Crawford Art Gallery opens Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume I

The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork presents Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume I on view January 17–March 22, 2014 .

In a new departure, Crawford Art Gallery has invited Rose Issa, a leading expert on contemporary visual art and film from the Arab world and Iran to curate the exhibition. Both Hassan Hajjaj and Nassiem Valamanesh’s work explore the interface of living in and between merging cultures paradoxically highlighting alienation and embracing the differences.

Hassan Hajjaj‘s installation My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume I is simultaneously a haute-couture street experiment and a revival of African photography from the 1960s and ’70s, while celebrating present-day musicians, unsung artists and personal inspirations in the artist’s life. The film is part of a series of works which is an ongoing examination of belonging in an increasingly globalized society where boundaries of cultural identity—most notably African, Arabic and Western—are constantly changing. Hajjaj designs the costumes of the musicians and singers using traditional fabrics and found objects which he sources from local markets in his town of birth, Marrakech, and in doing so, bridges the gap between past and present cultures, creating pieces that seamlessly merge folkloric elements into Western contemporary art. Hassan Hajjaj lives and works in London and Marrakesh. He has established an international following for his photography and video, and his work features in several prestigious public and private collections worldwide including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA), Los Angeles and Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunisia.

Crawford Art Gallery
Emmet Place
Cork
Ireland
Hours: Monday–Saturday 10am–5pm,
Thursday 10–8pm, admission free
T+ 353 21 4805042
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