Sara Sallam

Reconsidering Photography

Period of time
31.10.25 – 17.5.26
Image
Cloud Asset ID
Ein Raum in einem Museum.
Teaser text

What would the pharaoh Tutankhamun have said upon being discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922? The artist Sara Sallam wonders about this forgotten perspective and questions the colonial heritage. As part of the exhibition series “Reconsidering Photography”, she was invited to immerse herself in the photography and antiquities collections of the MK&G and to respond by presenting new and existing work.

Sallam’s research-based practice encompasses photography, videos, writing, archival interventions and making artist books. In multimedia installations and publications, she often develops counter-narratives to historical accounts from colonial contexts. “I Prayed for the Resin not to Melt” (2022), for example, presents an alternative history of Tutankhamun’s first encounter with Western archaeology. The pharaoh himself describes the opening of his coffin and the unwrapping of his mummified body, an account that exposes the violent approach taken by the archaeologists. In this way, the artist counters the supposedly objective findings of science with a subjective perspective and revives the ancestors of her past.

 
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