MEHDI CHOUAKRI
ARCO MADRID 2o15
SAÂDANE AFIF PHILIPPE DECRAUZAT HANS-PETER FELDMANN MATHIEU MERCIER GEROLD MILLER CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE GITTE SCHÄFER LUCA TREVISANI AND MARTIN DISLER
SAÂDANE AFIF Fountain Archives FA. 0385, 0389, 0390, 0391, 0392, 0394 a/b, 0397, 0398, 0399, 0402 a/b, 0404, 0405, 0407, 2008-2015 Offset prints from books and magazines, framed, pencil Dimensions variable Unique piece Certificate signed by the artist
In 2008, taking Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain as a starting point, Saâdane Afif started to collect all publications, catalogues, guides and books featuring this seminal piece. The pages showing the work are torn out and framed, creating a new ready made from this first ready made in art history. The artist is building an archive, aiming to account for all the mentions of the Fountain. Taking one step further, Afif will design a shelving unit to store all these publications. The installation will be a Fountain Archive without a Fountain, as all the mentions of Duchamp’s work will have been removed from the publications lined on its shelves.
For years, Hans-Peter Feldmann has been collecting original oil paintings from the 19th century, mainly portraits. By gently painting over the pictures, Feldmann shifts the genre from traditional depiction to a post-modern caricature, adding for instance black stripes to hide the figure’s nudity. Beyond an iconoclasm steeped in the legacy of Dada, this series compares the aesthetic ideals of the 19th century against ours, revealing our present connection to images.
HANS-PETER FELDMANN
Masked Nude Oil on canvas, framed 80 x 115 cm 31.4 x 45.2 in
GITTE SCHÄFER Blended Soul, 2013 Fabric, metal, clay, wood 100 x 75.5 x 22 cm 39.37 x 29.72 x 8.66 in Unique piece Certificate signed by the artist
The poet Alphonse de Lamartine once wrote: “Objets inanimés avez-vous donc une âme?” Through her sculptures, Gitte Schäfer asks the exact same question. Her work results from a close examination of mythology, religion, folk art, superstitions and fairy tales, which formally translates into abstract or geometric forms that could as well be interpreted in a spiritual way.
PHILIPPE DECRAUZAT slow motion (n/b/2.5), 2015 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 80 cm 39.37 x 31.50 in Unique piece Certificate signed by the artist
Relying upon an extensive visual vocabulary built from the legacy of his forerunners in Geometric Abstraction, Philippe Decrauzat seamlessly blends a cache of optical effects to “investigate the status of the image.” In this work Decrauzat suspends the viewer between perspectives, shifting focus from stark, modern stripes graduating to blurred obscurity, precisely graphing definition’s entropy into oblivion.
CHARLOTTE POSENENSKE Vierkantrohre Serie D, 1967-2015 6 elements, hot-dip galvanised steel sheet Dimensions variable Authorised reconstruction certified by the estate
The Vierkantrohre Serie D are modular elements made of galvanised steel. In 1967 Posenenske developed the concept, which includes interaction with her works, allowing the free combination of the shapes without any given instructions. As the reception of the work of art mostly depends on the way it is presented, Posenenske proposes the viewer a close reflection on its status, giving full latitude to curators and collectors to display these elements. Thus, the work she first sketched in 1967 constantly develops with every new presentation. Charlotte Posenenske (1930–1985) was active in Germany in the 1950’s and 60’s, her oeuvre has been rediscovered lately. Considered as a key figure position between Minimal Art and Conceptual Art, she has been influencing younger generations with her concept of modularity.
MATHIEU MERCIER Untitled, 2011 Acrylic on canvas Ă˜ 150 cm Ă˜ 59.06 in Unique piece Signed verso: Mercier, 2011
Mathieu Mercier has been working on this series of tondi for a couple of years. All these paintings have the same round shape, but they vary in diameter. In an attempt to flatten a three dimensional object into a painting, Mercier transforms diamond patterns into geometric colour fields on his canvas. In this work, the colours are ranging from an almost white light blue to deep purple.
