Eva Weingärtner writes about her performance:

Respect My Bounderies

The performance is not about showing how things turn out when they are at their worst. The performance is about the point when things start to get too far. It is about when there is still time to act, empower, and change the situation.

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Ebtisam AbdulAziz is a multidisciplinary artist and writer from the United Arab Emirates. She explores issues of identity and culture through installation, performance, mixed media, painting and works on paper. AbdulAziz combines the scientific with the arbitrary, drawing on her training in science and mathematics, methodically exploring subconscious states and the vastness of daily life. She creates codes, systematic structures, graphic language and performative gestures to force the viewer to question their assumptions about rules in the natural and formulaic world. The intimate juxtaposition of these concepts draws awareness to our surroundings and the issues that trouble and shape us. Ebtisam lives and works in Dubai and Washington, D.C.

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Eva Weingärtner´s Work is directly connected to her person, her feelings, relationship with nature and places of belonging. In her videos and performances, she captures a certain state of mind and invites viewers to identify with her self-confrontations. Since 2019, she has been working with a life-size doll, her double, creating photo documentations and abstract drawings that are integrated into new videos and spatial installations. Eva lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.

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Installation View

Ebtisam AbdulAziz:

A safe person to approach 2018, 400 safety Pins, performance, video 7:51

video still: 0:20

video still: 6:18

video still: 7:43

Eva Weingärtner

Ohne Titel: Buntstift auf getöntem Papier, 29,7 x 42 cm 

Installation View

Ohne Titel: jeweils Buntstift auf Papier, 29,7 x 42 cm

Respect My Bounderies, Live Performance

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Respect my boundaries!

Ebtisam AbdulAziz and Eva Weingärtner in the “” series of the studio space Lange Straße 31

by Angelica Horn

 

On this evening of the last one-evening exhibition in the Respektiere meine Grenzen!

Ebtisam AbdulAziz und Eva Weingärtner in der Reihe „“ des Studiospaces Lange Straße 31

von Angelica Horn

 

A kind of window was created, revealing a view of the body, framed by the remnants of the T-shirt and the dark blazer, as well as by red tapes that were attached horizontally and vertically to the body and served as orientation when cutting with the scissors, so that the red became visible first in the resulting gap.

The word RESPECT was written vertically from top to bottom on the body (where the breastbone is), with the words MY and BOUNDARIES written horizontally in two lines below. After the text had been presented standing upright, the piece of T-shirt that had been removed was picked up again and reattached with safety pins so that the statement of the artist's own motif was now on the side facing the body and the red remained visible on all sides due to the gaps left by this attachment.

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The artist positioned herself standing with an expression of serious composure. The performance ended with her smiling. The boundaries of the subject are first and foremost the boundaries of one's own body, the inviolability of the body by others, but also the other boundaries of the human being, such as those of a mental and spiritual nature. It is about the integrity of the human subject, about its dignity. The whole of this performance is a statement that is asserted in the title and script. The action itself violates the clothing that serves to protect the body in order to expose it and the writing. The “repair” turns the artist's own artistry towards the inside, so that the symbolic injury is only partially undone. Conversely, the original positioning would only offer the appearance of a restoration. It is a dialectical relationship.

 

This real performance is juxtaposed in the exhibition with a video performance by Ebtisam AbdulAziz, who has emerged as a painter with brightly colored images of spatial illusion, where colored surfaces create the illusion of cubes built on top of each other or on top of each other, which suddenly appear to be constructed in a completely different way in an optical inversion effect. Here we see the video “A safe person to approach” from 2018. A reclining woman in a black robe, the artist herself, attaches relatively large safety pins in a serial structure in her robe, so that it is gradually completely covered with safety pins. In the reclining position it is difficult to maintain an overview, and yet an order in rows emerges. The hands we see attaching the pins remain unharmed. The reclining woman is surrounded by a band of safety pins.

