Aay Liparoto, Azam Masoumzadeh, Gernot Wieland

argos announces three exciting new exhibitions:

Gernot Wieland: Square, Circle, Square
October 21, 2023—January 28, 2024

Square, Circle, Square is Gernot Wieland’s first solo-exhibition in Belgium. It brings together a selection of audiovisual works, drawings, and a sculptural piece that uncover the dark underbelly of Western civil society.

The exhibition delves into two distinct yet intimately entwined psychological states: a shame of origins and collective repression. The artist links these categories to unresolved pasts and undefined futures associated with growing up in the Austrian countryside, foregrounding them as generative instead of depressed conditions. He does this by zooming in on his surroundings, highlighting things that have affected and influenced him since childhood.

Wieland addresses challenging subject matters via intricate modes of storytelling. Using drawings, photos, plasticine figures, animation, voice over, sound, and music, he opens up a space for reflection, suggesting the possibility of personal change despite societal restrictions and limitations.

The exhibition is supported by the Art Department of Land Niederösterreich and Austrian Cultural Forum, Brussels.

Curator: Niels Van Tomme

Azam Masoumzadeh: Glad that I came, not sorry to depart
October 7—December 23, 2023

Glad that I came, not sorry to depart highlights the classic poetry of Iranian astrologer and scientist Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), who is credited with writing 1000 quatrains, short, four-line verses with rhymed lines. Artist Azam Masoumzadeh grew up with Khayyam’s verses and created a VR-experience based on them.

Referencing ancient Iranian miniature art, Glad that I came, not sorry to depart immerses visitors in a serene yet engaging world consisting of five elaborate scenes, each one inspired by a different quatrain by Omar Khayyam.

The scenes touch on timeless themes: love, death, loss, religion, pleasure, happiness, mental wellbeing…making Khayyam’s age-old poetry resonate in our current times. 

The interactive exhibition is open to anyone from 9 to 99 years old.

Aay Liparoto: Small Acts of Violence
September 6—December 23, 2023

CON10UR and argos present Small Acts of Violence, a cinematic virtual reality experience that makes visitors physically aware of the relationship between love and nonconcensual violence.

The stories that make up this VR-experience are based on testimonies of women, nonbinary, and non-cis male perpetrators of domestic violence and self-abuse. Their experiences were fused with the intimate performances of a fictional family in a colourful, kitschy landscape.

With Small Acts of Violence, Aay Liparoto points toward the complex entanglements of autonomy and love. As often in their work, they explore the social and institutional boundaries that define our intimate relationships and the power relations that intervene in our daily lives and bodies.

Small Acts of Violence challenges assumptions about domestic violence. Who is victim? Who is perpetrator? It is an invitation to collectively pursue a love free of harm.

The exhibition is part of Contour Biennale 10: “We are rooted but we flow”, of which argos is a satellite location.

Curators: Auguste Orts

More info about the above exhibitions and their accompanying public programmes here.