There are three major rivers in Mohsen Taasha Wahidi’s life: the Kabul, which gives its name to his hometown, The Meno, which bathes the strip of land around Kassel (Germany) where it was held his most important exhibition, dOCUMENTA13, and Ticino. The latest is the river that gives its name to the canton in which there is Theca Gallery, in Lugano, where it helds his solo exhibition [The Rivers].

The exhibition brings together works produced between 2009 and 2013 by the young Afghan artist. Some of the works are from the now celebrated exhibition of dOCUMENTA13 (2012), and others come from the solo exhibition that was held at the French Cultural Center of Afghanistan (FCC) in Kabul, Afghanistan, in April this year (2013) and significantly entitled "Reminiscence", in which it is presented a new series of miniatures produced by Taasha, where sacred tradition and culture Hazara are mixed in wise colors. Mohsen Taasha Wahidi was called to work for his exhibition of dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (Germany), directly by the director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, which then she has organized his solo exhibition in Kabul dOCUMENTA 13, curated by Andrea Viliani (now director of Museum Mother Naples) and Aman Mojadidi.

The Lugano exhibition was curated by the gallery itself, Andrea Carlo Alpini, given the close link with the artist. Significantly it is entitled "Mohsen Taasha Wahidi : MAIN d13 | one Kabul ( ... ) two Tessin [The Rivers]." The purpose of the exhibition is threefold. On the one hand give a retrospective at the Swiss and international collections of the best work of the artist, on the other hand is aimed at the production of the artist’s first thoughtful catalog, and then resume the relationship with the history of contemporary art through few items. Among these factors indicative is the importance of the figure of Alighiero Boetti and his relationship with Afghanistan and writing, and then the relationship with the literary roots, namely the poem "The Rivers" by Giuseppe Ungaretti, in which the poet recounts his history in many bathrooms in the rivers of his life. Tribute to these two great figures of Italian culture are the two quotes in the title, the "one Kabul" (Hotel) by Alighiero Boetti and [The rivers] ending the selected title.

The exhibition will also feature the work "AIIEOOEI LGHRBTT [portrait]" specially commissioned by the gallery to the artist for the exhibition. Theca Gallery Lugano decided to expose the Afghanistan artist this winter, Mohsen Taasha Wahidi, as well as in Lugano in three other different curatorial areas. "Memoriae" is the title chosen for the exhibition organized always by Theca Gallery at Art Market Fair Budapest, Hungary, the next month of November. Here the artist will be exhibited with the artists Federico De Leonardis, Claudia Scarsella, Simone Dulcis and Jonathan Guaitamacchi. Another winter exhibition of the artist will be the exhibition curated by Delia Vékony "The Grand Migration”, also in Budapest, Hungary. The last public exhibition that will be presented at Paratissima "PIX 09" in Turin, where they will be exhibited three works, resulting from exposure of German Documenta13, such as "Death or a New Beginning" and "Memoir Of A Generation." Watercolour on wrapping paper and clay the first, watercolor on paper and calligraphic the second, while the exposure will be completed by the work "The Reddish Essence."

Mohsin Mohammad Kazim (Mohsen Taasha Wahidi) Born in Kabul in 1991, Mohsen Taasha Wahidi, stage name of Moshin Mohammad Kazim, is one of the most interesting young artists of the Afghanistan visual arts in the world. Discovered at the international level in 2012 on the occasion of his participation in Documenta 13, the artist is currently represented in the West by the Swiss gallery Theca Gallery. Mohsen Taasha’s work, mostly pictorial but also opened in his last expressions to the video and installation, is characterized by a strong roots in the ancient culture of his homeland, themes from which develop a critical reflection on the socio-political situation of the country, battered by ethnic divisions, religious fundamentalism and a war that has lasted more than ten years.

Ethnic Hazara minority origins turkish - mongolian and Shiite faith, Mohsen Taasha Wahidi is passionate about the drawing as a child and cultivates his skills at the Institute of Fine Arts in Kabul and in the context of workshops on contemporary art organized in the city by international artists such as Ashkan Sepahwand, Adrian Villar Rojas, Chu and Emeric Lhuisset. After being part of the group Roschd ("The flourishing"), the young man leaves it, due to ethnic and political frictions and founded the Bad Artists, later called Taasha Artists ("Hidden"), then this is the name taken by the artist in his stage name. Mohsen Taasha’s work ("hidden") contains in their vivid colors and in the delicacy of its features graphics flashes of light and shadow, beauty and death. The lightweight sheets of paper on which calligraphic drawing and painting are both fragile mirrors and powerful critiques of a society.

His works tell a story wound, portrayed from time to time in the fusion of faceless human figures, Quranic verses and broken shouts. In his works Mohsen Taasha Wahidi combines the wisdom of the written word, which often uses as a backdrop, and by painting directly on the pages of the Koran, the symbolic use of color and iconographic details taken from both the Middle Eastern tradition and Western figurative universe, in particular the surrealistic one. In the series of works “Tale of a generation” (Memoir Of A Generation), for example , ancient pages of Quranic verses stained green and orange watercolors are the backdrop on which you allocate the profiles of transparent men. It is the alleged owners of the truth of the past, humanoid monsters without reason from their heads cubic glass and bloated bodies of judgments. They show the muscular arm of the law, but are represented naked and helpless, unveiled by the artist in their smallness, covered only by a gag made of red drapery of a curtain, which doesn’t manage to conceal the illegality, revealing at the contrary the headless arrogance.

Other series of works, such as those of the watercolors in red (The Essence Reddish ) and surrealism (The Red Curtain, Behsood in Blood - Kochi Attacks), portray the pain of the Hazara population, the victim in the complicated ethnic coexistence in the country, lived in the first person by the artist as a child. Taasha draws his people in their villages attacked by the armed hand of Kochi, Pashtun nomads used by the Taliban to hit the rival ethnic groups, or in symbolic compositions dyed red similar to visual streams of consciousness. In these works are represented eyes, hearts, veins and blood Hazara, which tell the drama and the insult of an entire people and their culture for centuries. Backgrounds on red and black oriental figures stand out instead of the cycles of death (In the Seventh Sky, On The Other World, Death or a New Beginning, Voyage of Hereafter).

Here, the contingency and the social and political denunciation give way to the timeless wisdom of characters from the lines Persians, intent to meditate in the moonlight, on the backgrounds of Koranic calligraphy, the meaning of existence and death. The scarlet red flowing violent in the other series are reduced to small backgrounds, in compositions where the blood and the pathos replacing the immortal calm of blacks, whites and beige. Death is not the most tragic end caused by an enemy, but, according to the poet’s teaching, astronomer and philosopher Persian Jalal ad- Din Muhammad Balkhi - better known in the West as Rumi (XIII century AD.) - Death is the 'beginning of a new path of the spirit.'

Theca Gallery
Street Pessina, 13
Lugano 6900 Switzerland
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