Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Fondazione ICA Milano presents Aziz Hazara Condemnation Curated by Francesca Recchia
april 19, 2023 - Fondazione Ica Milano

Fondazione ICA Milano presents Aziz Hazara Condemnation Curated by Francesca Recchia


4 May – 15 July 2023

Via Orobia 26, Milan

Press preview: Thursday May 4, from 11 AM to 12.30 PM

Opening: Thursday May 4, from 6.30 PM 

Information and press accreditations: carlotta@paolamanfredi.com 

From Thursday 4 May to Saturday 15 July 2023, Fondazione ICA Milano presents Condemnation, the first solo exhibition by the Afghan artist Aziz Hazara (1992) curated by Francesca Recchia.

The exhibition project presents in the spaces of Fondazione ICA Milano an articulate reflection dedicated to the many decades of war that Afghanistan has gone through and the stereotyped narratives resulting from it. On show for the occasion an exhibition that involves six works by Aziz Hazara in the construction of a true multimedia experience, aimed at outlining the complex relationship between religion, society and politics that runs through the daily lives of Afghans.

Condemnation takes shape from a long-standing dialogue between the artist and curator, whose roots lie in a shared desire to explore and defuse the vocabulary that underpins the narrative of Afghanistan that we are generally accustomed to. The artist's reflection, which stems from the consequences of the western civilizing mission and twenty years of war on terror, focuses on the use of words and how they have been used to justify the international presence in the country. The very title of the exhibition - condemnation - originates from the ritualistic practice that has seen various Afghan governments condemn massacres and acts of terrorism by cyclically employing the same words.

With virtually identical words and with invocations to the same God, every government has condemned the tragic loss of life, the horrors caused by the enemies of the state, the blasphemous act of killing innocents” says Francesca Recchia, curator of the exhibition. “Diplomats and spokesmen of international organisations in turn joined the chorus, using the same words and appealing to the same or another god. And so, while everything changes, the words and images remain the same.”

The exhibition presented at the Fondazione ICA Milano traces a path in the artistic production of Aziz Hazara, in a skillful combination of irony, theological references and pivotal issues that invite the public to question the reassuring banalities to which they are accustomed. From the paper cuttings that make up the work Condemnation (2023), we move on to the multi-channel sound installation Bushka Bazi (2023), where the artist explores material culture and the transformation of everyday objects in the context of the war on terror, and the archival prints Chalk Drawings (2020), where a hand draws a chalk box around black plastic sandals. With Coming Home (2021), #azizhazara presents four tons of rubbish, abandoned by international troops leaving the Afghan territory after the occupation had ended, in a reflection on the leftovers of war also captured in the archive print I am looking for you like a drone, my love (2021). Finally, with the video projection Takbir (2021), the artist uses the sound dimension to stage the small forms of everyday rituals that develop in the context of an ongoing conflict.

As part of the artistic research carried out by the Fondazione ICA Milano, the exhibition Condemnation traces a path of reflection through the historical recurrences, dramatisation and simplification of otherness that the narration of a conflict can assume.

The solo exhibition Ministry of Loneliness by Rebecca Moccia opens at the same time as Aziz Hazara's exhibition. The exhibition, presented on the first floor of Fondazione ICA Milano and curated by Chiara Nuzzi, is open to the public from 4 May to 15 July 2023.

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