28 Apr –
22 Jul 2023
22 Jul 2023
Saâdane Afif
The Coalman
Saâdane Afif
In Search of the Heptahedron and The Coalman
In Search of the Heptahedron:
Opening—28 April 2023, 6 to 9 PM
Location—Fasanenstrasse 61
The Coalman
Opening—28 April 2023, 6 to 9 PM
Location—Mehdi Chouakri Wilhelm Hallen
Saâdane Afif, Interface: The Heptahedron Seat, Series 2, 2020, Dimensions variable, Seven chairs made from 15 mm birch plywood, phenolic resin coated red, Courtesy of Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, Copyright the artist.
Neue Gestaltung x Yasmine d’O. x Saâdane Afif, The Coalman, 2022, Print on fabric, curtain track. As part of Bergen Assembly 2022: Yasmine and the Seven Faces of the Heptahedron (The Bonimenteur) at Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, 08.09 – 06.11.2022. © Bergen Assembly 2022 convened by Saâdane Afif and curated by Yasmine d’O. Photo: Thor Brødreskift
Coalman-portrait, Neue Gestaltung, Portrait of a Coalman, 2022. Drawing: Anna Auch
Exhibition Art from the Depths of the Mines, 2022, Vernacular coal sculptures by miners, collection of Saâdane Afif, curated by Yasmine d’O. As part of Bergen Assembly 2022: Yasmine and the Seven Faces of the Heptahedron (The Coalman) at Gyldenpris Kunsthall Bergen, Norway, 08.09 – 06.11.2022. © Bergen Assembly 2022 convened by Saâdane Afif and curated by Yasmine d’O. Photo: Thor Brødreskift
As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri Berlin opens two new solo exhibitions by Berlin based artist Saâdane Afif.
The two exhibitions In Search of the Heptahedron and The Coalman are continuations of a cycle of exhibitions and events based on the play The Heptahedron (2017), written by the French author Thomas Clerc after a performance by Afif that took place during the Marrakesh Biennale (2014). In the script, the heroine Yasmine is looking for a seven-sided polyhedron—a heptahedron. On her quest, she encounters seven enigmatic characters: the Professor, the Bonimenteur, the Moped Rider, the Fortune Teller, an Acrobats, the Coalman and the Tourist. They each reveal a part of the secret of the object of her desire. This classical and simple storyline feeds many of Afif’s recent works, which become an allegory of the artist’s place in the society.
With the show In Search of the Heptahedron at the gallery space at Fasanenplatz, Afif takes up precisely this ensemble of characters. Inspired by Abi Warburg’s method of pictorial associations, seven Curator Boards (2023) covered with images reveal the depth and potential contradictions that each of the figures holds. The magnetic panels were initially used by Afif to shape the seven figures when he was appointed artistic director of the Bergen Assembly (2022). With the chairs from the series Interface: The Heptahedron Seats (2020), which break up Donald Judd’s minimal furniture designs, Afif remains his very first research to give a form to the heptahedron. A new light sculpture hanging in the center of the room continues to spin the narrative. The eight light bulbs supported by the chandelier are animated by an invisible prompter that unfolds the entire scenario of the play, translating the exchange of words between the seven characters and the heroin into syncopated ornamental lighting. The work titled This is Ornamental (2023) not only references Afif’s titular exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien (2018), where the text of the play was presented for the first time as a work, but also reinterprets a chandelier design by architect Adolf Loos from 1911; the author of Ornament and Crime (1910).
The exhibition at Wilhelm Hallen continues this exploration, focusing on the solitary figure of The Coalman. Central to this is an exhibition orchestrated by the Berlin based curator Yasmine d’O that features Afif’s personal collection of hand-carved coal sculptures made by coal miners. Exhibiting approximately 70 objects of this vernacular tradition, The King Coal Laments (2023) is spanning three of the four walls of the gallery space. In addition, an edition of a facsimile letter from French composer Claude Debussy to his coal merchant will be on view, alongside the black edition of one of the „interface“ chair series, Interface: The Coalman (2023). The curtain installation The Coalman (2023) showcases the figure of the Coalman, created as a visual by the Berlin-based graphic design agency Neue Gestaltung, and materializes his appearances in the passageway space by responding to the script shown on a prompter. In the entrance of the gallery space, a work by the artist Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld echoes the curatorial text Coalman Arguments written by Yasmine d’O, and a drawing by the composer Augustin Maurs refers to the work he recently presented for the Bergen Assembly in the Coalman section. During the opening evening, visitors will be served a limited edition cocktail created especially for the exhibition as the result of a collaboration between mixologist Franck Audoux, Freimeisterkollektiv, and Curator Yasmine d’O.
May 8, 1917
Dear Sir,
Is it possible that you have no coal left?
And after having suffered from the cold will we have to die of hunger?
You will easily understand that I cannot offer you another manuscript? You would end up resenting me!
I can only count on your friendly benevolence and thank you in advance for what you might consider doing for your very devoted friend.
Claude Debussy
Letter written by Claude Debussy to his coal merchant Mr. Croquin, May 8, 1917. Translated from French.
Konstantin Grcic / Charlotte Posenenske
CPKG
Opening—28 April 2023, 6 to 9 PM
Location—Wilhelm Hallen
Logo CPKG by Konstantin Grcic. Courtesy of Mehdi Chouakri Berlin. Copyright the artist.
For Gallery Weekend Berlin 2023, Mehdi Chouakri Berlin presents the exhibition CPKG at the Archiv Charlotte Posenenske. As the beginning of a series in which various figures in the creative scene engage with the work of the minimal artist, German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic stages the modular square tubes of Series D. Grcic, who has been designing objects of everyday use for over 30 years, intervenes in the permanent exhibition space with light-specific and architectural procedures, thus creating an entirely new experiential space for Posenenske’s art. Grcic’s presentation, similar to his solo exhibition at Berlin’s Haus am Waldsee in 2022, straddles the line between art and design-very much in the spirit of Posenenske, who had her works industrially produced without limitations. Through the particular design of the exhibition space, Grcic highlights the industrial aspects of Posenenske’s work, demonstrating his ability to illuminate specific perspectives of art and design.
“Charlotte Posenenske’s interest in the serial is something I strongly relate to. It is an interface between her practice as an artist and mine as a designer. Charlotte Posenenske rejected the idea of the artist as a unique creator of one-of-a-kind objects. Instead, she believed that art should be produced in ways that could be easily replicated and distributed. She has worked with materials and production methods that come directly from industrial manufacturing. Her interest was to make art accessible to everyone and, most importantly, that it should be used.”
Konstantin Grcic
Charlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre Serie D, 1967 – 2021. Courtesy the estate of Charlotte Posenenske, Frankfurt am Main and Mehdi Chouakri Berlin.
Charlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre Serie D, 1967 – 2021. Courtesy the estate of Charlotte Posenenske, Frankfurt am Main and Mehdi Chouakri Berlin.
Charlotte Posenenske (*1930 Wiesbaden †1985 Frankfurt am Main) is considered one of the most important figures of Minimalism in Germany and beyond. Posenenske’s artistic development began with paintings, progressed through sculptural images that increasingly intervened in space, and culminated in her main sculptural work in the 1960s. The spatial sculptures and “revolving-vane” objects, which can be freely assembled from serially produced elements, blot out artistic subjectivity and replace the traditional, autonomous work of art with industrial artifacts. By detaching them from their everyday function, they become recognizable as aesthetic objects and at the same time undermine the commodity character of art. Posenenske’s works pursue an explicitly democratic claim to art by resorting to low-cost production and creating opportunities for the “consumers” to participate. Her works have been shown in solo exhibitions at Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bolzano (2021), MUDAM, Luxembourg (2020), Kunstsammlung NRW (2020), DIA Foundation, Beacon (2019), MACBA, Barcelona (2019), Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (2019), MUHKA, Antwerp (2015), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2010), MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main (1990), among others.
Konstantin Grcic (*1965 Munich) was trained as a cabinetmaker at the John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood before studying design at the Royal College of Art in London. Since founding his own office in 1991, he has developed furniture, products and lighting for leading design companies. Today, Konstantin Grcic Design is based in Berlin and is active in a variety of fields, from industrial design projects to design editions and exhibition design to collaborations in architecture and fashion. The world’s major design museums (MoMA, New York/Centre Pompidou, Paris/Die Neue Sammlung, Munich) have included his designs in their permanent collections. In 2009, Grcic was named Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA / UK). Since 2020, Grcic has held a professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg and was appointed a member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in 2021.
