J-N-N

The essayistic three-channel video installation ج-ن-ن is based on the artist’s family conversations during a trip to Iraq and intensive research into the jinn – elusive entities that are deeply woven into Iraqi culture. Mentioned in both the Qur’an and per-Islamic texts, jinn appear in various shapes and forms. Known for their ability to bestow special powers, they are believed to be able to heal, as well as cause a person to lose their mind.
J-N-N is a visual journey through the Iraqi desert, from Ur via Babylon to the secluded living rooms of Baghdad. It fragmentarily questions a culture and society that has been torn apart in recent decades by ongoing wars, civil wars, repression, and terrorism. Cosmovision is linked with historical events and personal experiences. While the work carries out an experimental arrangement from the outside and attempts to comprehend these experiences, it simultaneously circles around the void of the unspeakable, the in-between, on a personally affected level – bouncing off its vehemence.