Latifa Echakhch

Latifa Echakhch, Jadid, 2014, courtesy: kamel mennour, Paris; Dvir Gallery,Tel Aviv; kaufmann repetto, Milano; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Protocinema, Istanbul

Opening event Monday, August 31, 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Exhibition August 31 - October 24, 2015
Open Wed - Sat noon - 6:00 pm
NEW LOCATION : Mumhane Cd. 28, Karaköy, Istanbul
Around the corner from Karaköy Lokantası

Protocinema presents an exhibition of work by Latifa Echakhch titled: All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. The exhibition includes two videos, one made in Istanbul, and a new floor work, in a forgotten building in the center of the Karaköy port neighborhood. This selection of works touches on temporality, loss of young people and hope, in this world that became a platform of departure for a war.

The exhibition title is one of the final spoken lines of the film Blade Runner, 1982, the American science fiction film adapted from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968, by Philip K. Dick. In this last scene, Roy Batty, the last replicant, is about to die and during his system-shut-down process he begins to express himself. His sentences of poetry are both a naïve and beautiful way for a soldier/machine to think. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." (1.)

The new video Waiting for Dolphins, 2015, was made by the side of the Bosphorus, at the approximate place where Echahkch saw a group dolphins sailing and jumping in the water during a previous visit. “It was such a beautiful moment, that I want to go back there, sit on the water’s edge and wait for these dolphins again. They may never come again, but I want to wait and to wish for this special moment.” (2.) The floor installation, inspired by Chinese calligraphers in public parks, is of a text written with a long-handled brush and water directly on the floor. It too, is temporary and dries in the sunlight. The text is in english painted daily, of poetry mixed with quotes of messages from different kinds of goodbye letters.

Echakhch’s second video is titled Jadid, Arabic for “new,”. "The name is taken from Al Jadid, a port city on the Moroccan shore where these images were taken. Local youngsters play at dive jumping from fortified walls, jumping one by one in succession for hours on end. Their jumps, several meters high, are risky, yet they brave the danger and perform them with blind innocence. As we watch them hurl themselves one by one into the void, we are overcome by mixed feelings of joy and fear boarding on euphoria. One would gladly join them if it hadn’t been for the caution and diminishing courage that comes with age.” (3.)

1. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott. Warner Bros. 2007
2. Latifa Echakhch, 2015
3. Dvir Gallery, 2014

Latifa Echakhch was born in El Khnansa, Morocco (1974) but raised in France, Latifa Echakhch lives and works in Fully and Martigny, Switzerland. Winner of the Zurich Art Prize in 2015, Latifa Echakhch’s selected solo exhibitions include: Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz (2015); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014) (Prix Marcel Duchamp 2013); Cabinet of Curiosities, Dommuseum, Salzburg (2014); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2013) curated by Anne Ellegood; Musée d’Art contemporain, Lyon (2013); Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (2012) curated by Mirjam Varadinis; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio (2012) curated by Lisa Dent; Por- tikus, Frunkfurt (2012); Kunstmuseen, Krefeld (2011); Fondation Louis Moret, Martigny (2011); FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims (2010) curated by Florence Derieux; GAMeC, Bergamo (2010) curated by Alessandro Rabottini; MACBA, Barcelona (2010) curated by Bartomeu Mari; Fri Art, Fribourg (2010) curated by Corinne Charpentier; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2009) curated by Rein Wolfs; Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld (2009); Swiss Institue, New York (2009); Tate Modern, London (2008); NorrlandsOperan, Umea (2008). Selected group exhibitions include: Swiss Institute, New York (2015); Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2014) curated by Caroline Bourgeois; 11th Sharjah Binnial, Sharjah (2013) curated by Yuko Hasegawa; MoMA PS1, New York (2013); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2012) curated by Adam Szymczyk; 18th Sydney Biennial, Sydney (2012) curated by Catherine de Zegher and Gerald McMaster; 54th Venice Biennale, Venice (2011) curated by Bice Curiger; 10th Biennial of Contemporary Art, Lyon (2009) curated by Hou Hanru; Manifesta 7, Bolzano (2008).

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain is made possible in part by support from Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council.

Special Thanks to: kamel mennour Gallery, Paris; kaufmann repetto, Milan; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv; Elizabeth. Baribeau; Ghaith Mofeed; Ari Meşulam, Miles Butts-Spirito, Asli Seven, Asena Hayal, Ayça Odabasi, Lydia Guillaume-Gentil, Mourad, Yasin Qoba, Selin Turam and Mehmet Kahraman.

Protocinema is a mission driven, 501(c)3, art organization realizing Site-Aware exhibitions around the world (based in Istanbul and New York). The organization is itinerant and free of 'brick and mortar'. Collaborations, interventions and exhibitions are presented in spaces specific to each artists' vision while being responsive to context. Protocinema creates opportunities for emerging and established artists from all regions, in cities where their work has yet to have been exhibited extensively. Protocinema seeks to open up dialogue and improve mutual understanding between individuals through art. Founded in 2011 by Mari Spirito, Protocinema was named to embody motion and cognition, after a Werner Herzog observation of The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave paintings as almost "proto-cinema" in style of representation - capturing perception, articulation and a sense of movement. Launched this fall is Proto5533, the Protocinema Series at 5533: One-year of exhibitions by emerging artists and curators with a mentor system and public programing.