ArtFocus 5 | Archive » Adel Abdessemed

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Adel Abdessemed // Helikopter

adel_a

Adel Abdessemed Born in Algeria, 1971; lives in Paris. Recent solo exhibitions: PS1, New York (2007), Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv (2007), San Francisco Art Institute (2008); recent group exhibitions: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (2008), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008), Petach Tikva Museum of Art (2008).

Helikopter (2007) consists of charcoal drawings on wooden panels the size of monumental history paintings, and a video documenting their creation. The video features Adel Abdessemed hanging by his feet from a long rope attached to a German helicopter (hence the German spelling of the title), and drawing with charcoal on the wooden panels. This struggle may be interpreted either as a disavowal of ease and mastery or as a search for mastery and authority in an uncomfortable and even dangerous situation; it is Abdessemed’s way of questioning hotly debated subjects. Abdessemed does not produce political art; rather, his work evolves out of the freedom to be poetic and the pleasure of transgression.