Helena Tahir: The Last Sector — RAVNIKAR GALLERY SPACE

HELENA TAHIR
The Last Sector

March 20 —
May 11, 2024

LOCATION
RAVNIKAR GALLERY
Vošnjakova ulica 4
1000 Ljubljana

CURATOR
Ilija Prokopiev

PHOTOGRAPHER
Mario Zupanov

STATEMENT

The exhibition "The Last Sector" by Helena Tahir poses a profound and critical question that resonates within the vast realm of art: How does an artist's deeply personal experience, seamlessly incorporated into their artwork, transcend the boundaries of subjectivity to reach a state of a more objective relevance and relatability for a broader audience? Or, one might rephrase this question to inquire why we, as viewers, find ourselves inherently drawn to artworks that delve into the intimate aspects of artists' lives and see them as powerful.

The exhibition unfolds as a moving exploration of Helena's Iraqi heritage, deeply rooted in the stormy history of her father's life. Drawing directly from her family's past, it showcases various artistic expressions intricately entangled with Helena's transformative journey to Iraq in January 2023. Initiated by a heartfelt summons from her father's family, communicated through a poignant video message after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Helena embarks on a quest to connect with her family roots and unravel the enigmatic elements of her father's hidden past. Whether presenting the Iraqi family tapes, subtly modified found paperwork from her journey, carbon tracing drawing transfers on tiles, or employing her well-known drawing method, Tahir masterfully weaves intimate narratives and histories that may initially feel distant to most. However, transcending the confines of the personal narrative publicly, she illuminates the capacities of art's transformative power. In doing so, Helena emphasizes the profound ability of artistic expression to initiate changes, underlining its role as a catalyst of feelings and triggering shifts in the audience's consciousness through intimately originated works, resembling a confession.

Starting from the exhibition's title, we are introduced to the concepts of confession and intimacy. Such an enigmatic title leaves us with perplexing associations, leading us to think that Helena allows us to enter a hidden realm. Essentially, "The Last Sector," as named by the locals, refers to the 38th sector of Sadr City district in Baghdad, where Helena's father's family resides. However, beyond this original meaning, the name through this exhibition also carries a symbolic meaning, portraying the area as a storehouse of personal truths, a concealed realm waiting to be discovered and unveiled, or something profoundly hidden that pains to be verbalized. This idea aligns with Michel Foucault's exploration of truth residing within ourselves, seeking expression and liberation through confession. The failure of truth to surface is attributed to a constraining force, a power that suppresses it, and its articulation becomes possible only through a form of liberation consisting of the process of confession. Therefore, it is crucial to recognize that truth shares a fundamental connection with freedom. In this context, the story Helena tells us is connected with the search for freedom. For this search, Helena travels through her father's homeland, Iraq, entering the Last Sector and meeting her Iraqi family, which was kept in silence under personal and political circumstances for many, many years. Then, her decision to transform this experience into works of art and then into an exhibition became, on one side, an apparent liberation by itself, but on the other, the place where the narrative becomes objective and relevant to us all since the essence of the matter lies in the direct materiality of the story. Through the act of the artist's confession, which simultaneously serves as a subtle and ambivalent state of vulnerability and resistance, we also become both fragile and rebellious, encouraging us that liberating the truth is equal to fighting for freedom, a risk worth taking.

This concept is revealed through Helena Tahir's distinctive working process, especially in her drawings. Once she has stated that drawing is a process of becoming one with the work. By this, Helena is observing the creation as a therapeutic process, where through the short and fast movements of the colored pencils and the sound they produce, the work absorbs the whole presence of the artist, their thoughts, and feelings. Through the exhibited works, she drives us around that process by carefully dissecting her creative approach. She juxtaposes family archival tapes, photographs, and images of personal meaning with the drawings made through a meditative and detailed process that resembles the rhythmic undulations of Persian carpets, which mirrors Helena's personalization of her creations through lived experiences and truths. It becomes evident that Helena operates within fragmentary logic, skillfully amalgamating diverse visual information into a cohesive whole with the help of tracing, frottaging, and compiling techniques. This amalgamation, akin to constructing an image from many existing ones, threads narratives drawn from multiple, coexisting stories. Here, the observer is invited to delve into the elaborateness of Helena's creative process. The result is an emotional walk through the layers of Helena's artistry and state of the soul, where each detail contributes to the broader narrative of the interconnected stories, cultivating a deep and vibrant visual experience.

