Catalogue Vincent Abadie Hafez by RUSSO YUBERO

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «CAPHARNAUM»

Route du Grand-Lancy 6a I 1227 GenĂ¨ve Acacias Switzerland T +41 79 292 90 49 I contact@russoyubero.net russoyubero.net Opening Hours Monday to Friday 10.00 am to 17.00 pm Saturday by appointment only Sunday closed

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ CAPHARNAUM

EXHIBITION FROM JUNE 28TH TO AUGUST 21TH 2019

Dans Ouvrez!, l’une de ses dernières œuvres, Nathalie Sarraute écrivait: Des mots, des êtres vivants parfaitement autonomes, sont les protagonistes de chacun de ces drames. Dès que viennent des mots du dehors, une paroi est dressée. Seuls les mots capables de recevoir convenablement les visiteurs restent de ce côté. Tous les autres s’en vont et sont pour plus de sûreté enfermés derrière la paroi. Mais la paroi est transparente et les exclus observent à travers elle. Par moments, ce qu’ils voient leur donne envie d’intervenir, ils n’y tiennent plus, ils appellent... Ouvrez!». Par ce travail d’écriture ultime où les mots eux-mêmes remplacent les personnages du roman et prennent vie, Nathalie Sarraute confère au langage, à l’écriture, et à chacun de ses composants, une vie propre. Ce sont eux, les mots, qui deviennent les héros du roman et les sujets de la composition littéraire. Le travail pictural de VIncent Abadie-Hafez forme comme un écho au travail de Nathalie Sarraute et offre une vision de l’écrit, et des mots qui le composent, à la manière d’un grand portraitiste. Cette mise en abyme nous fait comprendre indirectement la construction et les composantes d’une langue qui nous échappe mais dont les éléments s’animent tels les personnages d’un roman. Comme si la forme de l’écriture finissait par être non seulement l’unique matériau du travail pictural mais l’unique réalité tangible. Libérés du piège du sens, les caractères et les mots s’envolent pour un trajet de liberté qui nous rappelle le piège des mots qui enferment, qui cadrent, qui contrôlent. L’espace peint devient territoire de liberté, de mouvement, de vie. Vincent Abadie-Hafez a entendu l’injonction des mots de Nathalie Sarraute, Ouvrez!, et leur offre leur liberté qui, par corollaire, est aussi la nôtre. Francois Russo Co-Founder & Curator

In her book “Ouvrez” (Open !), one of her ultimate works, legendary writer Nathalie Sarraute warns: «Words, perfectly autonomous living beings, are the protagonists of each of these dramas. As soon as words come from outside, a wall is erected. Only words that can decently welcome visitors remain on this side. All the others leave and are for more safety locked behind the wall. But the wall is transparent and the excluded are watching through. At times, what they see makes them want to intervene, they do not care anymore, they shout ... Open!» Through this celebration of language where the words themselves replace the characters of the novel, Nathalie Sarraute offers to words a destiny of their own. They become the heroes of the novel and the subjects of the literary composition. The pictorial work of VIncent Abadie-Hafez echoes to Nathalie Sarraute’s search and offers a vision of the language and the words that compose it, as master of portrait would depict them. It makes us understand indirectly the components and construction of a language that we might not master but whose elements come to life like the characters of a novel. As if the aesthetic of writing ended up being not only the exclusive material of the pictorial work, but in fact the only tangible reality. Freed from the trap of their meaning, letters and words fly away for a journey of freedom, warning us simultaneously of the words that enclose, direct, control. The painted space becomes a territory of freedom, movement, and life. Vincent Abadie-Hafez heard the appeal of Nathalie Sarraute’s words, and offers them their freedom which, transposed through our eyes, becomes also ours. Francois RUSSO Co-Founder & Curator

Cosmopolite, le travail de Vincent Abadie Hafez est le résultat de métissages, aux confluences de plusieurs cultures. En 1989 c’est sous le pseudonyme de Zepha qu’il s’investit au sein du mouvement graffiti. C’est en banlieue parisienne qu’il commence à imposer son nom et celui de son équipe ; il ne s’arrêtera pas depuis…

