Two exhibitions
dal 8/9/2011 al 7/1/2012
Segnalato da
8/9/2011
Two exhibitions
Wiels - Contemporary Art Center, Bruxelles
Alina Szapocznikow. Sculpture Undone. The exhibition features archival materials including drawings and photography alongside Szapocznikow's sculpture and object-making. The Project Room presents a new series of paintings and a new installation by artist-in-residency Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti. History, religion, politics, film, fairy tales, family structures and the media are her most important sources of inspiration, but it's the role of women, from an historical and political viewpoint, that has attracted her attention in recent times.
Alina Szapocznikow. Sculpture Undone, 1955 - 1972
curated by Elena Filipovic and Joanna Mytkowska
This expansive survey of Polish sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (1926– 1973) coincides with the Polish presidency of the European Union and is one of the first major solo exhibitions of the artist’s work outside of Poland. It concentrates on her most experimental period from the 1960s and 1970s, before her untimely death at age 47. As a Holocaust survivor who began working in the post-war period in a rather classical, figurative manner, her later experimentation and re-conception of sculpture left behind a legacy of provocative objects – at once sexualized, visceral, humorous, and political – that sit uneasily between Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, and Pop Art.
Her tinted polyester-resin casts of her lips and breasts transformed into quotidian objects like lamps or ashtrays, her spongy polyurethane forms often embedded with casts of bellies or live grass, and her construction of resin sculptures that incorporate found photographs remain as remarkably biting, visionary, and original today as when they were first made. The exhibition features extensive archival materials as well as more than 100 artworks, including drawings and photography alongside Szapocznikow's sculpture and object-making.
Organized by WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Travelling to the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio.
The WIELS exhibition is presented in the framework of I, CULTURE, the International Cultural Programme of the Polish EU Presidency coordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Brussels.
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Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti
IN FREAKS WE TRUST
The WIELS Project Room presents a new series of paintings and a new installation by artist-in-residency Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti.
In her drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures, Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti's (b. 1978, Tanger, MA; lives and works in Amsterdam) reveals a personal vision of our alienated world. History, religion, politics, film, fairy tales, family structures and the media are her most important sources of inspiration, but it's the role of women, from a personal, historical and political viewpoint, that has attracted her attention in recent times. Ahalouch often works by series in which she fuses several stories together and from which new images and stories derive.
With the project "IN FREAKS WE TRUST", Ahalouch prolongs the theme of the circus which she has explored since 2009 and through which she creates a world where abstract circus elements are layered with historical conflicts, often dealing with gender issues. For her last solo exhibition, entitled "The Greatest Show in the World” at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, in 2010, she transformed the exhibition space into the abstracted image of a circus. The exhibition was based on Ahalouch's research into the infamous Salon Kitty, a high-class brothel in Berlin which was frequented by prominent Nazis, local eminence and foreign diplomats from the 1930s onwards, its Jewish "madam" Kitty Schmidt being forced to spy for the Nazis.
In this new project, the sexy girls are replaced by freaks. From acrobats to bearded ladies, these performers tell the story of our human condition. Their innocence reveals a world of conflicts. The abstraction of Wafae's work refers to Dada and Bauhaus, two artistic movements which arose from political and social upheavals in the beginning of the 20th century. A century later, Wafae Ahalouch El Keriasti's abstract universe reveals that not much has change
Before her 6-month residency at Wiels, Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti benefited from residencies at the Kunstelhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2010), the Rijksakademie (2006-7) and De Ateliers (2001-3) in Amsterdam. Her solo shows include "The Greatest Show in the World" (Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2010), "Family Affairs" (Galerie sans titre, Brussels, 2009) and "Fighting Temptation" (Jan Cunen Museum, Oss, 2008). Her work has been included in many group exhibitions, such as "MadonnaPshycoSlut" at the Grimmuseum, Berlin (2010), "Le Temps Des Erreurs / Speedy Wash #6" at WIELS, Brussels (2010), "Towing the Line" at the White Box, New York (2009),"Young Artist Biennale", Bucharest (2008), "Actual account is elsewhere" at Siemens Sanat, Istanbul (2008). Her work is included in several public collections such as the MuHKA in Antwerp and the FMAC in Paris
Angie Vandycke
Press & Communication
angie.vandycke@wiels.org
T +32 (0)2 340 00 51 | M +32 (0)486 680 070 | F +32 (0) 340 00 59
Image: Alina Szapocznikow, Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I), 1970-1971
Kravis Collection
© The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow / Piotr Stanislawski, Photo Roland Schmid
Opening 09 Sptember 2011, 18 - 21
WIELS
Av. Van Volxemlaan 354 - Brussels
Opening hours
Wednesday through Sunday: 11:00 – 18:00
Nocturnes until 21.00 every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Tickets
Individual visitor : 7€
Students(+18), teachers, seniors (+60), groups (> 10 pers): 5€
Students (12-18), schoolgroups and unemployed : 3€
Children –12 years accompanied by their parents : free