Pars Pro Toto III is the result of a close dialog between Egyptian-German artist Susan Hefuna and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. The focus in this book is on Hefuna’s complex work groups on site-specific and architectural installations, video works and choreographies. Hefuna uses urban spaces and cities like Cairo, London, Istanbul, Sharjah, Sydney, New York, and Vienna as her laboratory. The artist interacts with dancers, communities, urban and human structures in both personal and political ways. Pars Pro Toto III also features a foreword by Hans Ulrich Obrist, an interview with the Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi, as well as texts by the Lebanese-American artist and poet Etel Adnan, by Negar Azimi, Senior Editor of BidounMagazine, and by Brett Littman, director of the Drawing
Center, NYC
Susan Hefuna (b. 1962, Germany) takes up everyday aspects of life in her work, exploring the indeterminacy of location and identity and her negotiation of her own identity through photography, video, drawing, sculpture, and digital media. Much of Hefuna’s work is informed by her dual heritage (German–Egyptian), and often features striking images of family, interior spaces, and cityscapes in and around Cairo. Susan Hefuna’s works were exhibited internationally at institutions such as Venice Biennale; Sharjah Biennale; Sydney Biennale; Seville Biennale; MoMA and Drawing Center New York; Louvre, Paris; House of World Cultures, Berlin; Townhouse Gallery Cairo; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago; Drawing Center, New York; PiArtworks, Istanbul / London; Rose Issa Projects, London.
Hans Ulrich Obrist (Zurich, Switzerland, 1968) is a Swiss curator and art critic. In 1993, he founded the Museum Robert Walser and was curator for contemporary art at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He presently serves as the Co-Director, Exhibitions and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London.
Negar Azimi is senior editor at Bidoun, an arts and culture magazine based in New York.
Etel Adnan (b. 24 February 1925 in Beirut) is a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist.
Nawal El Saadawi (born 1931) is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital cutting in her society.
Brett Littman (B.A., Philosophy, UC San Diego) is currently the Executive Director of The Drawing Center, based in New York.
