Anna Boghiguian 

This first solo exhibition in a museum in a German-speaking country of Anna Boghiguian (1946 Cairo, EC), an Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian origin, continued the series of acclaimed debut presentations of outstanding female artists that I successfully launched at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. The exhibition also once again facilitated a transcultural dialogue with perspectives that go beyond the usual Western and Eurocentric ones. At the same time, a monumental installation created by the artist for this exhibition entitled Trades + Birds was on display in the Rupertinum Atrium, which was to remain in place for a year as part of the series of commissioned works for this venue that began in 2016.[1]

The exhibition course opened with the artist books by Anna Boghiguian and her latest collages entitled An Incident in the Life of a Philosopher (2017), about an event in the life of Friedrich Nietzsche in Turin. The next galleries showcased spectacular installations such as The Salt Traders (2015), a monumental work composed of sails, collages, salt stones, and sand created on occasion of the 14^th Istanbul Biennial. This work reconstructs the emergence of ancient trade routes and traces of colonialism and slavery that remain visible today. The installation A Play to Play (2013) suggests Boghiguian’s sustained interest in literature, poetry, and philosophy; its particular focus is on the Indian poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941 Calcutta, IN). Also on display was Promenade dans l’inconscient (Walk into the Unconscious, 2016), a procession of figures made from paper cut-outs that reveals the circumstances surrounding the founding of the French city of Nîmes as a colony of the Roman Empire and references the art of Max Beckmann and his critique of the Weimar Republic.

During her stay in Salzburg, Boghiguian created the monumental installation Trades + Birds especially for the Rupertinum Atrium, for which she embroidered and painted a historical ship’s sail from Cairo. In it, she addresses the global trade in raw materials, the effects of colonialism and questions the justice of individual countries’ survival strategies in relation to global prosperity. Her keen interest in politics, philosophy, literature and music, which Boghiguian pursues on her constant travels around the world, have made her a critical observer. A recurring motif in her artist’s books, collages and installations, which she also depicts several times in the work Trades + Birds, is the drawing of an auricle. Boghiguian distinguishes between the metaphysical ear, with which we hear our inner voice, and the physical ear, which enables us to communicate with our environment. Boghiguian invites us to listen attentively, because the politics and corruption of our time are often a reflection of ancient history. For Boghiguian, the three birds circling the sail represent people’s collective need for freedom of movement and community.

[1] The exhibition period was later shorted to March 2019 by the following director.

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