Jala Wahid
Mock Kings
1 Apr–14 May 2023

How can history be told and preserved if it intrinsically eludes the Western idea of nation-statehood? Working with conflicting Kurdish and Western narratives and perspectives, Jala Wahid explores the enduring effects of longstanding colonial occupation and British and US imperialism on Kurdish art practices and archaeology.

Both the Kurdish performance Mîrmîran and artefacts from former Mesopotamia serve as starting points for Wahid to counter-draft Western historical narratives and, in doing so, reflect on theatrical and performative forms of political subversion. Which media might aid in criticising and ridiculing colonial power relations, or what’s more, distorting, inverting and temporarily suspending them? What potentials are offered by carnivalesque aesthetics, play and dance, parody and humour? And what happens when political and theatrical action can no longer be clearly distinguished?

In the context of political, geographical and linguistic fragmentation and unresolved questions of belonging and permanence, Wahid takes on the contradictions, diffuseness and complexity of diasporic reality and develops alternate techniques of remembering and preserving that can be transformative and playful, that testify to resilience and self-positioning.

Mock Kings is Wahid’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany.

Curator: Theresa Roessler

Exhibition handout

With special thanks to Galerie Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna and Niru Ratnam Gallery, London.

The exhibition is supported by: