GALERIE AKINCI about address contact programme


Stephan Balkenhol
Persijn Broersen
  & Margit Lukács

Yael Davids
Jaap van den Ende
Cevdet Erek
Hadassah Emmerich
Moyna Flannigan
Kirsten Geisler

Matthias Hoch
Juul Hondius
Paul Housley
T
homas Huber
Axel Hütte
Theo Jansen
Elke Krystufek
Petra Morenzi

Lea Asja Pagenkemper
Gerben Mulder
Miguel Angel Rios
Andrei Roiter
Frank van der Salm
Charlotte Schleiffert
Albrecht Schnider

Imogen Stidworthy
Esther Tielemans
Ronald Versloot

Anne Wenzel
Edwin Zwakman
  Shahryar Nashat: Les Negateurs Digital video, 5'40'', 2003

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Les Negateurs

The video starts with a white text scrolling from the bottom to the top of the image on a green background:

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Say: "O you disbelievers.
I do not worship what you worship.
Nor do you worship what I worship.
Nor will I ever worship what you worship.
Nor will you ever worship what I worship.
To you is your religion, and to me is my religion."

The 109th Surah of the Holy Quran (The Disbelievers) is the starting point of the video. Very short after the french translation from arabic finishes scrolling from the bottom to the top of the screen, a lament of muezzins starts reciting (singing) the 6 verses that compose this chapter of the Holy book. Through the mingle of these confused voices, a whispered one makes its way through the surface; mechanically, almost didactically, not to say endoctrinatingly repeating each verse and waiting on the protagonist before saying the next one. After the Surat finishes, the voice relentlessly starts from the beginning. The protagonist tries to follow that rhythm, at first, in a forceful attempt, gradually with less confidence, less conviction.

Digital video, 5'40'', 2003