SELECTED WORKS NADIA GUERROUI

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1 SELECTED WORKS NADIA GUERROUI

2 IMPOSTOR SYNDROM

3 This project was curated by Paul Raguenes at SNAP Project Gallery Lyon, France, in September Paul Raguenes (b. 1964) is an artist and independant curator. In 2013, he founded SNAP Project Gallery in Lyon, France.

4 Something Will Happen Next, 2016

5 8 9

6 Dear Charif, I remember you many years ago, drawing and drawing on your desk at home until, after months, the wooden surface was almost completely covered. I was too shy to look at it, I saw it as a piece of you, something really private. I also remember your amazing pencil drawings portraits and how you used to say : «Easy, you just need to really look». I admired your spontaneity back then and I still do. What I like the most about the new «medium» you use to express yourself is the heart and the energy you put into it. Funny, how you can never be satisfied and this is maybe why you ll probably understand any person who chose to be an artist as a career... because each time I tasted something you cooked I was amazed whilst everytime you began describing how better it should have been. Among all the people I know, you have the most unique insights and ideas of what the purpose or meaning of being an artist is about. It s probably because it s not your sphere, mostly because you have this beautifull way to stand in front of the world and base your vision on strong values. I won t bring up one of our endless debates in this letter. I ll just say that in life we are all several personas at any given moment, depending on with whom we are talking. The version of me I prefer, the one that feels the closest to the person I want to be, is my artist-self. You know better than anyone that I love daydreaming, since we were kids. Art provided me with a space for contemplation and fragility, and it s the only context I have found so far where this is a strenght instead of a weakness I have great memories of our late night encounters in the kitchen, when we improvised with what was left in the fridge. The emptier the fridge, the more challenging it was. You seemed to know exactly what you were doing and not at all at the same time. It s something I still think about when I work, that perfect balance of control and fluidity. If you would have chosen, you would have probably been a great artist. I hope this show would also be the chance you see my work for the first time. I am looking forward seeing you soon, Best, Your little sister

7 Mind Game and Translation, 2016

8 14 15

9 16 17

10 Vent du Sud, 2016

11 20 21

12 22 23

13 24 25

14 Intranscriptible, 2016

15 28 29

16 Untitled, 2016

17 Color Drunkness, 2016

18 34 35

19 1. Something Will Happen Next, Intranscriptible, 2016 Painting - Iridescent Paint, 2 Found Tiles 10 x 10 x 1 cm Painting - Iridescent Paint, Polyester 110 x 140 cm. (each), Ambient White Light. A very transparent textile is suspended onto a white wall, These tiles were removed from the wall of a house before which creates a sensation of solidity, while the painted renovation. They wear over time and their cracks are hands melt with the background and their shadow. similar to hand lines. One remains untouched, the second is fully covered with paint which appears invisible from some points of views. 5. Untitled, 2016 Installation - Construction Paper 210 x 225cm, Iridescent Paint, Ambient Light. 2. Mind Game and Translation, 2016 A support of protection and errors becomes a support of 1. Something Will Happen Next, 2016 Installation - Glass 2 formats 120 x 120 cm, Iridescent Paint, Ambient White Light, Found Perfumes Bottles Polished. painting. The gesture appears visible only from some point of view, the painted shape is ghostly. 2. Mind Game and Translation, 2016 A chest grid is painted on glass, the colors change according to the distance and point of view. At times the squares 6. Color Drunkness, Vent du Sud, 2016 might appear polished and the light-grey green grid melts Video Installation - Video : 3min 06sec, Loop, Beamer, Silver 36 with its shadow, while the traces of the paintbrush are Transfering Paper Intranscriptible, 2016 revealed from other points of views. From far, the vivid pink allows the grid to appear detached from the wall. A fast car ride flirts with abstraction. The camera absorbs the colors of the blurry city late at night. 5. Untitled, Color Drunkness, Vent du Sud, 2016 Painting - Iridescent Paint, Polyester 2 layers 135 x 350 cm, Ambient White Light. A very transparent textile suspended, takes its autonomy by distancing itself from any wall, it is revealed by a «Moiré effect», an undulating drawing created with the superposition of 2 textiles trams. The movements, sometimes caused by air stream or the displacements of bodies, shake this vibration. Only the outline of the painted heavenly body appears steady, as a moon of the day, sometimes white, sometimes light-yellow, as a moon of the night, sometimes electric blue, sometimes dark and grey.

20 BLINK

21 This project was curated by Tilman Hoepfl at D.A.C., Dolceaqua, Italy, in May Tilman Hoepfl (b. 1958) is an artist and independant curator. In 2015, he founded D.A.C., Dolceaqua, Italy. He was previously the Artistic Director of CCNOA, Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art, Brussels, Belgium.

22 42 43 Paris, December 23rd, 2016

23 There is an end. Or at least it is a story that left traces in many civilizations. The end of everything. We built bunkers in the hope of survival. Bunker as a shelter for the most frightening and imaginable event. What if there is nothing left? A place where we will go if there is nothing left after us. What if there is a rare bird? We wouldn t be sure he exists. We would look for it, trying to grasp proofs of its existence. This bird as this feeling of freedom and consciousness that would inhabit us if the instants left were rare and precious. We would be touched by every sunbeam as if it could be the last of that kind. The last highlighting a situation and a scenery this exact same and particular way. Everything the light touches is yours

