The V&A is presenting a free exhibition of Middle Eastern photography that features some of the region’s most celebrated artists. The theme is somewhat broad, geographically speaking—Iran is perhaps overly represented—and few risks have been taken, but one has to consider the institution’s pedagogical role. The V&A should be commended for the quality of the works on view and for not offering a caricature of the Middle East.
The show is organized according to different translations of reality, with a heavy focus on documentary, from the journalistic language of Abbas to Mehraneh Atashi, whose reflection appears in the image through a trick of mirrors, integrating a visible feminine presence into an exclusively masculine world, while Tal Shochat lights leaves and fruits in a way that makes them almost seem unreal.
The exhibition continues with a section dedicated to the manipulation of reality, featuring staged portraits by Shadi Ghadirian, and the invention of a documentary resource by the Atals Group, in this case, the notebook of a fictional historian. The final section of the show reveals the real liberty of artists in respect to the medium and to the form, and it’s somehow regrettable that the curators limited themselves so strictly to photography, especially in the case of artists like Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige.
Laurence Cornet
Exhibition ends April 7, 2013
Victoria and Albert Museum
V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000
