NAVID NUUR
PHANTOM FUEL
13 March–19 May 2013
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
14 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
Hours: Monday by prior arrangement, Tuesday–Saturday 10am–6pm, Sunday 12–5pm, First Thursday of every month open until 9pm
Admission: Free
T + 44 (0) 207 490 7373
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is delighted to host the largest and most extensive presentation of the work of Iran-born Dutch artist Navid Nuur. This, his first-ever solo exhibition in a UK institution, shows from 13 March to 19 May 2013.
Nuur’s work is based on phenomenological experience. He commonly attributes transformative properties to found objects, thereby repositioning their function, meaning and impact in ways that provide viewers with a whole new way of seeing and experiencing. Whilst often sculptural in form, Nuur’s works are neither sculpture nor installations. Rather, he frequently uses the term ‘interimodules’ (part ‘interim’, part ‘module’).
Visitors to Nuur’s exhibition find themselves invariably in an active state where they not only are supposed to discover, but also at times might have to act or react. They will witness, for example, a work melting, trash becoming theory, a functioning neon tube becoming a grave to part of another, a split-second metamorphosing into jewellery, voice materialising, and along with all this movement comes a mandatory experience.
Although often referred to as a conceptual artist, Nuur’s art refuses to be simply the physical manifestation of an idea or concept. Rather, his work is imbued with a certain feeling and subjectivity, in which temporary or interim situations and opportunities play an important role. About his work, Nuur says: ‘Many of my pieces begin with an object or an idea that irritates me.’ For example, the work Where you end and I begin, 2011–2013, on show at Parasol unit, is about the full stop at the end of the exhibition wall text. Nuur has taken out this punctuation mark and has enlarged it hundreds of times until the full stop itself posits its own objectivity. The framed work is exhibited beside this wall text. Of this process, Nuur says, ‘the dot, an object derived from information about my work, holds the key to my artistic practice, while the text explaining my practice has been turned back into art.’
Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1976, Navid Nuur currently lives and works in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Related events and educational programme:
Saturday 6 April, 2:30–4pm
Launching the Storytelling Project for Families: The Experience of Things
Join broadcaster and sound artist Fari Bradley in this workshop combining drama and radio to construct stories around objects in Navid Nuur’s exhibition. Participants will use audio recorders and studio speakers to create a story complete with live sound effects.
Suitable for 5–15 year olds
Wednesday 17 April, 7pm
“Object as Process”: Lecture by Professor James Williams
An expert on Gilles Deleuze, Professor James Williams will use the philosophy of time and Nuur’s work to discuss how objects are not simply inert and subject to our will. They are multiple on-going processes, haunting and constructing us, even when we think we control and understand them.
Thursday 2 May (First Thursday)
Traces of Action | Creation of Acts
An evening of performance and sound that responds to the exhibition. Featuring new work by Dante Rendle-Traynor, Iranian avant-garde group Parstronix, and electronic sound artist Jeremy Hubbard, and durational, interactive project I see the world through stars… by Lucy Bannister.
About Parasol unit
Founded in December 2004, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is a registered educational charity and a non-profit institution that operates purely for public benefit. Every year the foundation organises four challenging and thought-provoking exhibitions of works by international contemporary artists working in various media, holds artistic projects and gives awards and exhibition possibility to graduating student from a UK art school. The foundation also engages with the public and the neighbouring community through a full programme of educational events. In its genuine mission to serve the public, the foundation does not bear the founder’s name and its exhibitions do not derive from any particular private collections. Admission to all exhibitions at Parasol unit is free of charge. Thanks to this innovative model between private funding and public support one of London’s most vibrant contemporary art spaces has come to exist and thrives.
This exhibition has been kindly supported by:
