Adel Abidin: Symphony I

Animation Video Installation

Symphony I is a tribute to Iraqi teenagers with ‘emo’ appearances, a Western trend that consists of tight jeans and long, black or spiky hair-cuts, who were stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad.

The video installation has a painterly portrait-scale scene that depicts the aftermath of an imaginary massacre. The corpses of the stoned youth are depicted as statues, icons, and even sacred figurines. A thread connects each body by its mouth to the leg of a dove. The doves (souls) flap their wings in vain, attempting to escape yet they are anchored by the weight of death. The fluttering wings form a white cloud in the sky registering the only movement in the work. The viewer is left to watch the stillness of death against the frantically flapping wings. The sound of the birds, their whistling cries and rustling wings, creates a soothing yet terrifying sound track of white noise. It is a symphony of death.

This work was shown at: ARTER- Space for Art, Istanbul (2012),104- Le CENTQUATRE, Paris (2014)

Details:

Duration: 00'01'44 min. (Seamless loop)

Aspect ratio: 4:3 (16:9 letter-boxed)

Portrait Resolution: 1920 x 1080p