The title of the action refers to the historical context associated with it, which is explained in an accompanying text in the video's internet publication. It is about the safety pin movement, where the wearers of a safety pin on their own clothing declare that they are prepared to stand by another person in need, in situations of violence or the threat of violence, or will stand by them. The person under threat can therefore turn to such a person with a safety pin, for example on a bus journey, and (hopefully) trust that they will then also help, protect and support them. The safety pin is a symbol of the safety that the person wearing it is prepared to guarantee others.

While the storyline of Eva Weingärtner's performance contains its meaning entirely within itself, the narrative of Ebtisam AbdulAziz's video refers to the additional information about the safety pin movement, which as such does not arise from the formal event. In the context, the gradual placement of the entire garment with safety pins signifies the constant repetition of an action that only takes place once in the real life of this movement, which could be interpreted in the sense of urgency. The viewer can be encouraged to join the safety pin movement themselves. The narrative of the video is nevertheless independent of the significance of its contextualization. It shows a concentrated form of a person's self-circumvention, a self-reflective and calm persistence, a self-confident self-determination. The formally abstract action, as it also takes place in the artist's painting, has at the same time something content-free about it and is convincing in its formal precision. Thus, real statement performance and self-reflexive narrative in a historical context are asymmetrically juxtaposed in this one-evening exhibition, complementing and responding to each other.

 

Eva Weingärtner, who also works as a logotherapist for people with existential concerns, addresses her own existential questions in her performances. Existential questions are those of the subject's own self-assurance in his own history and the history of his parents, his country, his reality of life.  Eva Weingärtner has now found a way in her graphic work that could be described as “growing and shaping”. The one-evening exhibition shows four sheets from her hand, pencil drawings that she makes on free evenings, where forms simply grow and this growth can be watched, as it were, without fixed and defined figures emerging. The result is colorful structures with a vegetable or organic appearance, entanglements that lead onto themselves or drift on, intensifying shading, thread-like connections and much more. The growth is a free forming out of one's own individuality and constitutes one's own freedom.

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Translated by deepL, free version. 

 

Angelica Horn

© Frankfurt am Main 2023

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Two-Person Exhibition

Speech by Britta Kadolsky

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Ebtisam AbdulAziz & Eva Weingärtner on Friday, July 21, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM at STUDIOSPACE Lange Strasse 31, Frankfurt.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, dear all, let me extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you.

 

The intended purpose of the safety pin was to allow pieces of fabric to be tied together. A frequently used application of the safety pin was to secure cloth nappies. At the same time, the safety pin was often used to fix torn clothing. Safety pins were also used in first aid to secure plasters and bandages. Furthermore, the pins were also worn in punk culture as costume jewelry.

what else is it all about? I'll come to that later.

First of all, I would like to classify the art of Ebtisan Abdullaziz and Eva Weingärtner, which we can see here today, in terms of art history: namely in Performance art - Action art - Feminist art – that is the art historical context.

All these art movements originated in the 1960s. As a reaction to abstract expressionism and art informel.

The intention was for art to take place in specific space and time dimensions. That is the character of action art.

Art is no longer a commodity in the art market or an object in the museum. Instead, the boundaries between art and life were meant to be blurred – to disappear.

Often, this artistic expression was accompanied by societal taboos, leading to a shocked public.

However, action art was replaced by the so-called happening in the 1970s, a more moderate performances art. In contemporary art this has now become an established medium

 

Furthermore, in both of these artistic positions we can see today, we witness feminist art. This term also emerged in the 1960s and was linked to the women's movement.

It deals with themes such as

-female identity,

-embodiment,

-sexual violence,

-personal experiences,

-power dynamics,

-and conventional gender constructs and norms.

 

Allow me to briefly mention three significant female performance artists:

Yoko Ono, who was also part of the Fluxus movement, attracted a lot of attention with her performance Cut Piece in 1964.

Marina Abramovic, in her 1974 performance Rhythem 0, took up these structures again 10 years later.

