Hollow
Airport
Museum
H A M
…Ham was Noah’s son, the forefather of the nations on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and of the countries of the Middle East. The vacant International Airport of Nicosia at the Green Line is a Hollow building, a Museion without art exhibits. Although the airport is the only unoccupied from the Turkish army edifice located at the Green Line, is still in a militarized zone, under the control of the United Nations authorities. Stressing the necessity of an International School of Fine Arts and of a Contemporary Museum in the area, HAM, highlights the Ancient Greek idea of a Museion, as an interdisciplinary laboratory and not that of a space where artworks could be exhibited. Consequently, the space takes the form of Artististiclaboratories/studios where a group of international artists such as: Mounir Fatmi, Wafa Hourani, Gülsün Karamustafa, Narda Alvarado and others, have been already invited to work as the first selection of teachers.
This plan gives students and local artists the opportunity to meet stimulating established artists, coming mostly from countries with similar political problems, contested areas or countries with long-lasting wars.
Students’ chance to collaborate and exchange ideas and feelings with them, accordingly, gives the “teachers” the opportunity to use the airport space as studio in order to accomplish one of their projects, while learning as much as possible about Arab people and the political situation in the Middle East. In other words, no matter how much absurd it sounds, to learn how many problems, the contest for oil, caused to Middle East countries and the nearby area.
One ironic and almost symbolic thing to mention here is that the dividing wall in Cyprus is constructed from empty oil vessels. Petroleum, the real reason for the war, is at the same time the element that literally divides the island and that’s why I focused on this element in order to construct the Carnival Floats in Sao Paolo and the rest of floating platforms of the Museion. As my six years old nephew told me, Cyprus suffered a lot and still suffers since is the western gate to Arab oil and wealth…
CARNIVAL PAUSE
At the end of the activities, the outcomes of the “art-school” could be put on display before the artists/teachers’ departure, following the form of a carnival parade into the town. Emphasizing the nomadic character of the Museion, the exhibits could be set up on floats and “meet” people in public spaces, streets and plazas, instead of waiting them to visit the museum. Of course, Carnival is a ceremony that doesn't exist in Arabic civilization, even though it is so familiar to a variety of religions and cultures in the rest of the world. Thus, trying to impose an overseas ritual to them, it sounds like a colonialist strategy. In fact, the Museion’s Carnival parade has nothing to do with the usual procession; actually the real reference here, is nothing else but the very oriental custom of displaying merchandises in the street; costermongers, hawkers and peddlers are very characteristic figures in the Arab world…
Extract from correspondence with Catherine David
