Adel Abidin

Adel Abidin, born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1973, lives in Helsinki. He has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Abidin works in diverse media, primarily in video, video installation and short film, focusing on issues such as cultural alienation and marginalization. Abidin succeeds in combining both an ironic tone and a passionate approach in his work. His themes are heavy: fundamentalism, identity, nationalism, nationality, the masses, religion, and totalitarianism. In his work, Adel brings an ironic attitude to bear on everyday prejudices and stereotypes, deconstructing the increasingly predominant ethos of either/or in an age when management, morality and law stand for politics, friends and foes for political opposition, technology for science, sex for love, culture for art. In the midst of all this, Adel’s works try to shift the focus back on ourselves. First and foremost, we must face us – ourselves – in order to take responsibility for others. Abidin’s current exhibition will be part of the 2007 Venice Biennale Nordic Pavilion.