The 51st International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale, one of the most comprehensive of it’s kind, will feature works by Lebanese Canadian artist Marya Kazoun who lives in New York, opening June 12th 2005. The artist plans for an Installation and Performance piece of magnificent proportions entitled ‘Personal Living Space’, which will engulf the senses and rattle the mind.

The installation is formulated around the central idea of personal space and is rooted in an emotional transcendental vision developed from the inside out. ‘Personal Living Space’ functions as an incubator for Kazoun’s own psychological aspirations; one that eliminates awareness to the flow of time and pads the horrors of the outside by opening a door to a safe haven.

From the doorway threads start to lift with ease from canvases and giant rings hanging in space they begin to stitch themselves into the skin of everyone passing by or standing outside, pulling them sinew by sinew into her personal living space. Marya is sitting there amidst the different layers. She is weaving. “What are you weaving?” “I can tell you about the intricate weavings of different cultures. I will weave for you, if you let me.” She is there (Petrified!) and petrifying the viewer like the myth of Medusa with her constant and repetitive ancestral gestures. Her art emulates serpents…

Thin strands reach from every angle, pausing and posing in the air like hair underwater. Thick black thread flows like spilled blood, exacerbating the deranged scenery. One could feel each and every stitch; feel what she felt as she was making each piece.

Her work, a special kind of genius, puts forth the leverage for the viewer to embrace human relationships for what they are and to establish a new set of ideals whereas beauty and failure exist in society. Marya creates work that is fleshy and hairy and she dares the viewer to call it something other than unadulterated beauty. Her work knows its worth and that beauty can never be taken away.

‘Personal Living Space’ serves to remind us all about the respect we owe to our bond with other humans. We have ignored each other’s needs for entirely too long.

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about the artist: Marya Kazoun was born in Beirut, Lebanon she and her family migrated to Canada and then to the United States. She received her BA in Interior Architecture, with honors, from the Lebanese American University (2000) and her MFA from S.V.A, New York (2004) She participated in the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) as well as the Global Art Glass Triennial in Sweden (2005). In every field, Marya has introduced new ways of thinking and radical contributions to the renewal of creativity and techniques. Her works initiate a profound questioning of the boundaries of the artwork and art practice, challenging the status of art as a privileged object. Conceived out of a desire to shift traditional methods and materials toward less concrete forms and objects.

works on view:
Marya Kazoun, Personal Living Space, 2005, performance and installation, Installation contains fabric, string, wood, and glass, 4-6 performers, size variable.

Marya Kazoun, Ignorant Skin. 2005, performance and installation, Installation contains fabric, string, wood, and glass, 4-6 performers, size variable.