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R. Thinking/Dreaming About Overpopulation I
Róza El-Hassan
wood, textile and balloon
75 × 65 × 50 cm
1999–2000
Acquisition 2001
Inv. No. 0097
Roza El-Hassan became known in the international art world because of her “Stretched Objects”, objects from daily life which the artist stretched over the walls with wires. R. Thinking/Dreaming about Overpopulation I and II are classical sculptures. Roza El-Hassan is concerned with differences of cultural tradition, with the problems of minorities, marginalisation and feminist questions connected with those issues.
Both sculptures represent women sitting on the floor. One is wrapped in a black chador and presses an orange balloon to herself, making it easily interpretable as a child. The other figure is made from raw wood, roughly put together. Here the artist rejects depicting female attributes and appears to want to say just “person”. R. Thinking/Dreaming about Overpopulation is a distinctly political work that makes you think: What does “overpopulation” mean, where and for whom? How do we deal with the stream of migrants from the “overpopulated” areas of the world, where do these diffuse fears come from, who encourages them and why?
Brigitte Huck, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)
Continue readingExhibitions
Moszkva ter - Moszkva Square, Museum of Contemporary Art - Ludwig, Budapest, 2014
Roza El-Hassan. In Between - Drawings and Objects, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, 2012
Reflecting Fashion. Kunst und Mode seit der Moderne, MUMOK, Vienna, 2012
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Mitteleuropa, Zyklus 4.0 Stift Lilienfeld, Zyklus Mitteleuropa, Lilienfeld, 2009
Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, 2007
R.thinking/dreaming about overpopulation, retrospective, Mücsarnok Kunsthalle Budapest, Budapest, 2006
Nach Rokytník. The collection of EVN, MUMOK, Vienna, 2005
Aller Anfang. Birth Geburt Naissance Parto, Österr. Museum für Volkskunde, Vienna, 2002
Publications
Róza El-Hassan. In Between. Zeichnungen und Objekte [Kunstmuseum Basel, 2012], Ostfildern / Ruit 2012, p. 91
Reflecting Fashion. Kunst und Mode seit der Moderne [Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 15 June – 23 September 2012], , p. 11
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Mitteleuropa, Zyklus 4.0 Stift Lilienfeld, Lilienfeld 2009, p. 31
evn sammlung 95–05, Cologne 2005, p. 82 f
evn sammlung. Ankäufe 2000–2002, Maria Enzersdorf 2002, p. 15
LeseRaum, Secession, 7.12.2000 – 21.1.2001 [published on the occasion of the exhibition Objects and LeseRaum by Róza El-Hassan], Vienna 2000, p. s. p.
Context
More works
from Róza El-Hassan
More objects from wood
More works
from 1999
More works
full-length figures