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Darren Almond

  • About
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
    • Group Exhibition
    • How Art Museum
  • Artworks
    • Installation
  • Articles
  • Darren Almond
  • Birthdate: 1971
    Birthplace: United Kingdom | England
    Gender: Male
    Lives and Works in: United Kingdom | England
    About:
    Darren Almond, born in 1971 in Wigan, UK. He lives and works in London.
    Darren Almond's diverse work, incorporating film, installation, sculpture and photography, deals with evocative meditations on time and duration as well as the themes of personal and historical memory.
    Almond is interested in the notions of geographical limits and the means of getting there – in particular, culturally specific points of arrival and departure. Many of Almond's works are filmed in wide ranging – and often inaccessible - geographical locations such as the Arctic Circle, Siberia, the holy mountains in China or the source of the Nile.
    Solo exhibitions include Jesus College, Cambridge (2019); Villa Pignatelli-Casa della Fotografia, Naples, Italy (2018); Mudam, Luxembourg (2017); Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homberg, Germany (2016); Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo (2016); New Art Centre, Salisbury, UK (2016); Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria (2015); Dirimart, Istanbul (2015); Bloomberg Space, London (2014). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Parasol Unit, Venice (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); Getty Center, Los Angeles (2021); Fondation Van Gogh, Arles, France (2020); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2018); Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2017); Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (2016); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015); Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2015); Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland (2011).
    Education:
    1993    BAFA Winchester School of Art,UK
  • Biography
  • Solo exhibitions

    2022 Distant Silence, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2021 Full Circle, White Cube Online
    Dark Light, Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

    2019 In Temple Grounds, Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Italy In Light of Time, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK

    2018 The Swerve/The Light of Time, Xippas, Geneva
    The Light Between Us, Villa Pignatelli – Casa della Fotografia, Naples, Italy The Light of Time, Crown Point Press, San Francisco
    PKM Gallery, Seoul
    Light of Time, Institute of Sociology for the Arts, Tokyo
    Time Will Tell, White Cube, London

    2017 Timescape, MUDAM, Luxembourg

    2016 New work, New Art Centre, Salisbury, UK Time and Being, White Cube, Hong Kong

    Within the Shadow on the Sun, Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo
    Schatten und Licht, Altana Kulturstiftung, Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homberg, Germany
    ...beyond reach but within reason, Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

    2015 Amalfi Sketchbook, Neue Galerie, Graz, Austria Dirimart, Istanbul

    Fullmoons, Galeri K, Oslo
    Spazio 22, Milan, Italy
    Works on Paper, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Darren Almond / Carl Blechen, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2014 In the Shadow of Words, Bloomberg Space, London Work Work Work, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen

    Matthew Marks, Los AngelesGalleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy To Leave a Light Impression, White Cube, London

    2013 Galerie Xippas, Geneva
    Second Thoughts, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

    Atmos, Sala Alcala 31, Madrid
    Hemispheres and Continents, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

    2012 All Things Pass, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin Sometimes Still, SITE Festival, Stroud, UK

    Full Moon, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France

    2011 Landscape with Path, The High Line, New York L'Abbaye de la Chaise-Dieu, France

    Nocturne, Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
    ...between here and the surface of the moon, times 2, FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen and FRAC Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, France

    2010 As it is, Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy The Principle of Moments, White Cube, London

    Fullmoon@Eifel, Galerie Max Hetzler, Weidingen, Germany Sometimes Still, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
    PKM Trinity Gallery, Seoul

    2009 Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2008 Moons of the Iapetus Ocean, White Cube, London
    Fire Under Snow, Parasol Unit – Foundation for Contemporary Art, London Galleri K, Norway
    SCAI The Bathhouse and Eye and Gyre, Tokyo
    Nail to Nail, David Patton, Los Angeles

    2007 Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy
    Day Return, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Night and Fog, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    In the Between, Musée d'art contemporain, Montreal, Canada

    Matthew Marks Gallery, New York SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico

    2006 Day Return, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
    Take me Home, DA2 – Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain

    2005 Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy
    Only Sound Needs Echo and Dreads its Lack, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris

    Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
    Isolation, K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

    2004 Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel
    Live Sentence, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria

    If I Had You, Galerie Max Hetzler, St. Johannes Evangelist Church, Berlin Geisterbahn (1999), Passage du Désir BETC, Festival d'Automne, Paris

    2003 If I Had You, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Palazzo della Ragione, Milan Galleri K, Oslo

    11 Miles...from Safety, White Cube, London Nightvision, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel
    A, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2002 A, Commissioned by Public Art Development Trust, National Theatre, Fourth Wall, South Bank, London

    At Speed, Darren Almond and Sarah Morris, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2001 Night as Day, Tate Britain, London
    Coming Up For Air, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

    Kunsthalle Zurich
    De Appel Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Galerie Max Hetzler, E-Werk, Abspannwerk Buchhändlerhof, Berlin

    2000 Transport Medium, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York Geisterbahn, The Approach, London

    Traction, Chisenhale Gallery, London

    1999 Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago

    1997 Darren Almond, Commissioned by Toshiba Art & Innovation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

    White Cube, London

    1995 KN120, Great Western Studios, London 1991 Crawford Art College, Cork, Ireland

    Selected group exhibitions

    2023 Let me tell you a story..., Akara Art, Mumbai, India
    The Inner Island, Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France

    Darren Almond, Isamu Noguchi and Virginia Overton, White Cube, West Palm Beach, Florida
    Monomaterial, Kunstaele, Berlin

    2022 Uncombed, Unforeseen, Unconstrained, Parasol unit in Venice, Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, Italy

    A Century of The Artist's Studio 1920-2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London

    2021 Focus China. Works from Collection, Wemhöner, Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar, Germany

    Bienalsur 2021: Echoes A World between the Analogue and the Virtual, JAX District, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
    The Expanded Landscape, Getty Center, Los Angeles
    Geneva Decade: 10th Anniversary Group Show, Xippas Gallery, Geneva

    2020 My Cartography: The Erling Kagge Collection, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, France

    2019

    Time in Space: The Life Style, PKM Gallery, Seoul
    Slow Painting, The Edge and University Gallery, Bath, UK SCAI 30th Anniversary Exhibition, SCAI Park, Tokyo

    ,
    Slow Painting, Leeds Art Gallery, UK; Levinsky Gallery, Plymouth, UK

    The Gifts of Tony Podesta, American University Museum, Washington D.C.
    Fly Me to the Moon. The Lunar Landing, 50 Years Later, Kunsthaus Zurich Dojima River Biennale, Osaka, Japan
    Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

    State of the Arts, Selfridges, London

    Now | Katie Paterson, Darren Almond, Shona Macnaughton and Lucy Raven,

     

    Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)

    2018 Art Capital: Art for the Elizabeth Line, Whitechapel Gallery, London
    In My Shoes: Art and the Self since the 1900s, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK; Aberystwyth Arts Centre, UK, (2019)
    Oceans: A Worldview at the Rhythm of the Waves, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France Painting the Night, Centre Pompidou Metz, France

    Wilderness, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
    The MOON From Inner Worlds to Outer Space, Louisiana Museum of Modern

    Edinburgh

    Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
    Møenlight Sonata – A homage to the starry sky of Møn, Kunsthal 44 Moen, Mon, Denmark

    2016 Visions of Nature, Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna
    The End of the World, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy Dall'oggi al domani, 24 ore nell'Arte Contemporaneo, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma
    Monet's Garden: Contemporary Photography, Schloss Eutin, Germany
    Fire under Snow, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark Sublime, Centre Pompidou Metz, France

    2015 White, Royal Academy of Arts, London Telling Time, MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Art and Technology, a Share Sphere, MUDAM, Luxembourg
    Harmony and Transition. Reflecting Chinese Landscapes, Marta Herford Museum for Art, Architecture, Design, Germany
    Momentum, CerModern, Ankara, Turkey
    Foolmoons, Galeri K, Oslo
    Spazio 22, Milan, Italy
    Dirimart, Istanbul
    Present Form, Christie's Mayfair, London
    No Man's Nature, Palazzo Da Mosto, Reggio Emilia, Italy
    Element Terre, FRAC Auvergne, Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille, France Photographing Monet's Gardens, Musée des Impressionismes, Giverny, France Boolean Expressions, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
    Landscape in Motion, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

    2014 Halftone: Through the Grid, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Branched. Trees in Contemporary Art, Altana Kulturstiftung, Bad Homburg, Germany
    A Drawing Show, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
    Busan Biennale, South Korea
    Cool Place. Sammlung Scharpff, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
    Halftone: Through the Grid, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin; Paris
    Man in the Mirror, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels
    Playtime, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
    Vertigo, SIM Galeria, Curitiba, Brazil
    1 + 1 = 1: When Collections Collide, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada

    2013 The Time is Now, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
    ARCTIC, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark Tipping Point, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK
    Incorruptible Views: Images in Present Continuous, MUNTREF, Centre of

    Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires
    On Nature, Sean Kelly, New York
    DIAcussion, envoy enterprises., New York
    Artist File 2013: The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo
    Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London

    2012 The Future's Not What it Used to be, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff

    2011 Government Art Collection: Selected by Cornelia Parker: Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain, Whitechapel Gallery, London

    The Limits of Control, Hangar à Bananes, Nantes, France
    L'Etoffe du Temps, l'Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux, France
    Sugar Water, Centre Culturel Valery-Larbaud, Vichy, France
    Mysticism, Helmhaus, Zurich
    6th Biennale da Curitiba, Brazil
    Snap, Aldeburgh Festival, Suffolk, UK
    The Wilderness, Miami Art Museum
    81⁄2: Thirteen Artists Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Trussardi, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Florence, Italy

    2010 Nature, Galerie Gerhardsen Gemer, Berlin Let's Dance, MAC/VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

    Kupferstichkabinett; Between Thought & Action, White Cube, London Climax Redux, BAC, Geneva

    2009 No Visible Means of Escape, Norwich Castle Museum, UK
    The Aesthetic of The Poles; A Testament of Ice, 49 Nord 6 Est, FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France
    Just With Your Eyes I Will See, Fonds d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, France Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, London
    Edition Copenhagen – Retrospective 1959-2009, Den frie udstilling, Copenhagen
    Los tiempos de un, Centro de Arte y Naturaleza – Fundación Beulas, Huesca, Spain

    2008 Infinite Ice: Traversing the Arctic and the Alps from 1860 to the Present, Albertina, Vienna

    Summer in the City 2008, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
    Ego Documents. The Autobiographical in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bern
    WAR & ART – Terror and Simulacrum of Beauty II, Galerie Aube, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Japan
    Night: A Time Between, Sharples, Winterstoke, Stancomb Wills, Methuen and

    Milner Galleries, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK
    Art is for the Spirit: Works from the UBS Art Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Climax, LOOP '08, International Festival and Fair for Video Art, Barcelona
    The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
    God & Goods: Spirituality and Mass Confusion, Villa Manin, Codroipo, Italy Collection as Aleph, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
    Implant, The Horticultural Society of New York Exhibition for UBS Art Gallery, New York
    You Prison: Reflections on the Limitation of Freedom and Space, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
    Unspeakable: The Artist as Witness to the Holocaust, Imperial War Museum, London
    a.b.c. (Art Berlin Contemporary), Postbahnhof am Gleisdreieck, Berlin
    Moving Horizon: The UBS Art Collection 1960s to the Present Day, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
    Du Jardin au Cosmos, Espace de l'art concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France

    2007 Summer Show, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco Her(his)tory, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

    Numerica, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy L'oeil écran ou la nouvelle image, Casino, Luxembourg
    Light, Winchester Cathedral, UK
    Going Staying: Movement, Body, Place in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany

    2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Former Lenin Museum
    Closed Circuit: Video and New Media, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
    Acceleration, CAN/Karting, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    2006 Time 2 Kill, Darren Almond and Albert Oehlen, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin Work, Rest and Play, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, UK

    Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Rove Kenny Schachter, London
    Full House – Geschichte einer Sammlung (Faces of a Collection), Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany
    Darren Almond and Janice Kerbel: The Impossible Landscape, Horticultural Society of New York
    Carbonic Anhydride, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Geisterbahn (1999), Kino Arsenal, Berlin
    Shoot the Family, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
    Caspar David Friedrich, Museum Folkwang, Essen; Hamburger Kunsthalle,

    Germany
    The Black Show, David Patton, Los Angeles 37th Art Basel: Unlimited, Switzerland

    2005 Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London En Attente, Casino, Luxembourg

    20: Twenty: A Timeline of Cornerhouse Exhibitions 1985–2005, Cornerhouse, Manchester
    World Without End, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne Land Marks, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris

    Sequences, Q Arts Gallery, Derby, UK
    Bidibidobidiboo, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Piazza del Municipio, Guarene d'Alba, Italy; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Cavallerizza Chiablese e Salone delle Guardie, Turin, Italy
    The Mind is a Horse Part II, Bloomberg Space, London
    Getting Emotional, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
    Works on Paper, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye, Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

    2004 Sequences, Peterborough Digital Art, UK
    Geisterbahn (1999), 33rd Festival d'Automne, Passage du Désir – BETC, Paris ein-leuchten, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
    Eclipse: Towards the Edge of the Visible, White Cube, London
    Witness, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
    Die Neue Kunsthalle III: Materiell – Immateriell, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany Biennial of Pontevedra, Pazo da Cultura, Facultade de Bellas Artes / Escola de Restauración, Instituto Valie-Incián, Spain
    After Images: Kunst als Soziales Gedächnis, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
    Busan Biennale 2004, South Korea
    Open Secrets: Something Old, Something New, Redefining the Boundaries of the Art Collection, Imperial War Museum, London
    Other Times: British Contemporary Art, City Art Gallery, Prague

    2003 Heißkalt: Aktuelle Malerei aus der Sammlung Scharpff, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart; Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany

    Video Time, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
    The Spirit of White, Fondation Beyeler, Basel
    Imagination: Perception in Art, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
    Outlook: International Art Exhibition Technopolis, Benaki Museum, Factory, Athens
    Game Over, Grimm / Rosenfeld, Munich
    3rd Skulptur Biennale Münsterland, Stadtmuseum, Beckum, Germany

    Hot Summer in the City, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York
    Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, 50th Venice Biennale Edén, La Colección Jumex, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City Witness, The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery, London
    Breathing the Water, Galerie Hauser & Wirth & Presenhuber, Zurich
    The Guest, Schwebebahn, Hertzliya Museum, Tel-Aviv
    Sculpture: Darren Almond, Peter Fischli, David Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Ugo Rondinone, Tony Smith, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
    In Light: Video Projections by Eight Contemporary Artists, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
    Interludes, 50th Venice Biennale
    At Speed, Darren Almond and Sarah Morris, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

    2002 Video Acts – Single Channel Video Works from the Collections of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and the New Art Trust, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
    Melodrama, Artim, Centre Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria- Gasteiz; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vigo; Centro José Guerrero / Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, Granada, Spain

    Happy Outsiders from London and Scotland, Pro Arte Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia; Katowice City Gallery, Poland; Zacheta Gallery, Warsaw
    Video Zone – The First International Video-Art Biennial in Israel, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

    The Hate u Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam
    Contextualize, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany
    The Rowan Collection: Contemporary British & Irish Art, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

    In the Freud Museum, Freud Museum, London
    Presentness is Grace – Experiencing the Suspended Moment, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK

    2001 Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, 100 Drawings and Photographs, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

    Open Plan P3 – The Marathon, Alphadelta Gallery, Artio Gallery, Athens Presentness is Grace – Experiencing the Suspended Moment, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK
    Casino 2001, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst and Bijlokenmuseum, Ghent, Belgium
    Nature in Photography, Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
    2nd Berlin Biennale
    Tracking, Kent and Vicki Logan Gallery, California Collage of Arts and Crafts, Oakland

