Art review: Physical and mental obstacles on the Uppsala art museum

Mourad Kouri distinguished himself at the Royal the academy graduate exhibition in the spring. With some minimalist sculptures of plexiglas blocked he is out of the way to the antique sculptures in the hallway at the Academy of fine arts. The barely visible glass panes became at once the fine print and a lot of physical intervention in the environment, and pointed, of course, on the barriers in the art world.

In the exhibition ”Tröskelstadiet” at Uppsala art museum explores the Kouri a whole bunch of boundaries or obstacles in a dense whole.

Museisalens hardwood floors have been covered by concrete slabs that in a smart way emphasizes that we find ourselves in a public space.

a replica of a so-called Czech hedgehogs, lifelike aside from the sprawling fordonshindret here is of glass.

”Czech hedgehog” glass Photo: Peter Fredin

Two independent banisters is reminiscent of that to help also can serve as a restraining fence. A pair of heavy betongsuggor has turned on its head, and similar to the pillars that surround a tempelport, which also underlines the duality of themes.

How difficult it is to step over the both the social and physical thresholds that are all around us depends on who we are. Class, ethnicity, nationality and bildningskapital can make the thresholds both higher and lower.

as a refugee from Syria and use their own experiences on an almost kongenialt way. The sculptural quality of the Czech hedgehog, for example, is a fruit of the child's gaze on the object, freed from the knowledge about its function.

the Handrails are also a wink to the welfare society, good intentions and more tvetydliga like to lead their residents in a certain direction.

A bathtub filled with olive oil and a pile of the spice mix zaatar filling the room with a pleasant scent. For those who feel the scents, it is a hint on the community, but also something that can be perceived as alien and thus exclusive.

Bathtub full of olive oil. Part of the installation ”Tel al-Za'atar”. Photo: Peter Fredin

sitting in a kistliknande, roughly welded steel construction with the title ”O. 1568 m3”. The sculpture is a copy of a hidden space in a car used by the refugee smugglers. A claustrophobic reminder of how well positioned we are facing all society's thresholds.

”O. 1568 m3”, steel. Photo: Peter Fredin

”Tröskelstadiet” is a neat and well thought-out exhibition which takes full advantage of the postminimalistiska the potential to tie together the physical as well as mental and ideological rooms.