Il s’approprie l’espace public et bouscule certaines habitudes visuelles : un combat graphique utopique s’engage contre un système guidé par un libéralisme sauvage mangeur d’hommes et son enfant terrible, la publicité. Vincent Abadie Hafez développe un univers graphique et un langage visuel à travers lesquels se croisent l’influence du travail artisanal des anciennes civilisations, la calligraphie, l’immédiateté du mouvement de la figuration libre, la spontanéité de l’abstraction lyrique et enfin la prise de risque aléatoire du graffiti. La calligraphie arabe influence fortement son travail par le biais de sa rencontre avec le calligraphe Marocain Abdelatif Moustad et sa découverte de l’artiste soudanais Ahmed Abdel Aal et de l’artiste irakien Hassan Massoudy. Avec le style Koufique animé et le style Diwani, il retrouve le travail de composition, d’équilibre des lettres et la gestuelle propre au graffiti. Un vocabulaire graphique singulier prend forme révélant un juste équilibre du trait instinctif et de la composition réfléchie, avec comme base de recherche la lettre. Quelle soit latine ou arabe, celle ci est déformée, détournée, reliée, mélangée, accumulée, pour aboutir à une forme d’écriture onirique et labyrinthique. Contrastes, oppositions et complémentarité enrichissent une production d’œuvres réalisées sur de multiples supports, usés par le temps, porteurs de mémoire, aboutissement d’un questionnement sur ce monde semblant oublier les principes mêmes de son existence.

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ

The letter as a foundation for an universalistic abstraction In a choreography showing a virtuoso-like ease, Vincent Abadie Hafez «Zepha» composes a ritual score that frees the letter from its semiotic restraint, thus keeping only the essence of a certain kind of aesthetics, the cultural bearing of a symbol. Interlacing characters of mixed origins give structure to a multiplicity of contrasts. Formal logic and confusion in lines, instinctive pragmatism and gestures, the anchoring point is embodied in the movement, and the abstraction emerging from it. The whole unfolds a condensed rhythmic, galvanized by regular spaces, silent, and sometimes even unsuspected breathings, revealing a demanding and involving artwork. The gesture is technical, legatee of ancestral calligraphic practices and is being enriched by an urban context, contrasting and unexpected, so essential to the artist. The city, an entity now used to plural artistic experimentations, offers a sometimes monumental staging to this writing of the perception. The scale effect honors one of the founding components of the creation process: the regularity of the gesture, the consistency of the character, converted into pictorial symbols placed at fixed intervals. Anchored within an ordinary environment, Zepha’s artworks take

advantage of the resources inherent to this medium of expression, dear to him since he began, thanks to the spontaneous interactions that it causes. If the writing keeps a trace, the urban implantation increases the ephemeral dimension. This secondary paradox is being exploited in parallel through the creation of palimpsests artworks, requiring the intervention of the spectator to unveil the artist’s creation by scratching off a layer of latex applied over it. Wear and tear, degradation, marks of time inflicted to the artwork are then echoing the artist’s primal practice, graffiti, though giving an implicit reflection alluding the impact of Man on space and time and more widely, the part they are to play in the evolution of the interpersonal relations in our contemporary societies. As it creates an authentic dialog between preserving ancestral arts (traditional calligraphy, etching, marquetry), enhanced by a modern and popular approach, his endeavour makes sense when it spreads a trans-civilizational legacy, breeding ground to the construction of a future where it is allowed to dream, to have faith in mankind and its ability to overcome divisions. A nomadic artist, he finds recognition and respect in the eyes of the founders of urban/ abstract calligraphy and takes part in must-be events of the international artistic scene (recently

with the “Concrete alphabets” exhibition in San Francisco, commissioned by the artist Poesia, and later at the “Jidar - Toiles de rue” festival in Rabat, during which is mural was one of the flagship interventions). The imbrication of Arabic shapes and Latin characters writes the premises of a collective history, of a timeless language, of an abstraction to be interiorized. Our alphabets, as disparate as they may be, hold a unifying

significance, transcending the origins of each of us. To calligraph in order to unite, Zepha’s work is impregnated with his values, like an incantation to what is universal, a contemporary humanism induced by the power of the symbol, common foundation to civilizations, revealed by an art going beyond all frontiers, all alterity.

