Seafaring Route (Who is K.Mardam Bey?)
Director Animation, 5:45


The digital animation piece Seafaring Route (Who is K.Mardam Bey?),2009, is an exploration into the nature of cultural communication through the ages.

The animation opens with a satellite view of the Levantine coast, one of the oldest seacoast based cultures on earth. From here the Phoenicians set forth to colonize the Mediterranean, starting a tradition of cultural exchange and diaspora that has lasted over 3000 years.

From a space age view of Tel Aviv the screen travels north over Haifa to Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. Metonymous with the combination of satellite imaging and simulated drawings, made out of altered photographs, the viewer is witness to a dialogue between two anonymous online writers discussing the Palestinian software designer Khaled Mardam Bey and mIRC , the internet chat client he developed.

Seafaring Route (Who is K.Mardam Bey?) makes reference to levels of technology and communication, layering them over a historical background of various media – pen, photography, film and computer based media. It also refers to the Sisyphean task of controlling the technology we develop, especially as to its use and misuse.

Additionally a series of digital prints, taken from images used for the animation are presented.


animation still

animation still

animation still

installation view

installation view

installation view

Artneuland e.V. | Schumannstrasse 18 | 10117 Berlin | Germany
Tel: +49 (0)30 28046650, 28047013 | Fax: +49 (0)30 28092950
berlingallery@artneuland.com | berlinprojects@artneuland.com

“Sea faring- route. Berlin. Tel Aviv. Beirut.”

Photography. Video. Installation.
Busy, hectic, multicultural are words in which all these three cities can be easily described. Though lacking topographical or political similarities, they share an atmosphere of constant motion and exchange of goods, people and ideas. They became places that willingly accept and even look forward to vivid changes and new impulses. In this way, they offer the perception of the temporary and represent the ‘here and now’. This vibrating ambience makes the three cities function as ‘harbours’ in a sense other than geographical. While Tel Aviv and Beirut have in fact been major seaports, Berlin has a clear longing for it, what can be observed, for instance, in the multiple beaches constructed along the Spree.

Exhibition

The exhibition tries to expose different views on the topic expressed by the artists Ayelet Albenda, Ana Bilankov, Heike Barndt, Tim Deussen, Dotan & Perry, Anna Faroqhi, Lasse Lau, Dana Levy, Chris de Lutz, Guy Raz, Ilana Salama Ortar, Michael H. Shamberg, Simcha Shirman, Felice Naomi Wonnenberg, Paola Yacoub and Maya Zack. The artists adopt the local or project the foreign view on the cities’ life. This exchange of views and opinions among the international participants of our project is just another aspect of the lively Trialogue between the three busy harbours on this imagined seafaring route.

The project will be opened on the 2^nd of July 2009 at 7pm in Artneuland.

Schumannstraße 18, 10117 Berlin. It will remain open until the 8^th of August 2009.
more at http://artneuland.com/project.asp?pid=48