IMAN ISSA - REASONABLE CHARACTERS IN FAMILIAR PLACES, KUNSTHALLE LISSABON

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Installation view, Iman Issa, Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, Kunsthalle Lissabon

Kunsthalle Lissabon presents Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places, the first solo show in Portugal of New York-based, Egyptian artist Iman Issa, taking place from January 12th to April 2nd, 2016.

Iman Issa’s practice spans a variety of media, such as sculpture, video, sound, photography or text and her works can be defined by their ability to raise questions. The exhibition now being presented at Kunsthalle Lissabon addresses some of Issa’s most narrative works as well as explores the artist's ability to develop a discourse through fiction. 

The Revolutionary (2010) is an audio piece, written by the artist and generated using text-to-speech software, in which a disembodied narrator traces a portrait of a character that seems to be a revolutionary and, in this process, directs the listener's attention to the term, and what it may refer to. 

The exhibition also includes the installation Thirty-three stories about Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places (2011). This multidisciplinary project works as a book that unfolds in the exhibition space. It consists of three independent, yet connected parts: a book of fiction written by the artist, an epilogue to the book consisting of videos, images and sculptures that the artist produced in relationship to the memories evoked by the process of writing the book and an index that offers titles and descriptions to the artworks independent of the memories that evoked their making. Although the different sections are linked, the viewer can choose to follow these links through or to approach each element independently.These thirty-three stories narrate events or situations about characters in what one would consider familiar places. A set of portraits of everyday situations, emotions and locations, all of them experienced by anonymous characters, simultaneously familiar and abstract.

Photos by Bruno Lopes, courtesy of Kunsthalle Lissabon.

Iman Issa - Reasonable Characters in Familiar Places
Kunsthalle Lissabon, January 12 - April 02
www.kunsthalle-lissabon.org