NOOR US SABAH SAEED

I WANT TO DRAW, AS I AM DONE WITH BUREAUCRACY

2024
Site-Specific Drawing Performance
Apotheke Fontane, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/ Bethanien

Installation
Drawing I: 77 cm/ 57 cm
Drawing II: 70cm / 50 cm
Drawing III: 38.1 cm/ 27.94 cm
Vitrine. : Collected Insects and plants and Sketch Book Drawings
Video. : 1h 4Mins. 35Sec On loop

The installation was continuation of I Want To Draw, As I Am Done With Bureaucracy 2021/ 22, which was adapted for the exhibition I only work with lost and found at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien. Historically Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien was a hospital which was later converted into a cultural institution, however as an act of preserving its history, Apotheke Fontane has been preserved as its original condition.

One part of the project has been dealing with the issue of access to cultural institution as an artist from global south. I chose to sit in Apotheke Fontane to draw and to occupy space in the institution for four hours in two days. To sit in the pharmacy was the aesthetic decision as well because one of the previous drawing in the installation was done in Museum Bad Ems.

Exhibition, I only work with lost and found – Goldrausch 2024
August 31–November 3, 2024
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien

I WANT TO DRAW, AS I AM DONE WITH BUREAUCRACY

2021-2022
Bad Ems, Germany
Installation

Drawing I: 304cm/ 150cm
Drawing II: 77cm/ 57cm
Video: 4:57 Min.

The residency started in June but Noor us Sabah’s arrival in August because of Visa issues, became a “suitable” start for her planned research. The experience of traveling with a Pakistani passport is entirely different than for instance with a European one. Amidst climate change debates, “flight shaming” has emerged within the arts community. She put her finger on the problem by asking colleagues and scholars about their conflicting opinions in order to draw a bigger picture.

As dialogue partners, Noor engaged Bosnian artist Mila Panić, who in 2019 initiated the platform Fully Funded Residencies; German artist Stefan Klein, who hasn’t used a plane in 10 years; German artist Folke Köbberling, whose practice addresses issues of sustainability and mobility; Philippino-American activist, artist, and academic Margarita Certeza Garcia, whose work addresses borders and discrimination; and British scholar, artist and climate activist Jay Jordan from the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, who lives at the ZAD Nantes, France.

Made In Balmoral Gallery, Bad Ems

Supported by Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Collaboration with Kunsthochschule Mainz