Tiffany Sia’s installation invites viewers to experience video in an unconventional way. In the course of following the traces of King Hu – a martial film director who shot his movies in the Taiwanese countryside – she presents a visual meditation on the notion of what Salman Rushdie once called the "imaginary homeland", that is, the (romanticised) view of their native country often cultivated by people living in the diaspora. In her collection of essays, On and Off-Screen Imaginaries, she critically examines vernacular documentary cinema. By projecting the film "The Sojourn" on a curved curtain and "Antipodes II" on a rear-view mirror, she conjures the feeling of disruption and underscores the materiality of the image while also introducing a painterly dimension to the medium of film. 

Tiffany Sia, *1988, lives in New York City, NY, USA 

Statements Stand M14, Felix Gaudlitz gallery, Vienna, Austria 

Ahmed Umar takes souvenirs that have hardened into clichés and transforms them into poetic and spiritual forms, lined up like prayer beads in 15 different poses. He combines materials, such as wood, plaster, rubber or metal, to create smooth, handmade assemblages that seem to glide through one’s hands. In this way, Ahmed Umar demonstrates the complexity of Islam, the diversity of ways in which it is handed down and practiced in different regions, while at the same time drawing attention to the mistaken conviction that spirituality is confined to the written word. 

Ahmed Umar, *1988, lives in Oslo, Norway 

Statements Stand M17, OSL contemporary gallery, Oslo, Norway