Fatima Al Qadiri & Khalid al Gharaballi
Shaneera General Trading
Shaneera General Trading is a counterfeit merchandise mall store for Shaneera, a make-believe pop star based on the alter ego in Fatima Al Qadiri’s eponymous EP. The store, whose interior is a tribute to real mall shops in Kuwait, is inspired by the vernacular aspects of ephemeral and seemingly haphazard clothing stores specialized in counterfeit products. The store installation inhabits the realm of fan fiction, aspirations, projection, and simulacra, where the imaginary pop star occupies the role of her fans and expands on her projected image, using facsimiles of coveted products as props in this convoluted yet familiar space.
Musician Fatima Al Qadiri and artist Khalid al Gharaballi began collaborating on artistic works in 2006. Their multimedia projects explore various aspects of contemporary life in the Gulf: queerness and gendered spaces, oil wealth and consumerism, or, most recently, undocumented traditional rituals as well as public and private realm iconography.
Fatima Al Qadiri
b. 1981, Dakar, SN
Lives/works in Berlin, DE
Khalid al Gharaballi
b. 1981, Kuwait City, KW
Lives/works in Kuwait City, KW
Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, 3rd floor