The exhibition Inside View Southeast. Investigations on Backyard Mosques offers a transformative perspective on the challenges and conflicts surrounding the architectural representation and expression of Islamic cultures within the Western diaspora. The exhibition juxtaposes the historical background of mosque architecture around the world with issues of contemporary identity politics and related fears of "otherness. The team of artists, graphic designers, and architects, including Sandra Gnigler, Margit Greinöcker, Tobias Hagleitner, and Gunar Wilhelm, presented a traveling installation, Prayer Spaces Linz, that explores notions of the visibility and invisibility of Muslim communities in the city. The installation presents their research, interviews, and carpets borrowed from local mosques. This research is contextualized historically through a timeline of postcards of mosque architecture from the seventh century to the present. Case studies of contemporary mosques by students in the seminar "Mosque Architecture in the 20th/21st Century" by Negar Hakiman, Catholic University of Linz, link this history to contemporary polemics over the visibility of Islam in Europe. My own participation as an artist included the projects Dirndmoschee (2006) and the Unity. Textile Muqarnas project (co-authored with Joel Lamere, 2012), which experiment with forms of transcultural aesthetics. Invited talks and outreach events engaged local communities in conversations about "otherness" and the integration of minority groups through representation.
Curatorial concept: Azra Akšamija
Research and production: Margit Grein.cker, Tobias Hagleitner, Gunar Wilhelm (curatorial team, local researchers and production)
Exhibited work: Sandra Gnigler, Margit Grein.cker, Tobias Hagleitner, Gunar Wilhelm (Linz research), Azra Akšamija, Joel Lamere (with MIT students Daniela Covarrubias, Toshiro Ihara, Sei Lee, Ali Khalid Qureshi, Juanita Ballesteros, Angela Chu, Tara Ebsworth, Emily Tow); Negar Hakiman, students of the Catholic University of Linz (Waltraud Bernroitner-B.s, Marianne Pürstinger, Tanja Brunader, Eugenia Seriakov, Paula Geisler, Franz Baumgartner, Carina Edlbauer).
Sponsoring: Partially funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT
Special thanks: Islamic Cultural Center in Linz
Architecture Forum Upper-Austria (afo), Linz, Austria
Exhibition and public programs
Duration: 39 June - 27 October 2012