For his first large-scale solo show, Dossar has created a suite of new works toying with Western cultural codes—not unlike the Fahrenheit measuring scale or the mathematical order of Johann Sebastian Bach’s classical compositions—and their potential alienating effects.

Entering the exhibition, a tiny screen plays a recent recording of a Bach piano concert. Creating a custom-designed script using “deep fake” AI technology, the musician is turned reptile—a generic rendering of a monster. The twisted, monstrous visuals of the piano recording hint at how classical music, despite its apparent benevolence, as a core pillar in Western culture is also part of a history that throws long shadows of colonial oppression and demands for assimilation. During his Danish upbringing, Dossar watched his late father, a political refugee from Iraq, studying Bach in his futile efforts to find solace in Europe.

Following Bach’s music into the second space, the piece’s counterpart, a large-scale projection, shows post-war Iraq cityscapes filmed by the artist—including images of a café where lights oscillate due to occasional power outages—as if constructing an arena for the concert. Just like the pianist, the locals in these scenes are transformed into reptilian creatures. Thus Dossar accelerates the very mechanism of collective, paranoid “othering”—pushing the image of monstrosity so far that it begins to undermine itself. We watch the reptilians’ gentle, human movements in the heart of everyday life, overwriting their immediate appearance. A reptilian waiter passes by, her hand sliding in a seamless gesture, carefree.

The exhibition is supported by: