Rahraw Omarzad The Third One February 7 > March 2 2009 opening on Saturday February 7 2009 07.00-10.00 PM With the financial aid of Provincia di Napoli - Assessorato alla Pace This initiative is meant to be against the system of Camorra We particularly want to thank Alberto Landolfi for beeing a precious "bridge" with Kabul ___________________________________ With his videos, Rahraw Omarzad tells the daily reality of a country, Afghanistan, where the private sphere was, for too long, overwhelmed by the History. The images of the endless series of wars that have devastated and continue to stain with blood this Central Asian region, end up to cancel in our imagination, any notion of everyday life. But in Kabul, as everywhere else, life goes on, day after day. From sunrise to sunset hopes grow up and disappointments are experienced, people busy themselves with minor matters or titanic exploits, and live little concerns as well as lacerating internal disagreements. In the video as "Reopening" or "Close Door", Omarzad witnesses a grammar of everyday acts, extraordinary in their banality; just walking through the streets, assumes an heroic tone for us viewers "safe" in our comfortable metropolis. The stylistic analysis of these videos creates some difficulties, as, in spite of the evident knowledge in declining characteristic languages of contemporary art , over all predominates an approach that, if referred to a Western artist, we wouldn’t hesitate to define Do It Yourself. For Omarzad and for his students of the CCAA - Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan-more than aware stylistic choices it is correct to talk about a practical confront with the possibility of reality." The Third One", the video that gives the name to the exhibition, deserves a different attention. The fixity of early shots on that watching the world behind a grating is an explicit metaphor for the crystallization of women condition determined in Afghanistan by the pernicious combination of tribal customs and fundamentalist deliriums. The eyes are veiled, the mouth is silent and hands are the only means of expression. Hands adorned with rings and pearly varnish, hands that grab scissors but immediately reject them, refusing to rip the veil. Hands which prefer sewing wisely. The choice to adorn the veil while tearing it off can be read as the reappropriation of a poetic and creative role in society, a political option which can crumble the subordinacy by a stronger force. Get released of burqa or chador is much, but at the same time is nothing compared with shapeing the world according to one’s own individuality. Vito Campanelli ___________________________________ BIO Rahraw Omarzad was born in 1964 in Kabul, where he continues to live and work as an artist, curator and lecturer. He is the Director of the CCAA (Centre for Contemporary Art Afghanistan), an independent artistic and cultural center established in Kabul in August 2004. Among the most prominent activities of CCAA the creation, in October 2007, of the Female artistic center, established to improve and support the artistic skills and talent of Afghan women. The center is an important step in removing the serious deprivations of Afghan women from learning arts related issues and strengthen and upgrading the artistic and cultural position and identity of Afghan women. The center is currently attended daily by 60 women based in Kabul. Rahraw Omarzaz is also Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kabul University and Editor in Chief of Gahnama-e-Hunar Art Magazine. Vito Campanelli is professor of 'Theory and technics of mass communication' at University of Napoli 'L'Orientale'. He has written essays on media art and my contributes are regularly published in international reviews, such as Neural. He is also working as consultant in the new media field. He is a free-lance curator and promoter of events in the field of digital culture and co-founder of the non profit association MAO - Media & Arts Office. He is currently working on a publication on Web Aesthetics. Technical info The Third One (projection), 13’ 50’’, formato 4:3 NTSC, 2008 Close Door (monitor), 10’ 34’’, formato 16: 9 NTSC, 2008 Reopening (monitor), 4’ 46’’, formato 16: 9 NTSC, 2008 Circle (monitor), 6’ 35’’, formato 16:9 NTSC, 2008 Sympathy, (monitor) 1’ 23’’, formato 16:9 NTSC, 2008 From The World Of Darkness, (monitor) 1’ 46’’, formato 16:9 NTSC, 2008