Helena Tahir primarily works in the fields of printmaking and drawing. She graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, earning a Bachelor's degree in printmaking and a Master's degree in painting. During her studies, she attended the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto and the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. She has showcased her work in several solo exhibitions, including the Lamut Salon in Kostanjevica na Krki (2018), the International Graphic Centre in Ljubljana (2020), the Ravne Gallery of KGLU (2021), RAVNIKAR (2022), and numerous group presentations in Slovenia and abroad. These include art fairs such as Vienna Contemporary and Art Rotterdam, as well as exhibitions like Contemporary=Fresh—a traveling exhibition of contemporary Slovenian graphic art that debuted in China, then traveled through the Balkans. She also participated in the International Exhibition of Graphic Art and Artists' Books in Rijeka, where she was honored with the Young Artist Award. In 2023, she became the new artist-in-residence for two years in Švicerija (MGLC). She further enriches her active artistic practice by teaching, including at the Department of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, SI. Her works are housed in various private & public collections. She lives and works in Ljubljana.

Razstava Helene Tahir, imenovana “Poslednji sektor”, zastavlja prodorno in kritično vprašanje, ki odmeva v obsežnem svetu umetnosti: kako globoka osebna izkušnja umetnika, neopazno umeščena v umetniško delo, presega meje subjektivnosti in doseže objektivno relevantnost, ki je pomenljiva za širšo publiko? Če se vprašamo drugače, zakaj nas kot gledalce privlačijo umetniška dela, ki se poglabljajo v intimne vidike umetnikovih življenj, in jih obenem vidimo kot močno povedna?

Razstava se odvija kot ganljivo raziskovanje Helenine iraške dediščine, ki je globoko zakoreninjena v burno zgodovino življenja njenega očeta. Črpa neposredno iz preteklosti njene družine in prikazuje različne umetniške izraze, ki so tesno prepleteni s Heleninim odločilnim potovanjem v Irak januarja 2023. Potovanje je sprožilo iskreno vabilo družine njenega očeta, ki je umetnici posredovala ganljivo video sporočilo po padcu režima Sadama Huseina leta 2003. Helena se je podala na pot, da bi se povezala s svojimi družinskimi koreninami in razvozlala skrivnostne elemente očetove nejasne preteklosti. Preko predstavljanja posnetkov iraške družine, subtilno spremenjene najdene dokumentacije s svojega potovanja, risb, prenesenih na keramične ploščice ali pa preko uporabe svoje dobro poznane metode risanja, umetnica mojstrsko prepleta intimno pripoved in zgodovino, ki se sprva morda zdi oddaljena. Kljub temu presega meje osebne pripovedi in osvetljuje transformativno sposobnost umetnosti. Poudarja moč samega umetniškega izražanja, ki sproža spremembe, in njegovo vlogo kot katalizatorja občutkov ter sprožilca premikov v zavesti občinstva skozi intimno-izvirna dela, ki spominjajo na nekakšno priznanje.