24 Zeus Hand - Cast number 1, 2017

25 The Blurry Border between The Land and The Sea (1), 2017

26 The Blurry Border between The Land and The Sea (2), 2017

27 52 53

28 Until There Is Nothing Left 1, 2017

29 56 57

30 My Wall, 2017

35 Daylight The Shadow of The Sun, 2017

36 Daylight 70 71

37 Artificial Light 72 73

38 Artificial Light 74 75

39 1. Zeus Hand - Cast Number 1, My Wall, 2017 Sculpture - Plaster and Needles 20 x 30 x 5 cm (approx). Video - 23min 29sec, Loop. This work is made for a statue in Paris : Zeus holds his The course of light and last beam of sun of the day on the arm but his hand is missing. The quest for the perfect studio wall, in Brussels. hand, the hand of the god of gods will reach to an end with a very big and elegant man s hand. This final cast will remplace the missing hand of Zeus on the statue, 5. The Shadow of The Sun, 2017 achieving a gesture between restauration and profanation. Installation - Polyester (3 x 4m), Varnish, Daylight Lamp, Variables Dimensions. A very transparent fabric is suspended slightly detatched 2. The Blurry Border between The Land and The Sea, 2017 from the wall. A circle painted with transparent varnish, 1. Zeus Hand - Cast number 1, 2017 Installation - Watercolor Paper, Sea Water, Pigment and Wood. its shadow is more visible than the drawing itself. This installation is suject to change, shapped by the surrounding 2. The Blurry Border between The Land and The Sea, 2017 Keys slightly modifided are spread in chosen locations around the exhibition space, on both sides of the 117 years light and wind. old french-italian border. A map where the keys will be Until There Is Nothing Left 1, 2017 located represents only the borber between the land and the sea A Moovie on My Wall, The Shadow of The Sun, Until There Is Nothing Left 1, 2017 Painting - Iridescent Paint, Construction Paper Glued on Linen, 210 x 115 cm. A very simple gesture of fulfillment to contemplate the changes of color according to the surrounding light and the position of the body in space.

40 A WORLD OUT THERE

41 This ongoing project is curated by Chalotte Crevits at Hopstreet Gallery Window, in September Charlotte Crevits (b. 1990) has been the curator of the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle since She also writes for De Witte Raaf. In the past she has worked as a freelance curator for diverse projects. After her studies in Art Sciences (Ugent), she obtained a postgraduate degree in Contemporary Art at Sotheby s Institute of Art in London.

42 82 83 Photo Hugard & Vanoverschelde

43 84 85 Photo Hugard & Vanoverschelde

44 Nadia Guerroui creates poetic-abstract works in which she explores everyday phenomena and concepts from our complex, contemporary world. An intense reflection process and experiments with unconventional materials are at the basis of her creation process. The dialogue that her work brings about with the observer and the space, and the well-considered choice of materials, textures and shapes link Guerroui s work to minimalism. Her works are able to transcend the personal, the anecdotal and as a result layers of meaning and imagination are given free play For the Window Project, entitled A World out There, Guerroui explores the frontiers of the window. The work, which is made up of different multiples, isn t only located behind the display window. It s also spread out in the public space where it carries on an intimate dialogue with the (possibly accidental) observer. The work not only transcends the spatial barriers, but as a navigating, nomadic work of art it also breaks through the conventional length of time and rigidity of an exhibition. «When I was a kid, I loved the sun : I was closing my eyes, seeing it through my eyeslids, it was red. The sun was terrible, It reminded of an explosion : Was there something more solar than the red blood running on the pavement, as if the light was bursting and killing? In this opaque night, I made myself drunk from light.» Le Bleu du Ciel, George Bataille A small, ambiguous object is the basis of the project and her research into metonymy or a shifting of the meaning of everyday objects. Due to its small dimensions and illusory quality, the object evokes associations with a playing card, a bookmark or a talisman. The work undermines meanings; it is an ode to the banal, precarious, unpredictable and the contingent at a moment when such notions seem to be losing importance. Or, as Guerroui insinuates, at a moment when people get lost without applications like Google Maps, previously Google Local, search engines and online dictionaries. «There is a scenography of pending : I organise, I manupilate it, I cut time into a fragment of time where I will mimic the loss of the beloved object and provoke all the effects of a litlle mourning. So it is like a little theatre play.» Fragments du discours amoureux (L attente), Roland Barthes. The multiples will be placed in the urban fabric by the artist during and after the exhibition in one of the three forms. Either as a bookmark in a book in a public library, as a talisman in the wallet of a visitor, coincidental passers-by or friend of the artist, or as a playing card scattered on the streets of metropolises all over the world. The Nachleben or survival of images and motives throughout art history, which the German art historian Aby Warburg once defined as the central concept within art, is given an original and almost literal interpretation. Charlotte Crevits

45 Nadia Guerroui (b in France, lives and works in Nadia Guerroui 88 Brussels) obtained a Master in Textile Design from La Cambre, Brussels. In 2014 she was selected for Coming People, S.M.A.K. Ghent and her work was exhibited in CAB Art Center, Brussels. Her recent solo exhibitions include Blink (DAC Dolceaqua, Dolceaqua, Italy, 2017) and Impostor Syndrom (SNAP Projects Gallery, Lyon, contact@nadiaguerroui.com 89 France, 2016)

PRESS RELEASE. BLACK CUBE CINZENTO Stan Van Steendam. Exhibition: 23 February > 17 March 2018 Opening: Thursday 22 February - 6 > 9 pm

PRESS RELEASE. BLACK CUBE CINZENTO Stan Van Steendam. Exhibition: 23 February > 17 March 2018 Opening: Thursday 22 February - 6 > 9 pm PRESS RELEASE BLACK CUBE CINZENTO Stan Van Steendam Exhibition: 23 February > 17 March 2018 Opening: Thursday 22 February - 6 > 9 pm ABOUT THE EXHBITION Cinzento, Portuguese for grey, is a new series of