Silent Warriors is organised around two of Abdessemed's major works: Habibi, 2003, a 17-metre human skeleton made of fibreglass and a new installation entitled Silent Warrior, which includes numerous colourful masks. Exposure 10 includes the winners of Exposure award: Kate Liston, Lea Provenzano, and Leah Capaldi. The works of this year's award winners reflect the breadth of collaboration amongst the Royal College of Art's various departments.
EXPOSURE 10: Winners Announced
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is delighted to announce the winners of
EXPOSURE 10, the second year of its annual EXPOSURE award, which coincides each
year with the Frieze Art Fair. This award aims to provide an opportunity for graduates
from a UK art school to exhibit works at Parasol unit in a professional context. Their
work is shown alongside the major exhibition at the foundation and at a time when they
can benefit from exposure to a wider and international audience. In 2010 Parasol unit
has collaborated with the Royal College of Art on this project.
The winners of EXPOSURE 10 are: Kate Liston, Lea Provenzano, and Leah Capaldi. The
works of this year’s award winners reflect the breadth of collaboration amongst the
Royal College of Art’s various departments. The three artists will be given the
opportunity to showcase their work from the 22 September until 17 October at Parasol
unit foundation for contemporary art and the preview will be held on 21 September
from 6.30 to 9 pm; coinciding with this year’s main exhibition, Silent Warriors by Adel
Abdessemed. The work of Lea Provenzano will be shown in the Project Room on the
first floor, whilst Leah Capaldi’s video installation within a cargo container, Sculpture,
will be displayed outdoors and Kate Liston will create an intervention within the
building.
The judging panel for this year’s award comprised of Amikam Toren, (Israeli/British
artist and founding co-editor of Wallpaper magazine), Elizabeth Price (video artist and RCA alumni), JJ Charlesworth, (associate editor of ArtReview and tutor in Painting,
RCA), and Ziba Ardalan de Weck, (Director/Curator of Parasol unit).
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Adel Abdessemed
Silent Warriors
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is delighted to present the first solo exhibition
dedicated to the work of Adel Abdessemed in London. Working across a wide range of different
media, including sculpture, installation, video, photography and drawings, Abdessemed
passionately tackles difficult subject matter and taboos within society and presents them as
naked truth. Yet beyond their often challenging and provocative appearance, his works embody
the fragility of life and are deeply imbued with beauty and poetry. Abdessemed’s exhibition at
Parasol unit highlights precisely the vulnerability and aesthetic sensitivity in the work of this
important twenty-first century artist.
Silent Warriors is organised around two of Abdessemed’s major works. In the ground floor
gallery, Habibi, 2003, a 17-metre human skeleton made of fibreglass hangs horizontally from its
spine together with an aeroplane propeller. Occupying the first floor is a new installation entitled
silent warrior, which comprises over 800 colourful masks made from found and discarded empty
tin cans, once used in Africa to contain food provisions or industrial and poisonous materials.
According to the artist, Habibi, which is the Arabic word for the masculine form of address for
my beloved, is a self portrait. As he notes: I have often said that Habibi was a self portrait
because I like to think when I am lying on the floor, unlike Giacometti’s Man Walking or Rodin’s
Thinker or a Buddha. I do my thinking laid flat out on my stomach in a position that resembles
taking off or hovering.1 A metaphor for passage, the propeller offers a threshold between life and
death and provides the vital propulsion for the piece.
Silent Warriors also includes other works, such as ALSO SPRACH ALLAH, 2008; Enter the circle,
2009; the sculptural piece Music box, 2009, which plays a brief excerpt from Wagner’s opera Die
Walküre (The Valkyrie); and Moscow (five sisters), 2010, another new installation. Moscow (five
sisters) is made of clear hand-blown glass and consists of five pairs of skates modelled on ice
skates used by Russian figure skaters. All these works reflect Abdessemed’s ongoing exploration
of ideas surrounding violence, truth and beauty.
An exhibition catalogue with insightful essays by Ziba Ardalan, Gilane Tawadros and Guy Tortosa
will be published and distributed worldwide.
Adel Abdessemed was born in Algeria in 1971. He moved to Lyon, France in 1994 and to Paris in
1999. In 2000–2001 he took part in the International Studio Program at P.S.1 Contemporary Art
Center, New York, which was followed by a stay in Berlin. Since 2004, Abdessemed has lived and
worked in Paris. Abdessemed’s solo exhibitions include: Habibi, Fonds Régional d’Art
Contemporain Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France, 2004; Happiness in Mitte, Ikon Gallery,
Birmingham, England, 2005; Dead or Alive, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New
York, 2007; Situation and Practice, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 2008; RIO, David Zwirner, New York, 2009; and most recently Les
ailes de dieu, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, 2009. Abdessemed’s work has
been included in numerous important group exhibitions including: Notre Histoire at the Palais de
Tokyo, Paris, 2006; the Venice Biennial, 2007; Istanbul Biennial, 2007; and the São Paulo Biennial,
2006. He has works in the collections of: Mamco, Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne et
Contemporain de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland; Fondation François Pinault, Venice, Italy; The Israel
Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.
Image: Image: Habibi, 2003, Collection Mamco, acquired thanks to BFAS, Blondeau Fine Art Service, © Mamco, Genève. Photo: I. Kalkkinen, Genève
Private view: 21 September 6.30–9 pm
Parasol unit
foundation for contemporary art
14 Wharf Road London N1 7RW
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday, 12 – 5 p.m.
Closed: Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Admission Free