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NAVID NUUR: MINING MEMORY
Berlin: Goethestrasse 2/3
1–30 May 2015

Preview 1 May, 6–9pm

Galerie Max Hetzler is delighted to announce a solo exhibition by Navid Nuur, opening during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2015. Conceived for Galerie Max Hetzler’s Goethestrasse location and Galeria Plan B, an artist-led space initiated by Mihai Pop and Adrian Ghenie, MINING MEMORY will feature an entirely new body of work by Nuur, including video, sculpture and paintings. This is Nuur’s first solo exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin, following the artist’s first solo show with the gallery in Paris last year.

An analogy is placed at the heart of Nuur’s exhibition, illustrated by a collage created for the show. For Nuur, art should be like Glacial Erratics, containing its own energy and kept forever, without getting lost in history, social contexts or environmental changes. Glacial Erratics are huge pieces of rock found in random landscapes with no geological context. Erratics, taken from the Latin word errare (to wander), have been carried thousands of kilometres by glaciers and continue to intrigue and inspire generations.

The choice of materials is crucial for Nuur. In MINING MEMORY, materials have been chosen and used based on ancestral techniques, echoing Earth’s natural transformations, like ceramics made of clay fired by old wood firing processes, the use of Coprolite (fossilised dinosaur feces) and paintings made of liquid graphite. The properties of materials are also at the centre of Nuur’s work, whether through his walls and pillars made of floral foam, a material that can be shaped only once with no possibility of erasing gestures, or in his drawings on the “2-3 Dimensional Dilemma”, which are made from the imprints of different sports balls on paper. Nuur’s “marbled paintings” also reflect the artist‘s experimentation with materials, mixing the long tradition of marbled paper which was developed very early in both Eastern and Western cultures with the gesso technique used in the Middle Ages to create frescoes.

Work in the exhibition also allows viewers to discover new ways of looking or making things appear. A video work of a children’s cartoon shows a mole coming nose-to-nose with a colour striped stick, which it cannot understand as abstract elements are totally unknown to it. As a tool to illustrate how we do not merely look at light but rather use light to look at something, Nuur has dismantled the gallery’s lighting system to create a sculptural installation which is still plugged in and part of the gallery’s lighting system. Another work, a light box with an image of the drain holes of the Pantheon in Rome, also alters the usual way of seeing things by reversing the Pantheon’s structure famous for how light enters the building.

As part of an ongoing series by the artist, crates of bottled water filled by a tap from Nuur’s studio form a wall in the gallery. Inside the back of each bottle reads “LET US MEET INSIDE YOU”, legible only through the water. A new video work, created by editing TED conferences from around the world, extracts clips of people using the phrase “THIS IS WHAT I CALL.” The never-ending succession of completely different contexts question both communication and theorisation issues, whilst revealing the humour and playful nature of Nuur’s work.

Navid Nuur was born in Teheran, Iran (1976) and currently lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands. Nuur studied at the Hogeschool vor de Kunsten (HKU), Utrecht (1999 – 2001), Pietzwart Institute, Rotterdam (2002 – 2003) and Plymouth University (2002 – 2004). Selected solo exhibitions include THE MAIN REMAIN, Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris; RENDERENDER, DCA Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee; COLOR ME CLOSELY, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest (all 2014); TREASURED TENSIONS, Club Electroputere - Centre for Contemporary Culture, Bucharest; LUBE LOVE, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; PHANTOM FUEL, Parasol Unit, London and TRACK&TRACE, Watersnoodmuseum, Ouwerkerk (all 2013); BERGAMO, Heden, The Hague and HOCUS FOCUS, Matadero, Madrid (2012); and POST PARALLELISM, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen (2011). Nuur's work forms part of renowned collections, such as the Centre Pompidou – Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; the S.M.A.K., Ghent; Koç, Istanbul and De Hallen Museum, Haarlem.

Nuur has also been recently commissioned to create a new sculpture to be placed in front of the International Criminal Court’s new building in The Hague. The stainless steel sculpture will echo the ICC structure, reflecting weather conditions as well as offering different sights depending on the angle from which it is viewed. The shape of the sculpture is directly inspired by the microscopic modelling of a human tear mixed with water from a local spring. ICC‘s new premises will be situated in the former site of the Alexander Military Barracks on the border of The Hague and the Meijendel dune landscape. Nuur was also the recipient of the Discovery Prize at Art Basel Hong Kong with Adrian Ghenie in 2013.

Also on view at Galeria Plan B, Potsdamer Strasse 77–87, 10785 Berlin.

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IDA EKBLAD: RELOAD
Berlin: Bleibtreustrasse 45
1–30 May 2015

Preview 1 May, 6–9pm

Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin is pleased to present the exhibition RELOAD with new paintings by Ida Ekblad, opening during the Gallery Weekend Berlin at Bleibtreustrasse 45. This is the artist's first solo exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler.

The bold use of colour and form, the dynamics of composition and the attentive dealing with different materials give Ida Ekblad's works a distinct vibrancy and spontaneity. Expressive, impulsive gestures dominate her canvases. Bringing ideas ofrhythms and rhymes to mind, these twisted and winding lines indicate the artist’s strong interest in music and poetry. Theconstant shift between abstract forms and figurative elements – faces, human-like figures as well as letters – creates a momentum of visual impressions that is hardly tangible at first sight.

In her works, Ekblad includes a wide variety of art historical and pop cultural references. The practice of artist groups like CoBrA and the Situationists as well as modernist movements like Abstract Expressionism clearly influence her artistic work – an impact that Ekblad affirms and undermines at the same time. Mixed with references to graffiti aesthetics, cartoon characters and inspired by digital or virtual imagery, she produces a body of work that evades every definite classification.

The exhibition presents a series of new paintings mostly from 2015. Partly applying spray paint onto the canvas, Ekblad creates a diffuse and blurry surface in clashing colour combinations and overlapping structures. Some are framed by unicoloured bars and interrupted by signs, words andfigures that seem to bring a second layer to the canvases. The imageryof alien figures, seemingly alphabetic characters and tag-like writings are recurring elements in her oeuvre.

Ekblad is deeply fascinated by different kinds of materials and techniques as well as their distinct nature. The multi-media and genre-crossing approach of her practice that incorporates performance, filmmaking and poetry, besides painting and sculpture, transmits restless, impatient notions but is rather an expression of the artist’s urge to discover and experiment with the properties of artistic means.

Ida Ekblad was born 1980 in Oslo where she currently lives and works. She studied at Central St. Martins College of Art in London as well as the National Academy of Art in Oslo. Ekblad’s work was presented in several solo and group exhibitions, for example at Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2015 and 2012); National Museum of Norway – Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne; Palais de Tokyo, Paris (all 2013); Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2011); Bergen Kunsthall; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (both 2010) and New Museum, New York (2009).

She took part in the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011.


GALLERY WEEKEND BERLIN
Friday, 1 May 2015, 6–9pm
Saturday and Sunday,
2 and 3 May 2015, 11am–7pm