Pictures are Souls

"I don't have any pictures of me as a child, nor of my parents: nothing that can remind me of my childhood," says Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater.  "To take a picture was considered to be against religion. People thought pictures were souls." 

Grey Borders
Mater and eleven other young artists from Saudi Arabia are presenting their work -- photographs, videos, drawings and installations -- in an exhibition called Grey Borders/Grey Frontiers, part of the sixth Berlin Biennale. There are two good reasons to stop by: one, this is the first exhibition of contemporary art from Saudi Arabia ever held in Germany; and two, it gives us a chance to poke around the newly opened Soho House, Berlin.

We are faceless
Organized by "Edge of Arabia," a grassroots initiative founded by British and Saudi artists, the exhibition challenges powerful cultural taboos. Images are deeply suspect in Saudi Arabia -- many are banned, others scrutinized and sanitized. There are practically no galleries, museums or art books, and its capital Riad, with four million inhabitants, has nary a cinema house.  Jowhara Alsaud's series of line drawings entitled "Out of Line" applies the language of censorship to her personal photographs. In the pop-art style drawings derived from photographs, Alsaud erases all facial features. "We don't know how to deal with photographs in Saudi Arabia, " she says. "Of course, we all keep pictures of family and friends at home, but when we go outdoors, we are faceless."

The Soho House

While at the exhibition, take time to explore the Soho House, Berlin, modeled on the exclusive establishments in London's Soho and New York's Manhattan districts. 

The building on Torstrasse 1 (Berlin, Mitte) was a Jewish-owned department store in the 1920s. Seized by the Nazis, it was converted into the headquarters of the Hitler Youth in the early 1940s.  Renamed the House of Unity in postwar Berlin, it served as the seat of the East German Communist party from 1946-56, and later housed the East German Communist archives. For the past twelve years it has remained empty and in a state of rampant decay.

Now the owners of Soho House, London, have converted Torstrasse 1 into a swanky members-only hotel, retaining striking Communist-era features: the concrete, industrial look, metal staircase and metal filing cabinets in the reception area. Don't miss the Damien Hirst artwork on the wall, which you might mistake for graffiti if you overlook the scrawling signature.

"Grey Borders/Grey Frontiers" is at Soho House, Torstrasse 1, Berlin (U Bahnhof, Rosenthaler Platz). and is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00. Entrance is free. The exhibition runs till July 18. More information is at www.edgeofarabia.com

For information about Soho House, go to www.sohohouseberlin.com