Pinacoteca Naziolnale, Bologna, Italy
Curated by
Marco Scotini
Ahmed presented Ground Zero, a work from Desert of Pharan during this major group exhibition, alongside a diverse group of 60 artists, including Mona Hatoum, Wael Shawky, Kader Attia, and Hassan Sharif.
Too early, too late aimed to explore the relationship between Western modernity and Middle Eastern culture and history.
Ahmed's work was presented alongside sixty other artists from Turkey, gateway to the East, to Lebanon and the Arab states, exploring crucial issues such as cultural identity and tradition.
The choice of title, taken from the 1981 film of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 'Trop tôt/Trop tard', suggested these ideas of comparison. A true masterpiece in the history of cinema, the film focuses on the French and Egyptian revolutions of 1789 and 1952, expressing the difficulties of truly understanding the experience and mechanism behind what is foreign to us.