Opening Hours Exhibition:

Weekdays: 04:00PM – 09:00PM
Weekends: 02:00PM – 09:00PM
Monday 16 March to Saturday 11 April

Performances take place during the evening programon 21 March starting at 7 PM
 

Exhibition curated by: Mai Abu Eldahab

Basel Abbas (Palestine) & Ruanne Abou Rahme (USA/Palestine)
Jochen Dehn (Germany)
Basim Magdy (Egypt/Switzerland)
Stine Motland (Norway) and C. Spencer Yeh (USA)
Benjamin Seror (France)
Bedwyr Williams (UK) 

All reality is created by language. Language is a tool that combines terms and structure to construct and organise the narratives by which we perceive and understand reality. These narratives collectively make up history, and are also the force propelling us into the future. Language is neither static, pre-determined or necessarily shared but a culmination of many decisions made every single day by everyone. Great Tricks From Your Future asks: Can inventing your own individual language alter your reality, and by extension, your future? All the artists in this exhibition build a specific language for themselves to determine what myths and facts to use to experience the present, and what truths to rely on to proceed into the future:

Great Tricks From Your Future includes an ongoing project by artist duo Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou Rahme, a solo presentation of works by Basim Magdy, a performance by Jochen Dehn and another by Benjamin Seror, a concert by Stine Motland and C. Spencer Yeh, and a screening of a short film by Bedwyr Williams.

JOCHEN DEHN

Jochen Dehn (DE) does not create works of art – instead he works with what already exists around him and around us. He interacts with objects and first to third hand information, deconstructing links, inventing gestures that will make his own speech obsolete. He is interested in the use and handling of objects and words rather than in their meaning and definition. His performances, demonstrations and conferences have taken place in festivals such as the 11th Biennale de Lyon (2011), Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse (2010) and the Nouveau Festival at Centre Pompidou (2009), as well as in numerous galleries and art centres. Since 2012, he is represented by the Galleries Crèvecoeur in Paris and Aanant&Zoo in Berlin.

STINE JANVIN MOTLAND

Stine Janvin Motland (NO) is a performer and composer. With an instrumental and physical approach, Janvin Motland explores and pushes the frontiers of the voice’s natural acoustics – what a singer can, and cannot be. Her work involves elements of conceptual composition, improvisation, and performance. Ongoing projects include the live ‘hörspiel’ and solo piece ‘In Labour’, ‘Native Instrument’, and brigitte & paula band. In 2014, Stine had her debut at the Kaaitheater in Brussels with the solo performance ‘Prelude’.

C. SPENCER YEH

C. Spencer Yeh (US) is recognised for his interdisciplinary activities and collaborations as an artist, composer, and improviser, as well as for his music project Burning StarCore. Recent presentations of work include ‘The Companion’ at the 8th Liverpool Biennial (2014) and ‘Modern Mondays ‘at MoMA in New York (2014), Yeh also collaborated with Triple Canopy for their contribution to the Whitney Biennial in New York (2014). Beginning in 2015, his video works are distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix.  He is also a contributing editor to BOMB magazine.

BENJAMIN SEROR

Benjamin Seror (FR) uses speech as the principal subject and tool in his performances, and often narrates long improvised stories inspired by a mix of phantoms of literature, art history and everyday adventures. Also a musician, Seror plays different instruments, backing up his narratives with emotive songs. Recently, he played performances at REDCAT in Los Angeles (2014), Kunstverein in Amsterdam (2014), Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2014), le Plateaux-Frac île de France in Paris (2014), Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (2013), Witte De With in Rotterdam (2013), amongst others. His novel ‘Mime Radio’ is being published this spring.

BEDWYR WILLIAMS

Bedwyr Williams (UK) works with performance, text, installation and video.  Williams won a Paul Hamlyn Award for the Visual Arts in 2005, was shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures Prize in 2006 and represented Wales at the 55thVenice Biennale (2013). He has exhibited nationally and internationally with solo shows including ‘Echt’ at Glasgow International Festival (2014), Hotel 70º at Mostyn in Wales (2014), ‘My Bad‘ at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (2012) and as part of group shows including Primal Architecture at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (2014), Performa 13 in New York (2013) and ‘Ernste Tiere’at Bonner Kunstverein (2011).