Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

From Vies possibles et imaginaires, © by Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh and Rozenn Quéré, 2012.

Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, Aufbewahrungsbox, Zwischenlager Fotografisches Archiv, RJM 2021 © Rozenn Quéré und Caro Bräuer

Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh studied history, photography and visual anthropology in Paris. In 2018, she received her PhD from the Institute of Art Theory and Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Since 2008, she is a member of the Arab Image Foundation. She combines research, conversational, image and (meta)archival practices with long-term involvement to reflect on the agency of photographs and notions of collectivity and power.

Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh is invited AMA artist at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum. The artist addressed various questions to the archive during her stay in Cologne and her visit to the depot where it is stored in conservation packaging after its digitalisation. Particularly relevant for her is the question of the significance of the archive in this current state and the associated keeping away of the gaze. In her sound installation, she reflects not only on the materiality of and access to the archive, but also on the conditions of displaying it!

The sound installation conveys ways of dealing with the archive - but deliberately does not show any photographs, instead it deals with the ethnographic and colonial racist context of its creation, the way it is stored and its future accessibility.

The collective work initiated by the artist negotiates questions about the ownership of the archive, accessibility and the handling of sensitive and violent images as well as the entire holdings. The search for a say in the debate about the visual colonial heritage is the central concern. Through an initial joint gesture, an attempt is made to outline various possible responses. Differentiated, sometimes opposing and even paradoxical positions persist together, as is the case in the thought experiment of Schrödinger's Cat.

The title Rautenstrauch-Joests Cat is based on the famous mental experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961). The physicist uses a cat in a box to illustrate that in quantum mechanics there are theoretically intermediate states in which particles can be simultaneously in two states that are actually mutually exclusive. In Eid-Sabbagh's sound installation, the view of the closed boxes prevents the photos from "materialising" for the viewers in the same way as the cat. The archive is made accessible through audible interpretations. The visitors are invited to engage mentally with the photographs.

More information about the artist here: https://www.bakonline.org/person/yasmine-eid-sabbagh/

21st May – 07th November 2021
Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh / Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
Rautenstrauch-Joests Cat, scratching on the Black Box of Colonial Photographs
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

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