05/07/2024
Kader Attia
Descent into Paradise, MO.CO, Montpellier
On view until 22 September, 2024.
In conjunction with the exhibition Being Mediterranean, an exploration of contemporary art from around the Mediterranean to be held at MO.CO. Panacée, the MO.CO. is devoting a monographic exhibition to Kader Attia, one of the most prominent French artists on the international scene.
For his exhibition Descent into Paradise, Kader Attia drew inspiration from the very geography of the MO.CO., its journey from top to bottom, from the sky to the earth and its depths, offering a reflection on reparation and transcendence that questions the notion of verticality as a vital and spiritual movement. Just as the wounds of the past irrigate the fractures of the present and juxtapose eras in a back-and-forth movement, spirituality enables us to escape the grip of History. Like the rain that ravages and transforms, is there not an ascension at play in a downward flow ? While Kader Attia’s works have strong philosophical and political implications, Descent into Paradise will also bear witness to the poetic and aesthetic concerns of an artist whose research and thinking are rooted in a practice where form and content merge into a language of their own.
Alongside some of the artist’s major works, the exhibition will feature a number of new artworks, including a brand-new immersive installation consisting of a film shot in northern Thailand and a rainstick installation created for MO.CO.
Curator : Numa Hambursin
- excerpt from the exhibition text
Images 1-7: © Kader Attia. Adagp, Paris, 2024. Courtesy of the artist. Photo : Laurent Lecat
1: Kader Attia, Sans titre, 2023
2: Kader Attia, Rochers Carrés, 2008
3: Kader Attia, Halam Tawaaf, 2008
4:Exhibition view, “Descent into Paradise”.MO.CO., Montpellier, 2024.
5: Kader Attia, La Mer Morte, 2015
6: Kader Attia, Mirrors and Masks, 2024
7: Kader Attia, Oil and Sugar #2, 2007
Image 8-10: Galerie Nagel Draxler
8: Kader Attia, On Silence, 2021
9:Kader Attia, Culture, Another Nature Repaired, 2024
10: Intifada: The Endless Rhizomes of Revolution, 2016