Mohammed Kazem is an artist born in Dubai, in 1969 and he is currently representing his country at Venice's Biennale. The work on exhibition is a video-installation entitled Directions and it submerges the visitors in a claustrophobic video on 360° screen. It's a simulation that takes viewers to the middle of the ocean, with no life to be seen around.

Experimenting such a landscape, with no other geographic reference than the coordinates on a GPS on the floor, is overwhelming. The artist wants to represent the breakdown in the geopolitic borders of the countries. However, the feeling of fear and deep isolation might also have to do with something that happened to Kazem himself when, years ago, on a fishing trip, he was temporary lost in mid-sea.  The coordinates on the floor might then represent the need of the artist to know where he is and so be located by the rescue team.

These expressions of Contemporary art usually allows us to travel into the subconscious of the artist, even if, as viewers, we are forced to live experiences not at all happy. 

The previous video, an ad of a fashion label, also produces anguish and desolation in the viewer. A sense of weirdness and suffering for something that seems unresolved or unfinished. The same can be felt while watching Adriana Lestido's photos at the MNBA. We are overwhelmed by anguish and sadness... There are no smiles. However, before the end, the artists allows hope to re-appear...