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Monument of arrival and return
by Basir Mahmood
2016, 10′
Presented at Lo schermo dell’arte 2021 in occasion of the exhibition Directing the Real: Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s
The film is part of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images – 6th edition
COURTESY: the artist
The artist worked with the Kullis of Lahore’s railway station, whom he saw and observed while growing up in the same city. The Kullis were luggage-carriers and porters in England, and came to Lahore when the British brought railways to the Indian subcontinent in the 1800s. He saw the Kullis as persons who move but do not go. To make the work, the artist only sent the instructions and the work was made in his absence allowing the participants to both create and witness creation. As the work begins the participants gather in a group and lift personal belongings of the initiator to carry towards him, covering a distance that equals the distance between them and the initiator.
Basir Mahmood studied in Lahore at the Beaconhouse National University, and received a yearlong fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2011. Using video, film or photograph, Mahmood weaves various threads of thoughts, findings and insights into poetic sequences and various forms of narratives. His works has been widely shown, including The Garden of Eden, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012; III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Russia, 2012; Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013; Time of others, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015; Yinchuan Biennial 2016, China; Syntax and Society at The Abraaj Group Art Prize 2016, Dubai; Contour Biennale 8, Mechelen 2017 and Tableaux Vivants, Foundation Etrillard, Paris 2017. Mahmood has recently been awarded a Residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (2016-2017) and a commission from Sharjah Art Foundation.