Farah Atassi
The Corner Show
No blossom no moonlight
12 September–6 December 2015
Opening: 11 September, 19h
Extra City Kunsthal
Eikelstraat 31
2600 Antwerpen–Berchem
Belgium
Extra City is pleased to present the large-scale group exhibition The Corner Show; the first institutional exhibition of Farah Atassi in Belgium; and No blossom no moonlight, a group show with five young emerging artists based in Antwerp.
The Corner Show
Accattone, Wim Catrysse, Céline Condorelli, Jan De Cock, Ferry André de la Porte, Willem de Rooij, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Maatschappij Discordia, Lili Dujourie, Kersten Geers, Aglaia Konrad, Germaine Kruip, Gabriel Kuri, Valérie Mannaerts, Katja Mater, Josiah McElheny, Manfred Pernice, Bas Schevers, Santiago Sierra, Steve Van den Bosch, Koen van den Broek, Joep van Liefland and Philippe Van Snick.
Corners are everywhere: not only rooms have corners, but so do streets, objects, paintings, screens and pages. Corners are among the many modes of delineation that enclose space and demarcate routes, that increase or delimit areas of possibility. Questions of space, function and figure of the corner appear in a variety of artistic and architectural practices—perhaps most notably in Untitled (Corner Piece) (1964) by Robert Morris, which has become a key work in the art history of the past decades by occupying an exceptional space in the traditional gallery. It has since become a reference for the spatial strategies developed by artists after Minimalism, and for the manifold “corner pieces” artists have produced ever since.
While The Corner Show knowingly relates to this art historical canon, it adopts a deliberate contemporary vantage point. Bringing together a wide range of practitioners, the exhibition aims to explore how the corner suggests itself as solution, station, or metaphor in investigations that stem from different artistic premises or advance different conceptual propositions.
Within a sculptural scenography conceived by artist Philip Metten, The Corner Show assembles existing, adapted and commissioned works that either occupy, scrutinize or challenge the most commonplace, overlooked and intricate architectural features of both exhibition space and daily environment.
Curated by Wouter Davidts, in collaboration with Philip Metten and Mihnea Mircan.
In collaboration with A+ Architecture in Belgium, the theatre company De Tijd and the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK).
The exhibition enjoys the generous support of Mondriaan Fund, The Netherlands.
Farah Atassi
Constructing environments through intricate scale distortions of modernist forms, traditions of mosaic or folkloric textile patterning, many of Atassi’s paintings create a disorienting sense of “display” for figures that are barely differentiated volumetrically from their surroundings. Figures camouflaged as grounds and vice versa, deceptive mirror effects and decentered vanishing points—these are devices to incite attention to an enigmatic theatre of objects and fluid perspectives, to models for objects, sculptures and architectures, to place and sitelessness.
The presentation at Extra City focuses on a recent, ongoing series of works, but also includes examples of paintings realized over the course of last year. Older and newer works articulate an abstract narrative of depth and proximity, guiding perception in a move from the panoramic to the intimate.
In collaboration with Galerie Michel Rein, Brussels.
Exhibition design by Kris Kimpe.
No blossom no moonlight
featuring Karolien Chromiak, Jane Coppin, Elise Eeraerts, Daan Gielis and Lore Van Roelen.
No blossom no moonlight is the final part of the first STRT KIT, a project operating as an international support initiative for emerging visual artists based in Antwerp.
Organized by Studio Start in collaboration with Air Antwerpen and Extra City Kunsthal.
Curated by João Mourão and Luís Silva, co-directors of Kunsthalle Lisbon.
Extra City Kunsthal is funded by the Flemish Community and the City of Antwerp.
For more information, please contact Ilse Roosens at ilse.roosens [at] extracity.org
