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1/2/2010

Michael Najjar

Dvorak Sec Contemporary, Prague

Dvorak Sec Contemporary is pleased to announce the first solo show of new media artist Michael Najjar in the Czech Republic. On display will be large-scale photographs from the internationally renowned artist's bionic angel series.

The photographic series "bionic angel" explores the process of transformation and the technological control of human evolution. Rapid development in the field of so-called "g-r-i-n-techno-logies" (genetics, robotics, information and nano-technologies) are changing our bodies, minds, memories, and identities, but also impacting our progeny.

These technologies all converge with the aim of enhancing human performance. Prenatal genetic determination enables children to be built to plan. Clone bodies become depositories for ersatz organs whilst manipulation of atomic structure creates new bodies which far outstrip the old ones in terms of robustness, elasticity and durability. The new bodies are adapted to the needs of the high-speed data highway. These developments based on genetic algorithms and neuronal networks mean that biological evolution can now be controlled; they open up the way to a new and superior form of existence for the human being.

Such acts of transgression were already implicit in the idealized body images of Greek mythology which the Italian renaissance adopted as the perfect expression of radical transformation in terms of the understanding of body, mind and science – secular man became an utopian promise.

Referring to such idealized body worlds from antiquity and the renaissance, the work series "bionic angel" takes up themes of "metamorphosis" from classical Greek mythology as treated by the roman poet Ovid. Scenarios of creatures in the throes of transformation articulate the inevitability of genetic self-creation in the future of human history.

In 2008 Michael Najjar had his first large retrospective on view at the Museum for Photography and the Museum for Contemporary Art GEM in The Hague, curated by Wim van Sinderen. Michael Najjar’s work was part of the 2006 Venice Biennale's 10th International Architecture Exhibition, he was also included in the 9th Havana Biennale 2006 and Convergence Biennale Beijing 2007. Harald Szeemann exhibited his work in 2004 in ”the beauty of failure / the failure of beauty“ at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona.

Najjar has exhibited at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Kunsthalle Hamburg / Galerie der Gegenwart, Hamburg; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Deichtorhallen - International Museum of Photography, Hamburg; Edith Russ Site for Media Art, Oldenburg; Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Berlin; Goethe Institute, New York; Science Museum, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Birmingham; International Center for Contemporary Art, Terni; New Media Art Insitute, Amsterdam; Museum Trapholt, Kolding; FORMA International Centre for Photography, Milan; Centre pour L´ image Contemporaine; Geneva, Museo DA2 (Domus Artium 2002), Salamanca; National Museum of Science, Taipeh; Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

Michael Najjar’s work has been acquired by a number of leading institutions including the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Deichtorhallen - the International House of Photography, Hamburg; Museum für Kunst and Gewerbe, Hamburg; Willy-Brandt Haus, Berlin; Sony Collection, Cologne; Kulczyk Foundation, Poznan, Sprint Collection, Kansas City; Coff Foundation, San Sebastian; Lutz Teutloff Collection, Bielefeld; Museum DA2, Salamanca; Museum CAC , Malaga; Lord Norman Foster Collection, Madrid; Ron Dennis Collection, London; and many celebrated private collectors.

Image: Laokoon, 2006, light jet-print 198 x 178 cm

A reception will be held for the artist at the gallery on February 2, from 7 - 10 PM.

Dvorak Sec Contemporary
Dlouhá 5 - 110 00 Prague 1
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10 am - 6 pm
free admission

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