Gaining and Losing.../ Ganar y perder..., 2012
Vídeo digital SD, 6’, Courtesy the artist
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Kabul, Afganistán
In his new video Gaining and Losing (2012), a short narrative in four episodes overlaps past, present, and the future. Referring to the massive destruction of archeological artifacts a the Kabul National Museum of Afghanistan during the past decade, and to the current reconstruction of Afghan cultural infrastructures, Omarzad plunges us in a troubled space time of fear and desire, disappointment and waiting, underlining the incongruous calm and suspended tension of the present condition in Afghanistan. Here physical disability symbolizes the cultural, economic, military, and political need for understanding and enablement in the face of a country full of contradictions and potentialities, as well as the West’s unlitateral and simplistic perception of it.
Artist and writer Rahraw Omarzad is Founding Director of the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, an independent artist- run space in Kabul that provides equal opportunities for men and women to improve their knowledge of the arts particularly in a search for new expressions that will enable art to play a significant role in the development of Afghanistan. Omarzad also launched the art magazine Ghanama-e-Hunar in 2000 with his students. He employs painting , photography and video to investigate themes related to contemporary Afghan society. Dealing in particular with the relations between empowerment and disempowerment; collapse and recovery; war and peace.