Book dossier

Cubes

by Gregor Schneider

"While Abraham, the slave Hagar, and Ishmael, their son, desperately search for some water in the desert, an angel announces that the child will create a great nation. Hagar lays her son on the ground, and in that precise spot, water gushes forth. God orders Abraham to build a sanctuary there, the Ka'ba, the most secret place of Mecca, the heart of Islam." "Attracted by the unadorned purity of the cube, Schneider has turned it into a controversial work that challenges the growing hostility towards Islam, which today is associated almost exclusively with terrorism, in order to arouse our curiosity, without prejudice, of Islamic culture. Conceived for the 51, Venice Biennale, the work, "for security reasons," was never installed. The only proof of it is this book."--BOOK JACKET