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «WAVING 4» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 105 x 100 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «SATURNE 2» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 91 x 98 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «SAGITARIUS B» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 126 x 200 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «SATURNE 1» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 93 x 98 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «SAGITARIUS A» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 136 x 200 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «JADE SAUDADE» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 120 x 200 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «METROPOLIS 2» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 110 x 90 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «PYGMALION» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 200 x 96 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «METROPOLIS 1» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 111 x 91 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «LE MYTHE DE LA CAVERNE» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 112 x 93 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «PHAÏSTOS» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 96 x 200 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «CERES 1» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 94 x 100 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «CERES 2» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 94 x 100 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «EPHAISTOS» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 125 x 91 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «LE CONTRAT SOCIAL» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 98 x 130 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «FLUX 3» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 98 x 198 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «CAPHARNAUM 1» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 118 x 104 cm

VINCENT ABADIE HAFEZ «CAPHARNAUM 2» , 2019 I Mixed Media I 118 x 83 cm

EXPOSITIONS ET RÉALISATIONS 2019 Fresque murale collective, Powwow, Hawaï (USA) 2018 Fresque murale “Retracing Memory”, Gävle (Sweden) Fresque murale collective, Powwow, Amsterdam (NL) Fresque murale, Fine Arts Centre and Arabic Islamic Science Museum (Koweït). «Grand opening», exposition collective, Mirus Gallery, Denver (États-Unis). «Odd marks», exposition collective, Pretty Portal Gallery, Düsseldorf (Allemagne). Fresque murale, Sharjah (Émirats Arabes Unis). «//No font ((Codex)(…2», exposition collective, Avantgarden Gallery, Milan (Italie). 2017 «Back to the wood», exposition personnelle, Galerie Wallworks, Paris (France). «Urban jealousy», exposition personnelle, David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech (Maroc). Misk Art Festival, exposition collective et ateliers, Riyadh, (Arabie Saoudite). Sharjah Art Fair, représenté par Hafez Gallery, Jeddah (Arabie Saoudite). Urban Art Fair, representé par David Bloch Gallery, New York (États-Unis). «Urbanites», exposition collective, Naila Art Gallery, Riyadh (Arabie Saoudite). «Graph’m», exposition collective, Tunis (Tunisie). 2016 «Superplasticizer», exposition personnelle, The Mine Gallery, Dubai (Émirats Arabes Unis). «Mu’allaqāt» («Les poèmes suspendus»), fresque murale, Dubaï Streets Festival (Émirats Arabes Unis). «Soulmates», exposition collective, Art Thema Gallery, Bruxelles (Belgique). Fresque murale et exposition collective, Jardin Orange, Shenzhen (Chine). «The Design of Words by Calligraphy Masters», exposition collective et atelier, Studio Acqua Su Marte, Milan (Italie). Biennale de la calligraphie de Sharjah, exposition collective, Sharjah (Émirats Arabes Unis). Exposition collective, Galerie Jed Voras, Château de Vaux le Vicomte, Maincy (France). «In Situ / Hors-le(s)-Mur(s)», exposition collective, Scarlett, Genève (Suisse). 2015 «Crossing paths - The intersection of memories», Vincent Abadie Hafez & Carlos Mare, David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech (Maroc). «Rosa Parks fait le mur», projet mural, Paris (France). «Kunstwollen», exposition personnelle, Galerie Jed Voras, Paris (France). «L’été», exposition personnelle, 912 Arty Gallery, Lourmarin (France). «Si je suis née de la terre», fresque murale, festival «Jidar - Toiles de rue», Rabat (Maroc). «Masterstrokes», Cube arts gallery, Dubaï (Émirats Arabes Unis). “Concrete alphabets», 886 Geary Gallery, San Francisco (Etats-Unis).

