World expo dubai

How to Host a Ghost is a work in progress that deals metaphorically with ghosts and haunted places. Considering the World Expo as a ghost town, unsuitable as a living environment for human beings, How to Host a Ghost invites a ghost to inhabit the Luxembourg Pavilion. A ghost that questions the impact of the World Expo, and that constantly reminds us of repressed or silenced concerns. 

The project consists of the Ghostcatcher, a darkly entangled sculpture-monument exhibited in the Art Space, and of Hunting and Haunting, a nocturnal residency-laboratory for seven performance artists. 

As part the creation of the Ghostcatcher, six artists from Luxembourg, Croatia, Russia, Lebanon, Iran, and Dubai have been commissioned to reflect on socio-political ghosts and all things hidden away and silenced in their own surroundings, and to create visual artworks that reflect their thoughts. Every night from 17-23 January, as a part of the residency Hunting and Haunting, seven performance artists will haunt the pavilion and deconstruct these specially commissioned artworks, integrating them into the Ghostcatcher as a violent and constantly growing web of knotted, discoloured and ripped entrails.

In doing so, they mark a brutal presence for their questions about the relevance and ethics of the Expo and in particular of creating contemporary art for that event.

This pair of vintage gloves made of very soft and thin goatskin in pearl grey is attached to a hand-embroidered organza silk cuff. Because they are sewn very thinly together, the previously matt threads become a slightly shiny embroidery. Depending on the angle of view, the geometric pattern attracts and reflects light, causing the embroidery to appear and disappear again. Just like a ghost...

Luxembourg, once famous for its glove factory "La ganterie Luxembourgoise par Albert Reinhard" around 1900, is now mainly known for its banks and real estate. The old techniques of craftsmanship are slowly disappearing. And with them, the values.

This work aims to highlight the values of reused and handcrafted objects. The protection and elegance that these gloves confer on the hands, should be given back to them. Hence they are delicately wrapped in thin silk paper and carefully packed in a black,solid box.

Credits:

Conceived and facilitated by Simone Mousset and Renelde Pierlot

Performance artists: Catherine Elsen (LU) (not present in Dubai), Malika Fankha (CH/AUT), Tara Fatehi Irani (IRN/UK), Anna Khlyostkina (RU), Simone Mousset (LU), Alka Nauman (PL), Renelde Pierlot (LU), Valerie Reding (LU/CH)

Ghostcatcher artists: Sasha Abela (LB), Katerina Andreeva (RU), Sawsan Al Bahar (UAE), Laurie Lamborelle (LU), Sonja Obradović (HR), Somayeh Pakar (IRN) 

Producer: Stella Arieti (Casino Luxembourg)

Administrator: Cathy Modert (Simone Mousset Projects)

Commissioned by the Luxembourgish ministry of Culture and co-produced by Simone Mousset Projects

With special thanks to Casino Luxembourg for their support.

Photos: Patrick Galbats

Embroidery: Marie Pradels