During our 121 Laura pointed me in the direction of Swiss, Netherland based artist Marwan Bassouni. His work really resonated with me both in terms of method, aesthetic and his message.
His Book, New Dutch Views uses composite images to combine the interiors of Dutch Mosques with views from outside although not necessarily the actual view and neither does he stay true to the rules of perspective which helps give a sense of the unreal.
I was also very interested to se the book produced from the project, since he is dealing with images of a similar nature i’m keen to see how other artists are approaching the printed display of their works.
Bassoumis production is impressive, neat graphical line drawings representing the windows are used as panels, particularly effective on the slipcase for the limited collectors edition.
But it is whats contained in the book that interestests me most and this description in Concientous magazine sums it up better than I ever could and again I feel real similarities with my own project.
“Photographer Marwan Bassiouni (b. 1985, Switzerland) visited over seventy of the four hundred or so mosques in the Netherlands between January 2018 and February 2019. He made his choice of which spaces to photograph based on the views that their windows had to offer on the local surroundings. His composite images show real interiors combined with the actual view from the mosque. In his series New Dutch Views, Bassiouni shows the diversity of Islam in apparent contrast with the equally diverse yet instantly recognizable Dutch landscape.
Bassiouni’s sharply focused and detailed photographs question how Islam is represented in the West, and show a society in which several cultures exist alongside and with each other. New Dutch Views is also a symbolic portrait of a new emerging Western Islamic identity. In his first solo exhibition at the Photography Museum of the Hague seventeen large-scale photographs are accompanied by the photographer’s own biographical reflections.”
References
Bassouni M, 2019, New Dutch Views, Lecturis.