State Ø States – Karachi Biennale
Video installation – prints, copper, engraving, 2 HD videos – color – stereo sound – 1 min loop – 2017
Produced in the context of the first Karachi Biennale (2017) and echoing the history of NJV Building that once served as a parliament during the Pakistani independence, installation State Ø States functions as a hybrid tactic and didactic space convoking the potential of a geo-political renegotiation apparatus.
The seven panels display the recent history of telecommunications of the South East Asian and Middle Eastern countries connected by submarine fiber optic cable SEA-ME-WE in two shades of grey: whether the history was enabled by States funds or by private/foreign contractors. All this historical data gravitates around a large table on which copper cards featuring engraved telegraphic and fiber optic cables cuts can be interchanged on plural geographical coordinates.
Filmic loop extracts of SEA-ME-WE 2 feature the card game as well as a group of women singing the telegraphic morse code in the former Mumbai Central Telegraph Office.
Exhibition
2017 Karachi Biennale, group show, cur. Amin Gulgee, liaison by Abi Tarik, Karachi, Pakistan.