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 Re: السودان: دار حرب ، معرض جديد بإستوديو سوتو. (Re: Khalid Kodi)
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DARFUR, DAR AFRICA, DAR CHINA
installation by Khalid Kodi
May 13 - June 3, 2007
opening reception Sunday, May 13, 3 - 6 pm
gallery hours:
Th, F, 5-9; Sat., Sun., 12 - 5
Utilizing installation, paintings, appropriation and video projection, Khalid
Kodi brings to Studio Soto a lamentation and sharp critique of Sudan's long civil war, and China's dubious investments in the current regime. The exhibition will also include a panel discussion with leading experts on the crisis on May 19th at 3pm, details below.
Artists Statement: In 2003 I participated in an art exhibit Entitled "Redo China". The exhibition was organized by Chinese artist, curator, and activist, Pan Xing Lei. I started working In Redo China In the year 2002, and on September 18th, 2003 ten artists from different nations gathered at the Asian Center in New York to open the Redo China show. Each artist created impressions of the contemporary China as they see it, and as people of their own nation see it.
During that time the war in Sudan was rife in the South and in the Nuba Mountains, and China was conducting business with the Sudanese government who was committing gross crimes against the people of the south and the Nuba mountains.
My memories of China were always associated with red. As Chairman Mao addressed the young and well-organized Chinese men and women at festive occasions, RED was the color that captured my eyes.
Always RED! cadmium red.
Even on the cover of the elegant magazine, Re-Building China
Red, that translated into rigged Arabic.
My memories of China were often intermingled with the constructions of my own Sudan and spared of the concept of providing people with the means for "catching the fish" but never giving them the fish. I have good memories of China - after all I was a representative of the ping pong team at my high school.
In the recent years my memories with China became red, green, and black. Red for blood, green for the dollars, and black for the oil! As the Eastern block fell apart, China became a super power of some sort. The capital market imposed new economic needs and the competitive market imposed investment desire.
My more recent memories of China are linked with the discovery of oil in the Sudan. China with all its experience in the intellect, engineering and development, China with all its history in advocating friendship, and comradeship, has become heavily involved in investing for financial gain by any means necessarily. It invests in several African nations, including Sudan.
Despite all those wonderful things of China’s history, despite all the wonderful memories I personally have, the present reality of China’s investment in Africa is not a pretty one! The human toll is so high, over two million Sudanese people have lost their lives, four million have lost their homes, and hundreds of villages have been destroyed as giant oil machines took the places of huts and fields that once belonged to indigenous Sudanese families. Many of these machines are Chinese.
My newer memories of China are not of history, culture and the festive color red. They are no longer good ones. They are of murderous silence and heartless investment amidst the genocide taking place in Sudan. The images of red are now images of blood; the blood of millions of Sudanese people.
Now the atrocities moved to Darfur, where over 200,000 lost their lives since the escalation of conflict in 2004, and where more than two millions were displaced in Sudan or became refugees in other countries. Thousands of women were raped, villages burned, and lives destroyed.
And China is keeping silent amidst the genocide..
Can you see the color red? and the bloodshed?
Sudan is still a major supplier of oil to China, I see the color black..
And China continues to invest in Sudan, I see the color green…
Arms from China continue to pour into Sudan, I see the colors green and red.. in fact, it is green, black and red.
China is using its leverage to put hurdles on international attempts to protect innocent civilians in Darfur and is using its veto power in the Security Council to stop stronger denunciation of the genocide in Sudan.
So, although my old ping pong days are long gone,
Even if that was not the case, I won't be going to China in summer 2008.
This installation is a response to China’s decision to invest in a country ruled by a dictator and engaged in a brutal war against its own citizens.
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Khalid Kodi
Tragie Mustafa
bakri abdalla
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست