Tarek Lakhrissi: BLISS

In his solo exhibition BLISS, Tarek Lakhrissi invites the audience on a journey: in a stage-like setting, visitors become protagonists in search of dreamy moments in the midst of chaos. Over the course of three acts, they encounter installations, film works and sculptures.

The French poet and artist has a particular interest in conversations about race, class and gender. He creates alluring poems and installations aiming to transform traditional narratives. He often uses autofiction—the interfusion of a biographical report with fictional elements—as a tool. Therefore, Lakhrissi simultaneously offers audiences opportunities for identification through subtle hints to his own experience and tells an imagined story through a myriad of layers.

Lakhrissi’s queer and BIPoC first-person perspective is transferable to the daily experience of minorities within a society dominated by a white, cisgender and heterosexual majority. BLISS takes the reflective state of mind of melancholy as a starting point to explore themes such as self-discovery, one’s own desire and the social exclusion of marginalized groups.

Curator: Dr. Michael Birchall; Curatorial assistant: Louisa Behr

BLISS is accompanied by a collection exhibition: Material Memories is the first of two chapters in an exhibition of works from the museum’s collection. It features works by Heidi Bucher, Yael Davids, Thea Djordjadze, Graciela Gutiérrez Marx, Kris Lemsalu, Liz Magor, Maria Pinińska-Bereś and Vivian Suter.

Physical material is the basic prerequisite for every artwork that manifests itself as an object. Since the 1960s artists have naturally drawn on impermanent or organic materials, have worked with materials from industry or integrated found objects into their works. As part of the artistic work process, these materials are merged, combined, formed, altered, coloured, liquified or solidified—provided they have reached a form that the artist judges to be ready. The first chapter in the collection exhibition thus examines the way in which meaning is inscribed into the material through the creative process—whether actual or symbolic. It may be traces from the work done, or it may be remnants that bear witness to a performative act. In some cases, the material also stores imprints that come about due to uncontrollable factors, but are permitted—and so become part of the work itself. In other cases, a material or an object is charged with new meaning due to an action carried out, or the old one is over-written.

Curator: Nadia Schneider Willen; Curatorial assistant: Claudia Heim