CONTAMINATED ZONES

curator: Basak Senova
artists: Jesper Nordahl
venue: Museum of Fine Arts (Galerija Umjetnina)
coordinates: Split, 2015
website: http://www.galum.hr

Contaminated Zones is a project by the Swedish artist Jesper Nordahl. Nordahl uses a variety of media—such as video, photography, painting, text and public interventions—to explore issues of art, image, representation and knowledge production. His works, which are mostly collaborative and context-based, reposition the artist as an agent and/or researcher who invents forms that constantly renegotiate art as a critical project.

Contaminated Zones contains two video works that are interconnected with the political and economical deviations that accompany the process of privatization in Sri Lanka.

Katunayake Free Trade Zone is an aerial recording of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, close to Colombo and the International Airport in Sri Lanka. Free Trade Zones, which are special economic and highly protected areas with factories for export, were established in Sri Lanka in 1978 as part of structural adjustment policies introduced by the IMF and World Bank.

Untitled—An interview with Nimalka Fernando, Colombo, Oct. 2011 is based on an interview with Nimalka Fernando, who is an attorney-at-law and women’s rights activist from Sri Lanka.

The content of both works depicts remarkably similar situations and transformations all over the globe.

The exhibition is made possible by generous support from Museum of Fine Arts (Galerija Umjetnina), Split and Iaspis, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists.