IMAN HASBANI
Born in Sweida in Syria, Iman Hasbani graduated in 2004 from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, painting department. From a student, she immediately became a teacher and taught theatrical scenography until 2012. Well identified on the Middle Eastern and international scene, Iman Hasbani participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies in Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. In 2015, she decided to leave Syria and began a master's degree in "psychosocial support and dialogue through art" at the University of the Arts in Beirut. She then moved to Berlin where she still lives and works.
Initially a painter, Iman Hasbani practices video, installation, photomontage and performance. Opting for devices that are both enigmatic and refined, the artist signs a feminine work in which she willingly stages herself like a ghostly presence. Childhood memories, the figure of his seamstress mother, personal experience, dreams and memory are the source of inspiration for a work haunted by the question of disappearance and trace.
Her video work Exit (2009) shows the hands of a woman trapped in veils of white lace from which she tries in vain to free herself with scissors. The rattling of the metal blades hauntingly punctuates the gesture of this faceless woman forever captive. In the performance Walk she produced in Lebanon at the Art Residence Aley in 2013, the artist dressed in white walks through the garden, indifferent to the world, like a sleepwalker. Flashes of strobe light create lightning in the night. Like a haunting whisper, the story of the spectators' childhood memories intertwine, unintelligible. In this unreal and disturbing setting, everyone is free to roam, on the sole condition of putting on white socks which they will put down where they stop, the performance leaving behind a floor strewn with white fabrics. A set of photomontages, Separation (2017) shows her again, a frail silhouette advancing from behind in a landscape of ruins and tanks. Dressed in a little white dress, the artist hugs a pillow against her, a shield against the violence of the world or a survivor of a ravaged daily life. Also in 2017, Iman Hasbani presents an immersive installation as part of a solo exhibition at Art-Lab Berlin. Here, there and other places invites the visitor to enter a large pocket of white fabrics. The confidences of women recorded during expression workshops create an inaudible background noise that accentuates the oppressive nature of the device.
Present on the international scene, Iman Hasbani participated in 2018 in the project "An open eye on the Arab world" at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. She exhibited in 2019 at the Maison des Arts de Malakoff in France and at the Atassi Foundation in Dubai.
by Véronique Bouruet
Contact:
Together with Per - Jörgen Erkius:
https://www.imanpje.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hasbaniiman/
hasbani.iman@gmail.com