Temporary Middle East
Exhibited at OBA in Amsterdam, 2015

The exhibition is made up of personal travel images from Renata Chede taken throughout the Middle East. Working with her partner Marina, they observed that time has changed espacial meaning in that region.

How do we see space? How do we perceive time? While walking and observing fences, piles of stones as traces of destruction and empty landscapes waiting to be owned, the Middle East showed them that time and space are, indeed, related.

By looking at that specific frame within space, their subject of study focuses on a number of basic issues, including whether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, whether time exists other than the present moment, and questions about the nature of identity.

Thinking particularly about the nature of identity over time, they have proposed to the public to interact, over a week, with 2 of their art pieces. They have left the pieces in the streets in Amsterdam so people can touch, rip, draw, paint or do whatever they might like.

Through those pieces of art and the other ones exhibited here, the duo open a space to talk about SPACE + TIME. Derived meaning is not unambiguous in their work, and they give us no defined information value. What they do instead is give us some tools and invite us to discuss the theme with them.

Duo Marina Beltrame & Renata Chede