04 Sep 2009

Latifa Echakhch & Flo Maak at Bielefelder Kunstverein

The Bielefelder Kunstverein is pleased to announce two solo exhibitions of Latifa Echakhch and Flo Maak, who will have their first solo project in Germany: Latifa Echakhch shows new works which deal with the development of ornament and abstraction. Flo Maak picks out as a central theme the complex relation of person and animal in his mainly photographic work.

LATIFA ECHAKHCH - »PARTITAS«
The solo exhibition entitled »Partitas« of the French-Moroccan artist Latifa Echakhch (born 1974 in El Khnansa, Morocco) at the Bielefelder Kunstverein focuses on an approach within her oeuvre, where she engages with the development of the ornament and of abstraction in different contexts. Here, the artist for the first time goes more deeply into an interest which has already been a motif in numerous of her works.

Four groups of works were created for this exhibition which concentrate on an engagement with lines and geometric forms. Her spatial installations, objects and paintings appear minimal and, making use of various media and materials, they seek to emphasise cultural common ground as well as cultural differences. In the exhibition there will be on display: spatial floor installations made of linoleum, large-size conceptual paintings, folded paper objects which are watered in black china ink and oriental carpets.

Almost concurrently with the exhibition in the Bielefelder Kunstverein, Latifa Echakhch will realise a project for the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel. Her first monograph will appear in 2010 as a cooperative project with further art institutions.

FLO MAAK - »NICHTS TUN WIE EIN BIEST«
The Bielefelder Kunstverein is presenting the first institution solo exhibition by the Frankfurt based artist, Flo Maak (born in Fulda in 1980). The exhibition is a game with a staged voyeurism, which invites the recipients to be part of the game.

The exhibition, »Nichts tun wie ein Biest« [Doing Nothing, like a Beast] refers topically to the complex relationship between humans and animals. In shaping this, the artist has quite consciously picked out individual aspects like the question about the division between humans and animals or the spectators' pleasure as staged in concrete locations. In his current images, photographic portraits of wild animals dominate and conform to the usual depictions of animals only partially. His pictorial translating of animals in zoos or wildlife parks ranges from documentary snapshots to the digitally-manipulated group of works entitled »shelter« (2009), where animal photos are combined with interior environments. Spatially, the exhibition's structure derives from three coloured objects featuring steps and stages. Visitor's use them and so become part of the staging.


Latifa Echakhch - »Partitas« / Flo Maak - »Nichts tun wie ein Biest«
September 5 - October 25, 2009

Opening:
Friday, September 4, 2009, 7 pm
Artist talk:
Saturday, September 5, 2009, 4 pm

Opening hours:
Thu, Fri, 3 pm–7 pm
Sat, Sun, 12 am–7 pm
Mon–Wed, only by appointment


The Bielefelder Kunstverein was honoured by Arts Foundation of North-Rhine-Westphalia with the award of Jump – Grants to Art Associations for its artistic programme 2009.

The exhibition by Latifa Echakhch is kindly supported by the Institut
Français and CULTURESFRANCE.