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SAMI AL-TURKI
from the series: Lifts, 2007-2008. Courtesy Christine König Galerie, Vienna | | |
Third Room:
SAMI AL TURKI lifts
Sami Al-Turki, 1984 born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
He studies photography at the American University in Dubai.
„...it all started in September 2007, when I began picking up hitchhikers in Dubai, taking them where they needed to go, either to work, home or to visit a friend. In other parts of the world, hitchhikers would be a mix of social class types, but there these people are all migrant labourers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan - now working at the large construction sites of Dubai, ..."
The young Saudi Arabian artist Sami Al-Turki began documenting the life of these migrant labourers in the Arab Emirates. This is not done in a conventional way. The hitchhickers picked-up by Sami Al-Turki play an active role in his artwork: in return for the service, they receive a disposable camera in order to document their everyday live and all the aspects which are important for them.
Sami Al-Turki takes photographes from the workers as well, making portraits of them. During the next meeting they exchange the images: a longing for their home country but also a pride for the enormous skyscrapers constructed by them are the most common motives thus allowing an authentic insight in the (camp-)live of those men who act as both - objects and artists in Sami Al- Turki's ongoing project. |
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