Men and Women Wearing Veils

Visitors at Burquoi, an exhibit by artist Naneci Yurdagül

On HuffPost Arts and Culture, the headline reads "Exhibition Forces Visitors to Veil Themselves." It's provocative and I read the article - but was left wondering about the artist, Naneci Yurdagül. To begin with, was this a woman or a man? Normally not the first question that comes to mind, but in this exhibition, the visitors in their veils are a big part of what you're there to see. Everyone puts on a burqa, men and women alike. It takes the issue of the veil outside of a woman's choice or lack of choice, and puts it into a squarely human arena. I wonder how Muslim men feel when they visit Yurdagül's little world inside a gallery, when they must don the full head to toe covering of the burqa. The only men I've ever heard of putting on burqas in the past have been suicide bombers hoping not to be searched. With a little research, I found out that Naneci Yurdagül is a German born man. 

I've been looking at an extensive collection of art by women from the Middle East recently as part of the Fertile Crescent exhibitions going on in Princeton and New Brunswick, and the veil is a theme that runs through many of the works. It's pretty powerful stuff, women and their sometimes conflicted feelings towards the veil, both its beauty and its power to suppress. Yurdagül takes a step in a different direction by inviting everyone - men and women - to experience what it feels like to wear a burqa, and to become all but anonymous to the world. 

"Burquoi" runs until December 16 at the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden in Germany, and I certainly wish I could visit and participate. Just thinking about the experience makes me realize how strange it would be - and how very different from just seeing someone else wearing it.