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until 25.07. | #2992ARTatBerlin | KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst presents from 28th March 2021 the exhibition La lumière qui fait le bonheur… by the artist Georges Adéagbo at the Maschinenhaus M2, as well as the exhibition Walls Have Feelings by the artist Eli Cortiñas at the Maschinenhaus M1.
Georges Adéagbo
The assemblages by the Beninese artist Georges Adéagbo (*1942 in Cotonou) follow the life courses and fates of people using the traces they leave behind: objects and documents attest to encounters and individual decisions. By having craftsmen in Benin produce paintings and sculptures based on photos and printed items collected on his travels, the artist opens up new perspectives on the seemingly familiar and challenges visitors to examine clichéd ideas and stereotypes. Adéagbo’s installations are always site-specific and dissolve hierarchies: all things are of equal importance to him. In his work, phenomena from pop culture transport stories just as much as canonised high culture: antiques from Benin can be found alongside “airport kitsch”, records by Beethoven alongside carnival music, commissioned oil paintings alongside reproductions from art history. Georges Adéagbo’s practice is an open system that is meant to be augmented and transformed by the viewers and challenges the conventional aesthetics of cohesive works as well as the singular icon acclaimed by the art market.
Georges Adéagbo, Tout de moi à tous, 2007, Ausstellungsansicht daadgalerie, Berlin (Detail),
© Georges Adéagbo / VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2020, Foto: Jens Ziehe
For his exhibition at the KINDL, Adéagbo is developing an installation that will occupy the entire exhibition space, drawing on elements from central works such as Tout de moi à tous (2007) and Une espace avec le monde (2007) and updating them with found objects from Neukölln and the KINDL archives.
Curated by Kathrin Beckert in cooperation with Stephan Köhler.
Georges Adéagbo’s (* 1942 in Cotonou, Benin) work has been shown internationally at venues including the Biennials of Shanghai (2016), Dakar (2014), Venice (2009 and 1999, awarded the Jury Prize), São Paulo (1998), and Johannesburg (1997), and at documenta 11 (Kassel, 2002). He has had solo exhibitions at the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg (2019), the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen (2018), the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (2016), Moderna Museet in Stockholm (2014), MAK in Vienna (2009), the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2004), and P.S.1 in New York (2000), among others. In 2006 and 2007 he had a residency in Berlin with a grant from the DAAD’s Artists in Berlin Programme. Adéagbo’s works are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, among others. Georges Adéagbo lives in Cotonou and Hamburg.
Eli Cortiñas
Eli Cortiñas uses found material from films, YouTube videos, advertisements, animations, and image archives in her video works, which she reproduces, rhythmises, and sets to music. In the visually striking video essay Walls Have Feelings (2019) she deals with the concepts of work and value creation, among other things. Cortiñas creates a dystopian picture of our present that links historical, political, and aesthetic aspects. The artist questions architecture as a manifestation and instrument of political power as well as the role of supposedly innocent objects and interiors in their function as silent witnesses, protectors, and amplifiers of power.
Eli Cortiñas, Walls Have Feelings, 2019, HD-Video, 13:10 Min., Videostill, © Eli Cortiñas
Curated by Kathrin Becker
Eli Cortiñas (* 1979 in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria) lives in Berlin. After guest professorships at the Academy of Fine Arts Mainz (2014 – 2015) and the Kunsthochschule Kassel (2015 – 2016), she currently shares a professorship with the artist Candice Breitz at the Braunschweig University of Art. Her work has been shown internationally, including solo exhibitions at Convent Space for Contemporary Art in Ghent (2018), the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius (2018), the Budapest Palace of Art (2013), and Kunstraum Innsbruck (2012).
Demokratie heute – Probleme der Repräsentation
(starts simultaneously in the M1 Machine House on 28 March, until 4 July 2021)
Around the world, many existing democracies are in a crisis: freedoms and options for political participation are being restricted or their use is declining, while the influence of so-called global players on political decisions is growing. This guest-curated exhibition takes the vulnerability of the basic democratic order in current systems as a starting point. In various media—including painting, sound, video, and installations—it illuminates problem areas such as burgeoning right-wing populism around the world, the mediatisation of politics, and the tension between inclusion and exclusion in decision-making processes. It also reflects on new forms of political participation and the relationship between extra-parliamentary protest and official politics.
Democratic Self-Administration of Rojava and Studio Jonas Staal, New World Summit – Rojava, 2015 – 2018, Foto: Tom Janssen
Artists: Pierre Bismuth, Claus Föttinger, Julia Lazarus, Erik van Lieshout, Marina Naprushkina, Oliver Ressler, Anja Schrey, Jonas Staal, Joulia Strauss, Assembly RST, artists from The Hope Project / Moria (Raha Amiri, Attaullah, Fereshteh, Nazgol Golmuradi, Sahar Haqpana, Sara Hossini, Mohammad Jafari, Javad, Sara Juddin, Joseph Kangi, Senait Lelisa, Masoumeh, Ommolbanin, Rehab, Murtaza Safari, Sima, Jean-Paul Waroma, Batol Yasim)
The artistic positions of the nine artists are complemented by paintings created in an open studio in the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos. In addition, the project is augmented by the Assembly RST, which is conceived as a brainstorming session that addresses various aspects of the exhibition in free association. The accompanying publication is being produced in cooperation with Florian Malzacher and will take the form of a newspaper, a medium that contributes to the democratic process of decision making.
Curated by Raimar Stange.
Opening: Saturday, 27th March and Sunday, 28th March 2021 from 2:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Sunday, 28 March – Sunday, 25 July 2021
To the Exhibition venue
Exhibition Georges Adéagbo + Eli Cortiñas – KINDL Zentrum | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
