This exhibition by British artist Imran Perretta, titled 'Nobody or Everybody,' explores themes of power, state surveillance, Islamophobia, and identity formation among young people of migrant backgrounds. It features an immersive sound installation and a two-channel video installation, 'the destructors,' examining marginalization and alienation.
Imran Perretta, a British artist working at the intersection of film, music, and poetry, presents his first solo exhibition in Poland, 'Nobody or Everybody,' at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. Perretta's practice critically engages with contemporary European socio-political landscapes, addressing issues of inequality, war, and systemic exclusion. His work scrutinizes state surveillance, the rise of Islamophobia, and the complex identity formation processes among young people of migrant, often Muslim, heritage.
The exhibition opens with an immersive sound installation designed to evoke tension and control, mirroring techniques used in military and film contexts. Following this, the two-channel video installation 'the destructors' is presented. This work, also shown at Tate Britain, focuses on young Muslim men navigating societal pressures and the perception of them as threats in the post-9/11 world. Their monologues reveal individual and collective experiences of marginalization and alienation, set against the backdrop of a former school building now serving as a youth and care center. The degraded architecture becomes integral to the narrative, as rising tension is visually represented by smoke and water gradually infiltrating the space, symbolizing the erosion of public space.
Perretta further explores themes of exclusion in his video work '15 Days.' Inspired by his time in northern France among individuals displaced after the 2016 dismantling of the Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp, the work captures the precarious existence and uncertainty faced by thousands who fled war and persecution. The film centers on the fragile temporality of shelter and the dignity of those living on the fringes of European political reality.