    Unreal Time Video, Fine Art Center, Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Seoul Deliberate Living, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York

    2000 British Short Film Festival, UCI Cinema, Leicester Square, London Geographies (Darren Almond, Graham Gussin, Anri Sala), Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
    Apocalypse: Beauty and Horror in Contemporary Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London

    Darren Almond, Mark Hosking, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna
    Inverse Perspectives, Edsvik, Sollentuna, Sweden
    Out There, White Cube, London
    Making Time: Considering Time as a Material in Contemporary Video and Film, Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Florida

    Diary, Cornerhouse, Manchester

    1999 Sleeping Waters, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
    Chronos and Kairos, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany Seeing Time, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
    So Far Away, So Close, Encore...Bruxelles, Espace Méridien, Brussels Concrete Ashtray, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York
    Common People, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaundengo, Turin, Italy

    1998 UK Maximum Diversity, Galerie Krinzinger, Benger Fabrik Bregenz, Austria View Four, Mary Boone Gallery, New York

    Hidden Desires and Images, Art Dynamics, Tayayo Lida, Tokyo Art Crash, Århus Kunstmuseum, Denmark
    Ray Rapp, Tz'Art & Co., New York

    1997 A Print Portfolio from London, (Ridinghouse/Booth Clibborn Editions), Atle Gerhardsen, Oslo

    Delta, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
    Hospital, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
    Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin

    1996 Art & Innovation Prize, (winner), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London Something Else, Exmouth Market, London

    A Small Shifting Sphere of Serious Culture, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

    1993 Winchester Gallery, UK 1992 Southampton Quays, UK

    Other projects
    2022 Commission for Bond Street Station, Elizabeth Line, London
    2005 Set design for Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Barbican Theatre, London

    Public Collections

    Altana Kulturstiftung, Bad Homburg, Germany Art Institute of Chicago
    Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris
    DZ BANK Kunstsammlung, Frankfurt

    Elgiz Museum, Istanbul
    Frac Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
    Frac Haute-Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France Government Art Collection, London
    Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC How Art Museum, Shanghai
    Imperial War Museum, London
    Israel Museum, Jerusalem
    J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
    Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul
    Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan
    Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
    Museo Jumex, Mexico City
    Museum of Modern Art, New York
    National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
    National Media Museum, Bradford, UK
    Nomas Foundation, Rome
    Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
    Queensland Art Collection, Brisbane, Australia
    The Rubell Family Collection, Miami
    Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
    Tate, London
    Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
    The UBS Art Collection, Miami
    Zabludowicz Collection, London


  • Exhibitions
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      Feb 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
      Curator: Xu Tianyi
      Artists: Markus Lüpertz, aaajiao, LLND, Oreet Ashery, Darren Almond, Hu Yun, Carsten Nicolai, Li Binyuan, Lee Yongbaek, Lin Ke, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Lu Lei, Tong Wenmin, Tobias Rehberger, Yang Jiecang, Ye Linghan, Yu Ji, Zhang Peili, Zhou Xiaohu, Li Liao, Lee Bul
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
  • Artworks
  • Articles
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze

      My age, my beast, who will ever

      Look into your eyes.

      And with his own blood glue together

      The backbones of two centuries?

      Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

      The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

      It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

      You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

      However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    [Synopsis] You as Me, Hold the Gaze

    By Xu Tianyi 2023-06-13

    My age, my beast, who will ever

    Look into your eyes.

    And with his own blood glue together

    The backbones of two centuries?

    Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

    The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

    It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

    You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

    However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    Related Artists aaajiao , LLND , Oreet Ashery , Darren Almond , Hu Yun , Lee Bul , Li Liao , Carsten Nicolai , Lee Yongbaek , Li Binyuan , Lin Ke , Lin Tianmiao , Liu Wei , Shi Yong , Markus Lüpertz , Lu Lei , Tong Wenmin , Tobias Rehberger , Yang Jiecang , Zhang Peili , Yu Ji , Ye Linghan , Zhou Wendou , Zhou Xiaohu ,









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