Mehdi Is a Lighthouse
Installation, 2013
The enemy’s grand dancing concert. Everybody has gathered – England against Ireland, India against Pakistan, Israel against Iran, North Korea against America, Tutsi against Hutu, Shiites against Sunnis, bent against straight, wives against lovers, dogs against cats. They stood around in circles and wrestled, turning Headspins, Backspins, Handglides and Windmills, backs, heads and arms whirling, legs turning like windmills. They were contests inspired by events which began in the 1970s in the South Bronx, when the feuding street gangs replaced their bloody battles for a moment with break dance battles. The winners won respect, and the losers no longer interfered in their territory.
I met Mehdi by a lighthouse in Casablanca, Morroco in February 2012. He turned against his own nation as he wasn’t needed by it. His light trousers flashed at the base of the lighthouse. Mehdi himself is a lighthouse, circling like a lighthouse’s light, signalling far into the distance. By chance, I met his “reflection” Sandis in Latvia, at Vecpiebalga, in autumnthe same year. Together they create my tireless fighter.
(A.L.)
Artist's Bio:
I am interested in borderline situations, transformations, mutual reflection, ambiguity, contradictions and the reevaluation of values. Up till now, most often at the centre of my works, there’s been a person, portrayed in a widely interpretable conditionality, with unclear details and gender, but more clearly visible emotions. Often the human-like figures, like an inaccurate mirror reflection, in a slightly deformed symmetry, are placed opposite each other.
I include banalities and the grotesque in the works. Humane issues are important, an invitation to cross the borders of prejudice and fear. Painting is a basic value, but for me the experiment with a difficult to predict result, stage design and performance is also important.