Curated by Olivia Aherne
February 13 - 21 March, 2020
Nir Altman
Ringseisstrasse 4 Rgb
80337 Munich
Photo: Dirk Tacke
All the images are Courtesy of the artist and Nir Altman, Munich
All the images are Courtesy of the artist and Nir Altman, Munich
All the images of Srijon Chowdhury are Courtesy of the artist and Antoine Levi, Paris
Barely Furtive Pleasures can be experienced as a ‘psychological theatre’, a play in which
each act shifts from submission to control, invisible to (hyper)visible and from desire to
disgust - continuously affecting: explicitly and subconsciously.
Inhabiting conflicting positions at once, each of the works toy with the implicit and the
explicit, the subject and the object. Carrying with them beauty, horror, disagreement and
dissolution, they illuminate fluid demarcations, unstable territories and the unconscious. It
is here in the spaces of repression, where power, control and agency are flipped, spun and
recast, it is here that the psyche is split open, revealed.
While the works are presented static in the space, they each provoke a specific
choreography, a gesture, a liaison - a scene possibly yet to unfold. Ambivalent in its own
chronology, the exhibition exists in a moment far gone and yet still to take place, asking
questions around the relapse of time and history, and our memory of how things came to
be. The works’ shifting positions, often covert whilst in plain sight, reveal the transitory
nature of power, control and agency: who is looking, who is in control, what is at stake?
Both unsettling and alluring, they stage a psychological and emotional break up - psychosis
as a form of catharsis.
The exhibition explores both presence and negation, with works that are suggestive of a
body but refuse its spectacle - unconsumed, ghostly and lingering. It is in this haunting
space, of push and pull, of duality and multiplicity, where the disentanglement and
dissolution of the self might begin.
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SRIJON CHOWDHURY (b. 1987, Dhaka, Bangladesh, lives and works between Los
Angeles and Portland). Chowdhury’s paintings reference diverse histories, contemporary
and ancient mythologies and mysticism. His dream-like compositions are at once
unsettling and alluring, and their ambiguous motifs act on a subconscious level between
knowledge and emotion. In 2013 Chowdhury received MFA Fine Art from Otis College of
Art and Design and in 2009 the BFA Studio Art from the University of Minnesota Twin
Cities. Recent solo exhibition include: A Divine Dance, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA (2019);
Revelation Theater, curated by Antoine Levi, Conceptual Fine Arts Live, Milano, Italy
(2019); Before Dreams, Antoine Levi, Paris, France (2018) and The Coldest Night, Upfor,
Portland, OR (2018). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Foxy Production,
New York, NY; Magasins Généraux, Pantin, France and White Columns, New York, NY
all 2019.
INGA DANYSZ (b.1990 in Warsaw, Poland, lives and works in Frankfurt/Main,
Germany). In her artistic practice, Danysz focuses on the radical changes of power
structures over time. While earlier disciplinary mechanisms aimed at the apparent
influence on the body, the post-disciplinary society is confronted with the appropriation of
the entire social space. Danysz questions the paradoxes of the control society, its denial of
repressive power structures and examines the signs of post-democratic reversal. Danysz
took part in the De Ateliers program in Amsterdam (2015 – 2017). Her work was recently
included in a group exhibition at Bielefelder Kunstverein (2019/20). Earlier in 2019 she
was included in shows at Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como and Skaftfell Center for Visual
Arts, Seydisfjoerdur, and in 2015, Museum für Moderne Kunst MMK Frankfurt/Main and
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. In 2016, she received the Columbus Award for
Contemporary Art and she recently published the catalogue Insufficient Funds, as well as
the artistic book Metamorphosis of the 21st Century Minotaur.
EVA GOLD (b. 1994 in Manchester, lives and work in London, UK). Her practice
incorporates sculpture, installation, moving image and writing; often combining these
media in a process of fragmented storytelling. Bringing together subject matter which
ranges across architecture and film, she exploits the emotional capacities of place, as
experienced through cinematic memory. In doing so Gold navigates feelings of desire and
disgust, and their often uncomfortable proximity. Gold graduated with a Postgraduate
Diploma, from the Royal Academy Schools (2016-19) and with a BA Fine Art & History of
Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2013- 16). In 2020 she will present a
new commission Perv City at Parrhesiades and CCA Goldsmiths, London. Recent
exhibitions include: Die Wohnung (The Dwelling), SET Project Space, London, Dinner
Party, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Let me look at you, Centre for Recent Drawing,
London and Room to Crawl, Becky's Unit 23 Penarth Centre, London all 2018.
MARIE MATUSZ (b. 1994 in Toulouse, France, lives and works in Basel). Her practice
questions philosophical, sociological and linguistic theories of power and justice, from the
Middle Ages through to present times, questioning their comprehensibility and
depictability. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from HEAD Geneva and a Master of Fine
Arts from Institut Kunst FHNW Basel. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Golden
Hour, Atelier-Amden, Amden (2019); The closest moment of the night is at the same time
the closest to the day, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2019); Stages of Recovery, Galerie Jan
Kaps, Cologne (2017); It will rise from the ashes, Espace Labo, Geneva (2017). Selected
group exhibitions include Retour à Rome, Swiss Institute Roma, Roma (2019); Crocodile
Tears, Salts (Fiancé), Birsfelden (2019); Dissonant Healing, Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zürich
(2019); Discoteca Analytica, Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg (2019); Hunter of Worlds, Salts,
Birsfelden (2018); Namedropping, Galerie Jan Kaps, Cologne (2017). In 2018 she was
awarded the Kiefer Hablitzel / Göhner Art Prize. In 2019 she received the KunstKredit
Basel-Stadt 2020.
MARINA SULA (b. 1991 in Lezhe, Albania, lives and works in Vienna, Austria). Her work
spans installation, photography, sculpture and digital drawing, and explores the
relationship of subject/object, power, love and desire, and the ways in which these come
into existence and overlap. Sula graduated in 2018 from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Solo exhibitions include: tba, Bazament, Tirana (2020); I’m Sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me at
Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna (2019); Warten at Viennacontemporary (2019) for which
she was granted the Bildrecht solo award for the best solo presentation. Her work has been
shown in group exhibitions at PCP Gallery, Paris (2020), Kunstforum, Vienna (2020),
Belvedere 21 - Museum for Contemporary Art, Vienna (2019), Egret Egress, Toronto
(2018); Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2018) among others.