Mounira al Solh / Sarah Forrest

We are delighted to present a double solo show by Amsterdam artist Mounira al Solh and Glasgow artist Sarah Forrest. The show attempts to bring together, as well as separate, the two artistic practices and shows a wide body of existing work alongside presenting two new commissions.

Where Sarah Forrest tries to question narration of the voice by asking where text ends and film begins, Mounira al Solh attempts to draw from a complicated influx of Syrian people in Beirut due to the recent civil war. Can we find something common in these seemingly unrelated topics?

After being awarded the Margaret Tait Residency in summer 2012, Forrest produced the film that now, a concentrated homage to influential Orkney filmmaker Margaret Tait. Sharing poetic understanding of cinema, she dissected some of the most crucial elements in Tait’s approach to filmmaking, offering an insight into the magical ingredients at play in Tait’s films and treating these as her own. Her new commission draws from some of these conclusions and evaluates them by picking up Jean Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea.

Living and working between Beirut and Amsterdam, al Solh takes off from her filmic installation Dinosaurs, an investigation around American cult director John Cassavetes, against the social backdrop of Beirut. The new and sketchy work takes the recent Syrian immigration to Beirut following the civil war as a condition of social and personal recognition and asks if, how and when this can be represented by film.

A film programme accompanies Mounira al Solh and Sarah Forrest’s exhibition in the main galleries, developing some of the ideas of the show and allowing the viewer to experience the artists’ work in a cinematic environment. The programme will be screened on loop throughout the exhibition on the dates below.

Film Programme (total 178 mins)

1. that now, Sarah Forrest, 10:05 mins


2. Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence, Sarah Forrest, 8:53 mins


3. The Mute Tongue, Mounira al Solh, 20:47 mins


4. Paris without a Sea, Mounira al Solh, 12 mins


5. Seven Reversed Scenes about Bassam Ramlawi, Mounira al Solh, 9 mins


6. Vrijwilliger, Mounira al Solh, 28 mins


7. Let’s not Swim Then!, Mounira al Solh, 90 mins

Screening Schedule:
Fri 27 September, 7pm - 10pm
Sat 28 September, 12noon - 6pm
Sun 29 September, 12noon - 6pm
Tue 1 October, 11am - 6pm
Fri 4 October, 11am - 5pm
Sat 5 October, 11am - 2pm
Wed 9 October, 11am - 6pm
Sun 13 October, 12noon - 6pm
Wed 16 October, 11am - 5pm
Thu 17 October, 11am - 5pm
Wed 23 October, 11am - 5pm
Sat 26 October, 11am - 6pm
Sun 27 October, 12noon - 4pm
Thu 7 November, 11am - 6pm
Sun 10 November, 12noon - 6pm

Join Remco de Blaaij, CCA Curator, for a guided tour of the exhibition on Sun 27 October at 2pm.

Glasgow Film Festival's inaugural Margaret Tait Residency in 2012 was supported by the Creative Scotland Creative Futures Programme, LUX and the Pier Arts Centre.