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22/6/2006

Two exhibitions

Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover

Chris Ofili and Isaac Julien

In the summer the Kestnergesellschaft will show the British artists Chris Ofili and Isaac Julien. Both Ofili's and Julien's work are characterized by "transcultural" processes but in a very different way. And both of them are presented for the first time in an institutional solo-exhibition in Germany.

Isaac Julien

True North - Fantome Afrique

The kestnergesellschaft is delighted to host the first solo exhibition in Germany by the celebrated British artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien. The exhibition will present Julien’s critically acclaimed films True North and Fantome Afrique, alongside associated photographic series. Here Julien will present the works as complex, triple-screen audiovisual installations.

True North - Fantome Afrique develops Julien’s preoccupation with notions and expressions of diaspora, and the creolising of space and crossings. The works explore the impact of location - both cultural and physical - to rich effect through a juxtaposition of opposing global regions.

True North, shot in the spectacular landscapes of Iceland and Northern Sweden, is conceived around the expedition and writings of Matthew Henson. One of the key members of Robert E. Peary’s 1909 Arctic expedition, Henson, an African-American, was controversially and arguably the first person to reach the North Pole. Actor Vanessa Myrie (Baltimore, Fantome Afrique) is re-cast as Henson in Julien’s version of the expedition, which emphasizes the psychological journey as much as the physical one.

True North’s counterpart, Fantome Afrique, weaves cinematic and architectural references through the rich imagery of urban Ouagadougou, the centre for cinema in Africa, and the arid spaces of rural Burkina Faso. The film is punctuated by archival footage from early colonial expeditions and landmark moments in African history. Renowned choreographer and dancer Stephen Galloway (Ballet Frankfurt) and Vanessa Myrie figure as ‘trickster/phantom‘ and ’witness’ in this carefully composed meditation on the denationalized, de-territorialized spaces born of the encounters between local and global cultures, where the ghosts of history linger amid the realities of the day.

Here Julien will present the works as complex, triple-screen audiovisual installations.

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Chris Ofili

The blue rider extended remix

The kestnergesellschaft presents new and recent works by the artist Chris Ofili, winner of the prestigious British art award, The Turner Prize. This is the first solo exhibition by the artist in a German Institution, which includes large-scale works on paper, canvas and monumental sculptures. The artist was born in Manchester in 1968 and lives and works in Trinidad.

Chris Ofili came to prominence in the early 1990s with his densely orchestrated paintings. He has exhibited widely in numerous international institutions over the past decade and in June 2003 he had the honour of being selected to represent Britain at the 50th Venice Biennale where he presented his ambitious exhibition "Within Reach". In 2004, he won the critically acclaimed South Bank Award for visual art.

The "transcultural" processes that characterise Ofili’s works bring into play pictorial devices that link diverse and divergent cultural contexts. With the merging of the sacred and the profane, the combination of Madonna’s and superheroes from works in the 1990’s, with traditional figures sourced from popular culture, Ofili’s works deliberately situate themselves directly upon the threshold between kitsch and provocation, creating an unique and individual artistic synthesis.

In The Blue Rider, Ofili makes reference to the German Expressionists, "Der blaue Reiter", with its synthesis of the arts - painting, music, theatre, high art and folk art. At the same time, the artist’s new home of Trinidad and Tobago is also referenced in the colouration and tones of the works, which are painted in nocturnal, dark oceanic blues, tropical moonlight and phosphorescent silver. Ofili paints a mystical Garden of Eden, where we encounter women and men, coiling snakes and exotic vegetation. However, the paradisiacal illusion is broken by the confrontation with the profane, carnival elements of the large-scale sculptures, inspired by the "Caganer" - a nativity figure from Catalan folk art.

The artist was born in Manchester in 1968 and lives and works in Trinidad.

Image: Chris Ofili

Public relations | press office
Christiane Hein fon +49 511 70120 16 fax +49 511 70120 20 presse@kestner.org

Opening: June 22, 2006 at 11 am. The artists will be present.

Kestnergesellschaft
Goseriede 11 - Hannover
opening hours
daily 10 am to 7 pm
thursdays 10 am to 9pm
closed on mondays
holidays 10 am to 7 pm
entrance fees
single ticket 5 €
reduced single ticket 2,50 €
ticket for opening 8 €

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