But, for Bozar, his work is completely different. “For reasons that I don’t understand myself,” she tells us, “during Covid I became passionate about Egyptian Antiquity.”
The architecture of the antechambers, designed by Horta who was a member of a Masonic lodge linked to Egypt, reinforced her interest in Egyptian antiquity. But it is even more about today that Monira Al Qadiri speaks to us through her works.
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Allegories for the present time
The visitor first discovers in the rotunda two large figures from ancient Egypt, half very muscular men, half animals, in polyester resin, which she repainted in black car lacquer and placed on supports rotating slowly on themselves.
“They question our view of the Other. They are gods but they are also animals. Who is human and who is animal in our world today? In Egypt, even insects or snakes were gods to respect. Animals could change their appearance. We were not confined to compartmentalized categories. There was respect for nature and animals. But, even if we think that our human life is much more important than life. animals, we see how in Ukraine or in In Gaza, human life has less importance than elsewhere. Why are there so many hierarchies when life in general must be respected everywhere, at all levels?
If her work is very political, it does not directly offer a message but acts, she says, “through allegories to make us think”.
The first room plunges us into the Luxor bazaar and into a mess of statuettes for tourists, with the three walls invaded by a video.
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“This forms a multitude of characters in which each identity is lost, like these mass graves where bodies that have become a statistic are piled up. There is an image of dehumanization here which prevents us from still seeing the humanity that is in the Other. “
The artist then scanned in 3D and animated some of these statuettes which emerge from the multitude.
Entering the second room is like entering an Egyptian tomb.
For Monira Al Qadiri, “even in the worst moments, the artist can create beauty. We are living in a period that is very, very scary, with wars, the rise of the far right, the return of Trump. In ancient Egypt, art was a way to grieve constructively.”
The Book of the Dead
Akhenaten looks at us and speaks to two other animal-headed gods. The three gods are three videos made from Egyptian statues scanned in 3D, animated and speaking with a voice generated by artificial intelligence. The texts come from the Egyptian Book of the Dead which was placed in tombs to be read after death. “This very poetic text remains very current in its call to respect nature. Akhenaten highlights the superiority of man, but the animal gods come to tell him that they are as important as man.”
The large curved wall of the last room is painted black and 700 ears of wheat covered with gold paint hang there. For Monira Al Qadiri, each ear symbolizes a human soul.
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“The Egyptians imagined Paradise as an immense field of wheat. The dead continued to work the land, to cultivate wheat to be able to feed themselves. In Antiquity, Paradise was not seen as a place where people no longer did nothing. Working the land was then considered very important whereas today it is largely discredited.”
For this room, the artist created his first work in virtual reality. The visitor sits in a comfortable armchair, places the helmet on his head and is immersed in the Paradise of the ancient Egyptians. We find ourselves in the middle of a wheat field where men and animals work. “Then slowly emerges from the horizon, the boat of the dead. A cow flies away according to the Egyptian myth which says that Osiris had asked Hator, the cow-headed goddess, to destroy humanity, because humans have not respected the divinity. Hator then enters into a destructive madness and we see the blood flowing and gradually becoming a large red river which covers the entire wheat field. Like a current image if the myths became reality. “
“It’s a strange sight for strange times,” she said again.
Monira Al Qadiri, Bozar, until 9 March.
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