It is the first time that MoMA PS1 invited Syrian sculptor Simone Fattal to hold a retrospective of the works in this year, over 200 pieces of works like sculptures, paintings, watercolors, collages created in the past 50 years have been exhibited. The "Works and Days" exhibition ended on September 2nd.
77 years old this year, Simone Fattal was born in Damascus, grew up in Lebanon and studied philosophy at the L’École des lettres des collèges and Sorbonne University. In 1969, she returned to Beirut, lived in Lebanon for ten years, and began to paint. Then the civil war in Lebanon happened. In 1980, Simone Fattal fled to settle in California and established ost-Apollo Press, committed to the publication of innovative and experimental literary works. 1988, Simone Fattal began the course at the Art Institute of San Francisco, returning to art practice and starting to create clay sculptures. Since 2006, she has continued to create works at the famous Hans Spinne workshop in Grasse, France. 2013, she released a film "Autoportrait" that has been shown at many film festivals around the world.
The professor of the San Francisco Sculpture Course placed a lot of materials for the students to make a choice. Simone Fattal chose an alabaster, studied it carefully and tried to use it to create, translucent white color, uneven surface, as if it would breathe, the work created with it unexpectedly reveals the original beautiful posture, just like the antiquities that have just been excavated from the ruins. Simone Fattal created the first sculpture "Torso Found in Today's Downtown Beirut" (1988) with white and flesh-colored alabaster, this is also her first work based on human appearance to commemorate the souls sacrificed in the Lebanese civil war and the abandoned ancient city ruins. Simone Fattal is addicted to archaeological ruins in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, as well as Sufi poetry and Islamic art. She uses clay to create, the clay is wearing resistance, soft and varied, it is used to convey the imagery of archaeology, poetry and mythology.
This exhibition cites the concept of the Greek poet Hesiod's poem " Works and Days ", which depicts five ages of mankind. The first is Golden Age, the crop is rich, no illness and pain, and all peaceful. The second is Silver Age, ignorant, suffer, sad, the third is Bronze Age, full of cruel, violence, destruction, the fourth is Heroic Age, the world saved by the warriors, also known as the age of the demigod, the fifth is the President Age, morally bankrupt, sadness and shamelessness. By the concept of this poem, Simone Fattal portrays that even the war brings grief and suffering, mankind can still full of hope. She created the small sculpture "Adam and Eve", and then made a series of small objects, such as apple, trees, horses, houses, through the imaginary ancient world of mythology, telling the beginning of human desires and curses.
The curator of the exhibition "Works and Days" is the Syrian-American Ruba Katrib. The design of the exhibition is mainly archaeology, and the sculptures are placed on a ladder and a pedestal, put the corresponding paintings and collages around, sculptures such as the epic hero Gilgamesh, ancient warriors, etc. are concentrated on a white pedestal in the center, and the abstract landscape paints are hung on the wall next to it, make the audience to bring about visual connections, break away from the orbit of time, enter the fantasy world of Simone Fattal.
She described that Simone Fattal's sculptures seem to have no time constraints, but they can express fascinating stories, Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, Islam Sufi Mysticism, the Lebanese Civil War, the US-Iraq War, etc., reinterpreted in different forms by her works for modern people. This retrospective has become an important exhibition to deepen understanding and reveal the inner world and creative process of Simone Fattal over the past 50 years.
Simone Fattal has held exhibitions in many places, such as Cité des Arts Paris, The Eileen Reynolds Curtis Museum Sausalito, Sharjah Art Foundation, Musée départemental d’art contemporain, Rochechouart, HENI Publishing, London, Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, MoMA PS1, New York.
Photos by YIART
Simone Fattal, photo: Carla Henoud. Courtesy of L'Orient-Le Jour.