Urban art Biennale, exposition collective et oeuvre in situ, Völklinger Hütte, usine sidérurgique classée au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO (Allemagne). “Visual Uterrance», Cube Arts Gallery, Dubaï (Émirats Arabes Unis). Mandala calligraphique mural, Institut français, Agadir (Maroc). 2014 “The Rehlatna - Our Journey”, fresque murale collective, World’s longest graffiti scroll, Dubaï (Émirats Arabes Unis). “Ornements”, création in situ en marqueterie, espace Croix Baragnon, Toulouse (France). “Typograff - Conversation calligraphique”, Rosny-sur Seine (France). “Dia logos”, fresque murale, Asalto - Festival internacional de arte urbano, Saragosse (Espagne). “Djerbahood”, fresques murales, Erriadh (Tunisie). “Artyshow”, exposition collective, 912 arty gallery, Lourmarin (France). “Rosa de los vientos”, fresque murale, fondation Tres Culturas, Tarifa (Espagne). “Tres culturas”, exposition collective, pavillon du Maroc, Séville (Espagne). “A major minority”, création “Metamatrices 1”, 1AM Gallery, San Francisco (Etats-Unis). “Cursive Monumentale”, exposition personnelle, Conseil Général de la Haute Garonne, Espace Roguet, Toulouse (France). 2013 “Streets Festival”, fresque murale, Kasserine (Tunisie). “Graff me”, fresque murale, Beyrouth (Liban). “Symbiose de deux mondes”, Palais Namaskar, Marrakech (Maroc). “Hypergraphia”, BC Gallery, Berlin (Allemagne). “Ecritures sonores”, centre culturel des Mazades, Toulouse (France). “99 Names”, fresque murale collective, Katara Village Doha (Qatar). 2012 “White Wall”, Beirut art center, Beyrouth (Liban). “Indigo Dub”, exposition personnelle, Galerie David Bloch, Casablanca (Maroc). Exposition collective et atelier, Contemporary Art Platform Kuwait (Koweït). “Capitoleum palimpseste”, fresque murale, Toulouse (France). 2011 “Inside Job”, exposition personnelle, Galerie David Bloch, Casablanca (Maroc). 2010 “Mi nombre es todos”, palimpseste participatif, échange Toulouse/Saragosse, (Espagne). “Summer graffiti”, exposition collective et intervention in situ, Rignac (France). “Abstract writing”, exposition collective, Galerie particulière, Nouméa, (Nouvelle Calédonie).

MAIN EXHIBITIONS /ARTISTIC WORKS 2019 Collective mural, Powwow, Hawaï (USA) 2018 Mural “Retracing Memory”, Gävle (Sweden) Collective mural, Powwow, Amsterdam (NL) Mural, Fine Arts Centre and Arabic Islamic Science Museum (Kuwait). Group show «Grand opening», Mirus Gallery, Denver (USA). Group show «Odd marks», Pretty Portal Gallery, Düsseldorf Germany). Sharjah Calligraphy Biennale (UAE). Mural, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (UAE). Group show“3 Directions”, Mono Gallery, Riyadh (UAE) . Group show“No Font Codex 2”, Avant Garden Gallery, Milan (Italy). 2017 Solo show “Back to the wood”, Wallworks Gallery, Paris (France). Solo show “Urban Jealousy”, David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech (Morocco). Exhibition/residency/workshops, MISK Festival, Riyadh (KSA). Sharjah Art Fair, represented by Hafez Gallery, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Group show “Urbanites”, Naila gallery, Riyadh (KSA). Group show “Graph’M”, Ghaya Gallery, Tunis (Tunisia). 2016 Solo show “Superplasticizer”, The Mine Gallery, Dubai (UAE). Mural “Mu´allaquat”, Dubai Streets Festival (UAE). Mural and collective art exhibition. Artist residency. Jardin Orange, Shenzhen (China). Workshop and collective art exhibition “The Design of Words by Calligraphy Masters”, Studio Acqua Su Marte, Milan (Italy). Collective art exhibition. Sharjah Calligraphy Biennale (UAE). Collective art exhibition, Vaux le Vicomte Castle, Jed Voras Gallery, Paris (France). Collective art exhibition “In Situ/Hors-le(s)-Mur(s)”, Scarlett, Geneva (Switzerland). 2015 Joint art exhibition « Crossing Paths - The Intersection of Memories», Vincent Abadie Hafez & Carlos Mare, David Bloch Gallery, Marrakech (Morocco). Mural“Mandala Calligraphique”, Institut Français, Agadir (Morocco). Collective mural “Rosa Parks fait le mur”, GFR Collective, Paris (France). Solo art exhibition “Kunstwollen”, Jed Voras Gallery, Paris (France). Solo art exhibition. “L’Eté”, 912 Arty Gallery, Lourmarin (France). Mural “Si je suis né de la terre”, Jidar- Toiles de rue Festival, Rabat (Morocco). Group show.“Masterstrokes”, Cubes Art Gallery, Dubai (UAE).