Že preko naslova razstave se seznanimo s pojmoma priznanje in intima. Njegova skrivnostna naravnanost nam pušča begajoče asociacije, ki vodijo k misli, da nam Helena odpira vrata v skrito kraljestvo. V resnici se »Poslednji sektor«, kot ga imenujejo domačini, nanaša na 38. sektor okrožja Sadr City v Bagdadu, kjer prebiva družina Heleninega očeta. Vendar poleg tega prvotnega pomena ime skozi razstavo nosi tudi simbolni pomen. Prikazuje območje hrambe osebnih resnic, zakrit svet, ki čaka, da ga odkrijemo in razkrijemo, ali nekaj globoko skritega, težko ubesedljivega. Ta ideja se ujema z raziskovanjem Michela Foucaulta o resnici, ki prebiva v nas samih, ter išče izraz in osvoboditev skozi priznanje. Neuspeh prodora resnice na površje pripisuje omejujoči sili, moči, ki jo zatira, njena artikulacija pa postane mogoča le skozi obliko osvoboditve, ki jo sestavlja proces priznanja. Zato je ključno priznati, da je resnica temeljno povezana s svobodo. V tem kontekstu je zgodba, ki nam jo pripoveduje Helena, povezana z iskanjem svobode. Za to iskanje Helena potuje skozi očetovo domovino, Irak, vstopi v Zadnji sektor in sreča svojo iraško družino, ki je živela mnogo, mnogo let v molku, utišana, zaradi osebnih in političnih okoliščin. Helenina odločitev, da to izkušnjo preoblikuje v umetniška dela in nato v razstavo, je postala na eni strani navidezna osvoboditev sama po sebi. Obenem predstavlja prostor, kjer pripoved postane objektivna in relevantna za vse nas, saj je v svojem bistvu zgodba neposredno materialna. Skozi umetničino izpoved, ki hkrati služi kot subtilno in ambivalentno stanje ranljivosti in odpora, tudi sami postanemo krhki in uporniški hkrati. To nas opogumlja k dejstvu, da je osvobajanje resnice enako boju za svobodo; tveganje, ki ga je vredno sprejeti.

Ta koncept se razkriva preko Heleni Tahir značilnega delovnega procesa, zlasti skozi njene risbe. Nekoč je izjavila, da je risanje proces povezovanja z delom v eno. Helena razumeva ustvarjanje kot terapevtski proces, kjer kratki in hitri gibi barvnih svinčnikov ter zvok, ki ga le-ti proizvajajo, v procesu dela posrkajo celotno prisotnost umetnika, njegove misli in občutke. Ta proces nam umetnica približa skozi razstavljena dela, in sicer preko skrbnega odstiranja svojega ustvarjalnega pristopa. Video posnetke iz družinskega arhiva, fotografije in podobe osebnega pomena sopostavlja z risbami, ustvarjenimi na meditativno precizen način, ki spominja na ritmično valovanje perzijskih preprog, kar v Heleninih delih zrcali personalizacijo doživetih izkušenj in resnic. Očitno postane, da jo vodi fragmentirana logika, v kateri spretno združuje različne vizualne informacije v kohezivno celoto s pomočjo tehnik sledenja, frotaža in sestavljanja. Njeno združevanje je podobno grajenju ene podobe iz številnih delov — več soobstoječih zgodb povezuje v skupno pripoved. Na razstavi je opazovalec povabljen, da se poglobi v Helenin izdelan ustvarjalni proces. Rezultat je čustven sprehod skozi plasti Helenine umetnosti in stanja duha, kjer vsaka podrobnost prispeva k širši pripovedi medsebojno povezanih zgodb, ustvarjajoč globoko in živahno vizualno izkušnjo.

Helena Tahir primarno ustvarja v poljih grafike in risbe. Z odliko je zaključila dodiplomski študij grafike in podiplomski študij slikarstva na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani. V času študija se je izpopolnjevala na Faculty of Fine Arts v Portu in na Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst v Leipzigu. Njene monumentalne, bogate ter z detajli nasičene vizualne pripovedi od bralca zahtevajo počasno in rigorozno branje. Zahvaljujoč doslednemu in temeljitemu prevpraševanju medija ji vsaka risba predstavlja nov tehnični izziv. Svoje delo je predstavila na več samostojnih razstavah, med drugim v Lamutovem salonu v Kostanjevici na Krki (2018), Mednarodnem grafičnem centru v Ljubljani (2020), Galeriji Ravne KGLU (2021), RAVNIKAR (2022) ter številnih skupinskih predstavitvah v Sloveniji in tujini, med drugim na umetnostnih sejmih Vienna Contemporary in Art Rotterdam, na Sodobno=Sveže, potujoči razstavi sodobne slovenske grafike, ki se je otvorila na Kitajskem in nato potovala po Balkanu, ter na Mednarodni razstavi grafike in umetniške knjige na Reki, kjer je dobila tudi priznanje za mladega umetnika. Živi in dela v Ljubljani, kjer je v Švicariji leta 2023 postala nova rezidentka za obdobje dveh let. Svojo aktivno umetniško prakso nadgrajuje s poučevanjem med drugim tudi na oddelku umetniške grafike na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani.