Artists
Saâdane Afif Born in 1970 in Vendôme, France | Lives and works in Berlin
Saâdane Afif
Stereo (DATRARC) (Detail), 2010
Courtesy Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
Foto: Jan Windszus, Berlin
Saâdane Afif’s work is distinguished by an interdisciplinary methodology. His installations and sculptural works incorporate a complex interplay of fine art, lyrics, and music, while addressing the mechanisms of their creation and production.
An integral part of his work process is Afif inviting authors to lyrically interpret his work and often displaying these poetic reflections in the form of wall texts next to his sculptural objects. The texts are in turn set to music, frequently performed live at the beginning of an exhibition, and published as an album. In a constant and potentially open-ended process of transformation, Afif succeeds in creating an exciting web of allusions and references in which the boundaries of genre and medium are sensually surmounted by involving authors, musicians, and performers. This cooperation expands the space for reference in his work and becomes quasi a playful contemplation of the medium of exhibition and the production of art itself.
For example, in The Museum of Perfect Man(2009), five of Afif’s bronze sculptures were illuminated one after the other; the duration of their illumination corresponding to the length of the five pieces of music that Rainer Lericolais had composed in response to an exhibition of Afif’s work in Moscow. The sculptures are in turn Afif’s interpretation of these pieces of music.
Education
| bis 1998 | École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Nantes |
| bis 1995 | École des Beaux-Arts, Bourges |
Awards
| 2009 | Prix Marcel Duchamp, Paris |
| 2006 | Prix International d’Art Contemporain de la Fondation Prince Pierre, Monaco |
| 2005 | Prix de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, Monaco |
| 2002 | Preis der Villa Medicis Hors les Murs, Glasgow |
Solo exhibition (selection)
| 2012 | Anthologie de l'humour noir, MMK Zollamt, Frankfurt |
| 2011 |
The Fairytale Recordings, RaebervonStenglin, ZĂĽrich, Switzerland The Fairytale Recordings,Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin |
| 2010 |
A lecture, a recording & few witnesses, OPA, Guadalajara, Mexiko Saâdane Afif – Anthologie de l’humour noir, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France |
| 2009 | Feedback, EACC Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló, Spain |
| 2008 |
Technical Specifications, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands Two..., Frac des Pays de la Loire, Salle Jean-François Tadei, Carquefou, France One, Frac Basse-Normandie, Caen, France |
| 2006 | Power Chords, Cité de la Musique, Paris, France |
| 2005 |
Lyrics, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France One Million BPM, Cimaise et portique, Albi, France |
| 2004 | Melancholic Beat, Museum Folkwang, Essen |
| 2003 |
King plants and dirty roads, Art 34 Basel/Art Statements, Switzerland Memory Lost, Villa Arson, Nice, France |
Group exibitions (selection)
| 2011 |
French Window: Contemporary French Art Scene / Seen through the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Echoes, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France Lumière noire. Neue Kunst aus Frankreich, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe |
| 2010 |
Ins Blickfeld gerückt, Institut Français de Berlin, Berlin Perpetual Battles, Baibakov Art Projects, Moskau, Russland Morality, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands The Moon is an Arrant Thief, The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, Great Britain Seconde Main, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Digne-les-Bains, France De Leur Temps 3 – Le Prix Marcel Duchamp, Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg / Fonds régional d’art contemporain Alsace, Sélestat, France Le bénéfice du doute en fables et en photographies, Hôtel Fontfreyde – Centre Photographique, Clermont-Ferrand, France |