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Mehdi Chouakri presents within the abc the exhibition “Quoi? – L’Eternité” by the artist SAADANE AFIF.
For the 2016 edition of abc, Mehdi Chouakri is pleased to present new works by Saâdane Afif from the series L’Eternité. The pieces, that refer to Arthur Rimbaud‘s 1872 poem, were exhibited for the first time earlier this year at Atelier Hermès in Seoul. We will be exhibiting framed pictures, lyrics and one of the original curtains from the 2013 exhibition in IAC Villeurbanne.
It is discovered.
What? Eternity.
In the whirling light
Of sun becomes sea.
The background of each frame consists of orange and white fabric offcuts originating from large curtains that were made in 2013, as a backdrop for a concert during the opening of Afif’s exhibition at IAC. This pattern had already been used by Afif for two teatrini (theater stage scale models) that were shown in 2009 at the EACC in Castelló. In the foreground of the pictures, the sea photographs printed on plexiglas were taken by the artist in Marseille (France), Teshima and Yakushima (Japan). This black and white wave pattern both contrasts and builds a dialogue with the
color blocks. Such superimposition creates a unique effect, blurring the lines between the planes in a dynamic composition. Combining abstract and figurative elements, Afif reminds us, as Rimbaud’s words, that eternity can be experienced as the endless renewal of time, the unlimited repetition of sunsets, and the perpetual movement of the waves breaking on the shore. At last, the pictures depict a tautology: the print pattern is repeated through its shadow, forcing the beholder to look back and forth between fabric and plexiglas in a continual movement, like the ocean’s.
Since 2004, Afif has been commissioning fellow artists, curators and friends to write poems in response to his works. On the wall, these texts imitate the informative panels found in museums,
but they represent a poetic approach instead of an art historical one. For the artist, these Lyrics broaden the meaning of the work through someone else’s imagination. Ultimately, the songs are
played by bands, performed during exhibitions as performances or rehearsals, for instance in Villeurbanne in 2013, and released on records. The concept of translation is central to Afif’s work.
By giving several forms to the same work, e.g. a sculpture, an installation, a poem or a song, the artist creates a web of allusions between art and its possible media. It expands our perception of
an artwork and beyond, building on a permanent potential of variation. Saâdane Afif (born 1970 in Vendôme, France) lives and works in Berlin. His work has been most recently exhibited at Atelier Hermès, Seoul (2016), the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Kunsthalle Wien (2015), the Moscow Biennial (2015), or MOT Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2015). Forthcoming exhibitions include Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (group show, opening October 2016) and Centre Pompidou, Paris (solo show, opening January 2017).
Vernissage: Thursday, 15th September 2016, 04:00 – 08:00 p.m.
Exhibition period: Thursday, 15th September – Sunday, 18th September 2016
WHERE? Station Berlin / Luckenwalder Strasse 4—6 in 10963 Berlin
Image caption: via Mehdi Chouakri – SAADANE AFIF
Exhibition SAADANE AFIF – Mehdi Chouakri – Kunst in Berlin ART at Berlin