And the Austrian action artist Valie Export reflected gender stereotypes in a particularly strongly way with her Tap and Touch Cinema  (Tapp-und Tast-Kino) in 1968.

All performances were about the (mostly male) audience interacting with an unflinchingly passive female body. To make clear that assigned gender roles are subordinate to existing power relations.

 

In Performance Art, Action Art, and Feminist Art, as we witness here, the artists make their own bodies the material of their art.

is there a difference in the reflection of one's own female body in East and West? We will see…..

 

Ebtisam AbdulAziz is a multidisciplinary artist and writer from the United Arab Emirates. She lives and works in Dubai and Washington, D.C..

She explores issues of identity and culture through.

-installation,

-performance,

-mixed media,

-painting

-and works on paper.

Combining the scientific with the arbitrary,

 

AbdulAziz studied maths and science.

She explores daily life in a methodical way.

She creates codes, systematic structures, a graphic language and performative gestures,

forcing the viewer to question their assumptions about rules in their world.

The film 400 Safety Pins - A safe person to approach, which we were able to see in that room, is also an intimate juxtaposition, drawing awareness to issues that trouble us and provoking reflection.

In the film we see the artist in black clothing lying on the white floor. Next to her is a pile of safety pins. She picks up one pin after the other and attaches them to her dress, to her sleeves, to her headscarf, to her scarf.... Sometimes I think: she's about to prick her finger, but she never gets hurt.

At the end, she decides to put back the safety pin she had picked up earlier. Why? Because she made it clear what she meant: Solidarity.

 

Today, there is a safety pin movement.

A safety pin shows support for the vulnerable, stands for solidarity with people of color, with women, with people with disabilities and with LGBTQI. It is a sign against sexism and Islamophobia.

it is meant to symbolize that all people are in the same boat. A safety pin is a sign against discrimination.

 

In this exhibition, the two artists, Ebtisan Abdullaziz and Eva Weingärtner, are presenting their works together. It is a dialogue of Art pieces.

And, as per Caro's information for preparing my speech, I have heard, that through an intense dialogue, which took place in numerous online meetings, these two women, these two artists shared their art, emotions, experiences, thoughts and reflections on women's bodies.

They exchanged ideas and collaborated, leading to a mutual influence and development, culminating in the art you see before you today.

 

Eva Weingärtner's work is directly connected to her person, her emotions, her relationship with nature, and places of belonging. Eva lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.

 

Eva Weingärtner's colored pencil drawings show organic forms. It is important to her to make visible what she feels.

She creates filigree drawings that look like internal organs. Fine lines suggest blood vessels or veins and cell structures. Oval shapes are reminiscent of the egg. All the shapes within an entity are somehow interconnected.

The drawings have a lot of space around them and this free space stands for the space that we should allow every other human being to have.

and may have ourselves.

It is also about boundaries that should be respected and accepted. An inner process becomes a picture, a drawing.

 

In Eva's videos and performances, she captures a particular state of mind and invites viewers to identify with her self-confrontation. Since 2019, she has been working with a life-sized doll, her double, creating photo documentation and abstract drawings that are integrated into new videos and spatial installations.

 

Ebtisan and Eva exchanged ideas and worked together, leading to a development that culminated in the art you see later.

we are going to see a live performance by Eva, which I am very much looking forward to. I am not allowed to say much about it yet, because we should all get involved in what we are going to see.

Only this much: Eva references the safety pin.

 

The last thing I want to mention is: the performance will be filmed and then uploaded to Instagram. so the art we are about to see will become another public performance. Ebtisam will also publish this on her account, quoting Eva’s art.

 

And we can discuss afterwards, if there is a difference in the reflection of one's own female body in the East and the West

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Thank you all for your patience.

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Britta Kadolsky 

© Frankfurt am Main 2023

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The exhibition was kindly supported by Kulturamt Frankfurt.

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