s work, including notions of “injury,” “repair” and “reparation,” bookended by performances from spoken word artist Abdul Hammoud and musician Timony Johannssen, and wider discussions around food, music, culture and artistic propositions.  

Iranian-born Melbourne artist Hoda Afshar, storyteller and creative producer Alia Gabres and Nur Shkembi, founding curator of the Islamic Museum of Australia, will discuss one of Attia’s most significant works, Ghost, and the implications of the Western gaze upon the veiled woman and how it may be interrupted. Ghost (2007) is an installation featuring a multitude of life-like veiled figures, fashioned from silver-foil, kneeling as if in prayer.

Academic Tess Do, together with artist Lisa Hilli and curator Kim Kruger will discuss indigenous and diasporic cultural practices of decolonisation, repair and renewal in the Great Ocean/Pacific Rim region, moderated by Samoan/Persian academic, artist and curator Léuli Eshraghi.  

Kader Attia is the 2016 recipient of France’s most prestigious art award, Le Prix Marcel Duchamp. This major new survey exhibition is presented by ACCA in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), and Melbourne Festival. Curated by Rachel Kent, Kader Attia is the first survey of the artist’s work to be shown in the Southern Hemisphere.  

Further public programs include a tour of Kader Attia with exhibition curator Rachel Kent, Chief Curator at MCA, at 3pm on November 18, plus peer review discussions from artist Raafat Ishak (3pm on Sunday, October 22) and artist/researcher Lucrecia Quintanilla (3pm on Sunday, November 4).