Hiwa K: Do you remember what you are burning?

Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai: December 16, 2020–July 24, 2021
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin: October 7, 2021–February 13, 2022
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto: June 25–September 2022

Opening at the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai on December 16, 2020, Do you remember what you are burning? is artist Hiwa K’s first solo exhibition in Asia and the Middle East.

Employing humour and drawing on familial anecdotes and personal experiences, Hiwa K’s works explore ideas of estrangement, collectivity, histories of neoliberalism and the long shadow of the multiple conflicts waged on and in Iraq—particularly in his home city of Sulaymaniyah.

Do you remember what you are burning? brings together works created over the past 13 years including the large-scale sculptural work One Room Apartment, originally commissioned for Documenta 14, and Destruction in Common—a new, multifaceted work specially commissioned for this exhibition.

The exhibition’s title is taken from a featured artwork, for which the artist invited students to bring a book of choice to the Saray Azadi—the site of months long anti-government protests—and quietly read these with a magnifying glass, focusing the sun’s rays and erasing the books’ contents letter by letter.

A self-proclaimed autodidact, or “extellectual,” much of Hiwa’s practice engages with collective modes of learning and making, and privileges knowledge gained through everyday experiences and personal encounters, rather than from formal or academic channels. At the heart of this is the questioning of the perceived creative singularity of the artist, and the professionalization of the artist and arts education.

Central to Hiwa’s work is his use of Horizontality and Verticality when applied to knowledge systems, power structures, and lived experiences. Hiwa’s process of making work is durational, reflecting the highly collaborative nature of his practice, and is characterized by what he calls a “Darwinian approach,” or a process of constant and unplanned evolution.

While his life story and physical presence are at the centre of his practice, he does not dwell on the personal; instead, his works take us through stories that touch on some of the most prescient issues of our time.

Hiwa K: Do you remember what you are burning? is conceived as a three-venue collaboration by Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto.

Hugh Lane Gallery: October 7, 2021–February 13, 2022
www.hughlane.ie
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The Power Plant: June 25, 2022–September, 2022 
thepowerplant.org
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About the artist
Hiwa K (b. 1975) Lives and works between Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan and Berlin, Germany.

Working across video, performance, and installation, Hiwa’s work draws from personal experiences, including family anecdotes, his path through arts education, and daily encounters and occurrences. 

Hiwa K’s works have been included in group exhibitions including the 56th Venice Biennale curated by Okwui Enwezor (2015); Documenta 14, Kassel (2017); Asian Art Biennial, Taipei (2019); 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc Videobrasil, Sao Paulo (2019); Anren Biennale, Sichuan (2019); Yinchuan Biennale (2018); and MOMA Ps1, New York (2019).

Recent solo exhibitions include: KOW Gallery, Berlin (2016); KW Institute of Contemporary Art (2017); S.M.A.K. Museum, Ghent (2018); and Kunsthalle Mannheim (2019). His work has been awarded the 2019 Hector Preis and, in 2016, both the Arnold Bode Prize and the Schering Stiftung Art Award.