Group show“Concrete Alphabets”. Graffuturism, 886 Geary Gallery, San Francisco (CA, USA). Group show in situ, Third Urban Art Biennale®, Völklingen Factory (Germany). Mural/workshop, Institut Français d´Agadir (Morocco). Group show “Visual Utterance, Cubes Art Gallery, Dubai (UAE). 2014 Collective mural “The Rehlatna - Our Journey”, World’s longest graffiti scroll, Dubai (UAE). Exhibition/ Residency “Ornements”. Croix Baragnon Gallery, Toulouse (France). Mural/ workshop, Festival Big Up 974, St Denis (Reunion Island). Mural/ workshop, Asalto – Festival Internacional de Arte Urbano, Zaragoza (Spain) Mural “Velorution”, Copenhagen (Denmark). Mural, Djerbahood Project, Djerba (Tunisia). Group show. “Arty Show”, 912 Arty Gallery. Aix en Provence (France). Mural “Jalousie Urbaine”, Artazoi, Paris (France). Mural “Rosa De Los Vientos”, Tres Culturas Foundation, Tarifa (Spain). Group show. «Tres Culturas». Moroccan Pavilion, Sevilla, (Spain). Group show “A Major Minority”, Graffuturism, 886 Geary Gallery, San Francisco (CA, USA). Solo exhibition“Cursive Monumentale”, Conseil Général de la Haute Garonne, Espace Roguet, Toulouse, (France). 2013 Mural, Streets Festival, Kasserine (Tunisia). Mural“Graff Me”, Beyrouth (Lebanon). Group show “Symbiose de deux mondes”, Written Art Foundation, Marrakech (Morocco). Group show “Hypergraphia”, BC Gallery, Berlin (Germany). Solo exhibition “Ecritures sonores”, Mazades Cultural Centre, Toulouse (France). Mural “99 Names”, Katara Village, Doha (Qatar). 2012 Group show “White Wall”. Beirut Art Centre, Beyrouth (Lebanon). Solo exhibition“Indigo Dub”, David Bloch Gallery, Casablanca (Morocco). Mural /Workshop, Contemporary Art Platform, (Kuwait). Mural, FAKT Gallery, Basel (Switzerland). Mural “Capitoleum Palimpseste”, Toulouse (France) 2011 Solo exhibition “Inside Job”, David Bloch Gallery, Casablanca (Morocco). 2010 Mural “Mi nombre es todos”, Toulouse/Saragossa (France/Spain). Group show “Summer graffiti”, Rignac (France). Group show “Abstract writing”, Galerie Particulière, Nouméa, (New Caledonia).

Route du Grand-Lancy 6a I 1227 GenĂ¨ve Acacias Switzerland T +41 79 292 90 49 I contact@russoyubero.net russoyubero.net