Iconography and Simulacra

Alla Abdunabi is a Libyan-born artist born in Freiburg, Germany in 2001 who works in sculpture and installation. In this exhibition, Abdunabi presents a new body of work that critiques and engages with “simulacra,” a concept used in philosophy and cultural studies to analyze how symbols shape our perceptions of what is accepted as “real.” Abdunabi’s work highlights the ways in which iconography has been constructed across different periods of history, raising crucial questions about how symbols not only endure, but acquire new meaning as they are continually reintroduced in contemporary contexts. At the center of the exhibition is the narrative of the Barbary lion, whose physical extinction and symbolic immortality serve as a perfect illustration of this phenomenon. Once native to North Africa, the Barbary lion was hunted to extinction by imperial powers, becoming a victim of both ecological destruction and colonial assertion of dominion over nature. The exhibition uses the duality of the lion, its mortal extinction and symbolic resurrection, to explore how colonial violence often outlives physical acts of subjugation, continuing to exert influence through symbols and representations.