LUCA TREVISANI Notes for dried and living bodies, 2015 UV print on dried leaves and perspex sandwich 95 x 90 cm each 37.40 x 35.43 in each Unique Certificate signed by the artist
Luca Trevisani’s work has constantly focused on natural phenomena such as transplantation, transposition, addition or movement, creating images and sculptures that re-defined the notion of scientific research as artistic and visual practice. Trevisani’s new series Notes for dried and living bodies are prints of floral patterns–designed by William Morris and Ettore Sottsass–on dried exotic leaves, mounted between two perspex sheets. They are a reflection about nature and artifacts, and the thin line that separates them.
GEROLD MILLER set. 254, 2014 Stainless steel, lacquered 85 x 68 x 4.5 cm 33.46 x 26.77 x 1.77 in Unique piece Signed verso below in the middle: G. Miller 2014
Gerold Miller’s series set. represents a shift in his work. Miller has been concerned with the most fundamental questions of sculpture, relief and painting, placing a void at the centre of his works. For this new series, he closes his sculptures to create a rectangular wall object that seems a painting. Each piece represents the same form, playing on different variations of a high-gloss car lacquer colour palette. These visually concise, monochromatic works show Miller’s further development of a vibrant combination of painting and sculpture, using high tech materials found in industrial production.
& MARTIN DISLER Untitled, 1979 Dispersion paint on Pavatex 205 x 160 cm 80.70 x 62.99 in Unique piece Signed recto, below right with pencil: Disler 79
The Swiss artist Martin Disler (1949-1996) must be considered a major figure of the European painting scene which emerged in the late 1970’s. Autodidact, his oeuvre bears a powerful, even existential burdensomeness, an almost intoxicating rigour. Physical being, primarily that of the artist himself, is very much at play in his visual language, which carries palpable traces of his excessive and unsparing life. The anticipation of death permeates his entire oeuvre, as do moments of a great hunger for life. Both form Disler’s illusion-free vision of the condition humaine. Here, two unadorned, almost primitive figures either fight or embrace each other, and this duality reflects both ends of Disler’s work: liveliness and doom.
Untitled, 1978/1979 Gouache on paper 50 x 70 cm 19.69 x 27.56 in Unique piece
Untitled, 1978 Coal and grease crayon on paper 61 x 55 cm 24.02 x 21.65 in Unique piece
Opposite page: Untitled, 1979 Gouache on paper 70 x 50 cm 27.56 x 19.69 in Unique piece Signed verso with pencil: Disler
Untitled, 1982 Gouache and ink on paper 63 x 96 cm 24.8 x 37.8 in Unique piece
Front cover: Martin Disler Untitled, 1979 (detail) Dispersion paint on Pavatex 205 x 160 cm 80.70 x 62.99 in Unique piece Signed recto, below right with pencil: Disler 79
This catalogue was published on the occasion of ARCO Madrid February 25 to March 1, 2015 Booth 7C03 – also available as eBook on www.mehdi-chouakri.com Booth design by David Saik, Berlin
Title page: Luca Trevisani Notes for dried and living bodies, 2015 (detail) Opposite page: Gitte Schäfer Igor, 2008 Burned clay, graphite, oil 44 x 49 x 10 cm 17.3 x 19.3 x 3.9 in Unique piece Certificate signed by the artist
Photographs by Katharina Kritzler, Berlin Roman März, Berlin Stephan Riedel, Berlin Jan Windszus, Berlin Jens Ziehe, Berlin All works © the artists and courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Gallery 1000 copies Printed by Spree Druck, Berlin
Back cover: Luca Trevisani Notes for dried and living bodies, 2015 (detail) UV print on dried leaves, perspex sandwich 184 x 79 cm 72.44 x 31.10 in Unique Certificate signed by the artist
Galerie Mehdi Chouakri Invalidenstrasse 117 10115 Berlin T + 49 30 28 39 11 53 F + 49 30 28 39 11 54 galerie@mehdi-chouakri.com www.mehdi-chouakri.com
MEHDI CHOUAKRI
ARCO MADRID 2o15