The Cairo-born artist, Anna Boghiguian, who was born in 1946, is garnering popularity in her later years. She grabbed attention at the 2012 Documenta art festival in Germany with her compelling exhibit, consisting of over 100 illustrations, unearthing the relationship between Nazism and 19th-century colonial imperialism. Furthering her exploration into controversial historical events, at the Venice Biennale 2015, she, alongside other artists, explored the largely denied Armenian genocide.
Her noteworthy efforts secured her the esteemed Golden Lion award for the best national contribution, placing her firmly on the global artistic radar. The recent announcement of her winning the 2024 Wolfgang Hahn Prize, worth a whopping €100,000, one of Europe’s highest monetary art accolades, has solidified her standing as an emerging luminary in the art world.
It’s important to note that her selection for multiple awards was not a recognition of her lifelong work, nor a consideration of her age, but rather an acknowledgement of the pressing nature and striking aesthetics of her work.
Presently, her exhibition, ‘Period of Change,’ can be viewed at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. The exhibit, initially requested by the Kunsthaus Bregenz gallery in Austria in 2022, prominently features Austrian political and intellectual figures. A noteworthy piece from the exhibition is ‘The Chess Game,’ also crafted in 2022. The centrepiece spans 8m by 8m, occupying a significant portion of the gallery’s main lower room. Created in a similar vein to Anne Ryan’s recent project at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, it features painted characters presented on vertical cardboard backdrops.
Boghiguian adopts an approach known as encaustic in her artistry, merging dye and heated beeswax, which results in a soft, texture-rich effect that produces an unclear image. Prominent personalities from history such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Franz Ferdinand, Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette, and the notorious Aribert Heim, the Mauthausen concentration camp doctor, who vanished to Egypt post World War II, contribute to the collective. Also situated downstairs is a room permeated with crimson, where an eerie voice forges ambiguous, fleeting connections amid some of these individuals, their era’s history, and their contribution to the agitation in the 20th century.
The artist herself discloses that her inspiration to employ a chessboard of floor dimensions, as part of her display, was triggered a couple of years back during her visit to the Festival d’Automne in Paris. Upon entering a spacious room filled with single-coloured tiles and statues, Boghiguian was smitten with the field’s likeness to a full-scale chess layout. Besides being the ideal backdrop for the recurring politico-historical accounts demonstrated in her creations, the concept attracted Boghiguian for its orderliness; the monochromatic surface “orders the intellect”.
This leads to the plight of what this brain is structured for. The solution isn’t plain sailing. Rather than being preachy, Boghiguian devises a backdrop that is politically laden and rich in historical refereces. Her artwork coaxes audiences to take their time and stay put. The frequent appearance and central role of Marie Antoinette stirred me to ponder over the influence of an individual life, particularly when that person experienced the twilight of what could be considered a dying social stratification, but no doubt the thoughts differed from person to person. Submerged in the diverse strains of a historical narrative, the recurring themes are simple to identify but tricky to comprehend. The exhibition, Period of Change, will continue at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, till Sunday, September 22nd.