Hassan Khan (Cairo, 1975) created the work Composition for a Public Park for Viva Arte Viva, which can be seen in the public area of the Arsenale in Venice. He was awarded the Silver Lion for this work, the award for the most promising young artist.
Could you describe what drives you as an artist? What do you see as your main inspirations and influences?
This is a difficult question! As an artist, I pursue several goals, some of which are contradictory. But I will try to give a few examples. I strive to always say something new, to discover forms that resonate, to illuminate the circumstances we live in without using them as an excuse for relevance. I strive to be involved, to listen, to suggest, sometimes to overwhelm, to find the place that is both recognisable and elusive.
The process can begin anywhere: an insignificant feeling, a word, a title, an image, a hidden memory, a state of exhaustion and hyperventilation, a calculated thought process, an associative wind tunnel, a lack, a form of saturation, a sense of wonder, a sense of horror, a sense of joy, a sense of loss.
Could you give a brief description of the work you created for the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale?
Composition for a Public Park is a multi-channel musical composition installed in public parks. The composition is composed of three movements with a libretto for each movement in both a male and female voice. Each movement has its own title, musical language and duration. The librettos each try to touch on the thin line between our subjectivity and reality from a different angle. The movements run on but are not synchronous with each other because they have different lengths - therefore their relationship is constantly changing. Visitors walk through the installation and thereby experience the composition as a fragmented structure rather than a linear one.
How does this work relate to Christine Macel's general curatorial theme for Viva Arte Viva?
When I first spoke to Christine, we had an interesting conversation about the development of an artwork that leaves the audience free to interpret, about the starting point of a work and how it forms. We talked about the current social conditions and how art plays a role in this, about the position of the artist, the context and the moment when things start moving. My work responds more to this conversation than to the theme.
What did participating in the Venice Biennale 2017 bring you? Did it result in new projects, works, activities or ideas?
I had a great time and is was inspiring to see how many people can connect with the work. And of course there are also conversations going on at the moment which stem from the work I showed in Venice.
Published on 22 November 2017.
