Zer-Störung

Zer-Störung tells the story of different periods in Mosul – the city of the artist’s birth. The starting point for the project was photographic material from Hameed’s family archive as well as his own photographs taken in Mosul. As carriers of memories, these images have visible and invisible layers; an observation that is already expressed in the title. A play on words, the English translation of "Zerstörung" is "destruction", describing the brutal damage that man inflicts on the world, his environment and other people. "Störung", in turn, translates to "irritation" – a term that Hameed connects to the impermanence of things. The artist uses abstraction as a strategy to break down the original function of the images, changing the way in which they are read.By focusing on the materiality of images in Zer-Störung, observations and their political contexts are transformed. They become a metaphorical documentation of past, present and future. The process allows for the opening of doors, negotiation, reflection and exchange.