Scrapbook

2015 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

48 min, dimensions variables

Bady Dalloul


Bady Dalloul’s Scrapbook is a 48 minute video beginning from his birth, tracing major global events of the 20 th century, including the beginning and current Occupation and colonization of Palestine, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, assassination of family members and the Syrian diaspora. A voice over follows these moments as the camera traces over the collage that includes text; photos; postcards; origami birds; and inserted videos of world leaders. The film is a letter to the viewer, imploring the witnessing of what we assume, but cannot know, to be the artist speaking. Here, the artist confounds the real and the fictional so as to escape from and reinvent the official narratives. In Japan the artist found a scrapbook whose pages were covered with little pieces of colored paper folded into origami, flattened and pasted. Dalloul kept it and here we find the source for a narrative intertwining the histories of Japan and Syria. In Hiroshima, he came across the story of Sadako, a young girl who suffered from leukemia as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on the city August 6, 1945. While dying she recalled the ancient legend that a person who makes a thousand orgami will have their greatest wish granted. Between the origami on yellowed pages are texts and images combining reality and fantasy as they address questions of war and political, military and economic decisions, and their impact on the fate of individuals. Using both authentic and fictional archives, this work also explores the fabrication of memory through imposed narratives. By adopting different forms and tones in his work, Dalloul explores the mechanisms and processes of authority and domination, of imperialism, that were part of the manipulation of the region’s historical narrative and memory, and its repercussions on the collective imagination.


Bady Dalloul cunningly employs collage across various media: texts, drawings, video, and objects to produce powerful works commenting on the past and the present. His collages imply a construction, the fabrication of a space that is simultaneously autobiographical, critical, poetic and narrative. Thus, he makes narratives where the real and fiction, and individual and collective experiences, enter into a permanent dialogue questioning the official historical grand narratives. The artist conceived of a fragile book, tattered by time and long use. It’s a diary, and he has patiently filled every page. He has taken notes ever since his childhood spent in Paris and Damascus, cutting out and pasting in illustrations from history magazines and books to make up stories like Badland (1999–2004). His practice began as a way to keep busy and counter boredom and the incomprehensibility of the crisis that has held Syria in its grip for decades. For 5 years, he filled his notebooks with definitions, notes on events, information (scientific, geostrategic, military, economic and historical) and maps. A long-term project guided by a question, an obsession: do images represent the truth of our world?


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Rite Aid
© » KADIST

Nicholas Buffon

2016

A series of works from 2016 document his neighborhood, replicating buildings and businesses he frequents within four blocks of his New York apartment...

“to be still”
© » THE JEALOUS CURATOR

Soooo, when Malcom Gladwell’s podcast network reaches out to you and says, “Hey Danielle, would you like to share part of an interview we did with Marina Abramović with your listeners”, you say, “ummm, OKAY!” I’ve put a little mini episode together, featuring a 20 minute excerpt from their show, “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso”...

Shameless was once a groundbreaking show but now seems to have lost
© » THE INDEPENDENT

Shameless was once a groundbreaking show but now seems to have lost its relevance | The Independent | The Independent Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent...

Online Events: The Missing Circle
© » KADIST

Programas en línea de El Círculo que Faltaba , en colaboración con el Museo Amparo El Círculo que Faltaba es una serie de programas de tres años que incluye seminarios, comisiones y exposiciones, y que parte de la experiencia compartida de la muerte y extinción en el continente latinoamericano y el Caribe desde tiempos de la Colonia al presente...

DON’T MISS: Glenn Kaino’s ‘Walking with a Tiger’ at Pace Gallery
© » OBSERVER

Review: Glenn Kaino’s ‘Walking with a Tiger’ at Pace Gallery | Observer Installation view of ‘Glenn Kaino: Walking with a Tiger’ at Pace’s 540 West 25th Street gallery...

Cinema : Bertrand Dezoteux — Projection de Harmonie
© » SLASH PARIS

Bertrand Dezoteux — Projection de Harmonie — L’ahah Griset — Cinema — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Bertrand Dezoteux — Projection de Harmonie — L’ahah Griset — Cinema — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Bertrand Dezoteux — Projection de Harmonie Cinema Dessin, film À venir Bertrand Dezoteux, Harmonie (épisode 1), 2018 Film d’animation Courtesy Galerie Anne Barrault, Paris Bertrand Dezoteux Projection de Harmonie Dans 4 jours : Vendredi 16 février 2024 à 19:00 Bertrand Dezoteux Projection de film : “Harmonie” Le 16.02.24 à 19h L’ahah #Griset 4 cité Griset, 75011 Paris Projection du film de Bertrand Dezoteux, Harmonie, suivie d’un échange avec Bernard Gaube modéré par Camille Debrabant, commissaire de l’exposition « Hunimalité »...

Book of Veles 44 - Bojan
© » KADIST

Jonas Bendiksen

2021

For his project Book of Veles artist Jonas Bendiksen travelled to the small city of Veles in North Macedonia, inspired by a series of press reports starting in 2016, that revealed Veles as a major source of the fake news stories flooding Facebook and other social media sites celebrating Donald Trump and denigrating Hillary Clinton...

Weekly Southeast Asian Radar: The Philippine accent; Hockhacker remains defiant
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Southeast Asian Radar: The Philippine accent; Hockhacker remains defiant | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Still from The Unseen River via Saigoneer September 3, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...

Keturunan Ruminah: WhatsApp play on family inheritance
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Keturunan Ruminah: WhatsApp play on family inheritance | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints HATCH April 6, 2021 By Azura Farid and Nabilah Said The pandemic led theatre collective HATCH to dream up Keturunan Ruminah (Ruminah’s Family), a play that takes place entirely on WhatsApp...

Gallerist Maria Bernheim On Her London Opening and Getting High on Her Own Supply
© » OBSERVER

An Interview with Gallerist Maria Bernheim | Observer Bernheim Gallery in London...

See London's Biggest Pie Chart
© » LONDONIST

LSE's Giant Pie Chart Includes Part Of The Charles Booth Poverty Map | Londonist See London's Biggest Pie Chart By M@ M@ See London's Biggest Pie Chart A pie chart, a map and a giant mural.....

Rabbithole
© » KADIST

Chitra Ganesh

2010

Rabbithole by Chitra Ganesh is a digital animation that refigures a fundamental plot device in myths and fables...

Page 2123, The New World Physical Map
© » KADIST

Hong Hao

2000

Selected Scripture is a series of silkscreen prints that Hong Hao has been working on since the 1980s...

Swann African American Sale Reaches Highest Total Ever at $5.1m
© » ARTMARKETMONITOR

Swann African American Sale Reaches Highest Total Ever at $5.1m Hale Woodruff, Carnival ($250-350k) $665,000 Swann celebrated the end of its 14th year holding African American art auctions—a category the small New York house pioneered—by hitting the highest ever auction total...

Mega-Collector Steve Cohen Buys South Florida Mansion for Nearly $22M - via The Real Deal
© » LARRY'S LIST

New York Mets owner and billionaire hedge fund manager Steven Cohen paid $21.6 million for a waterfront home in South Florida....

Austländer Raus! Christoph Schlingensief's Container
© » KADIST

“Ausländer raus! (Foreigners out), Schlingensief’s Container” Amid intense public interest, twelve participants introduced by Christoph Schlingensief as asylum-seekers spend one week in a cordoned-off, CCTVed shipping container complex next to the Vienna opera house...

See the Monumental Tiffany Stained-Glass Window the Met Just Acquired
© » ARTNET

The 1912 work will be installed in the museum's American Wing in 2024...

The Best Art Galleries in Engadin Valley, Switzerland
© » OBSERVER

The Best Art Galleries in Engadin Valley, Switzerland | Observer In the southeastern part of Switzerland in the Swiss canton of Graubünden lies the Engadin Valley...

Page 95, The Latest Practical World Map
© » KADIST

Hong Hao

1995

Selected Scripture is a series of silkscreen prints that Hong Hao has been working on since the 1980s...