A Conversation with Alejandro Javaloyas
A Studio Visit During the La BIBI Residency
Adel Abdessemed: Out, Out, Brief Candle
Galleria Continua, Paris
- By Julien Delagrange
Rue du Temple, Marais, Paris; Adel Abdessemed’s first exhibition with Galleria Continua is explosive. Literally, with the monumental video installation of a burning ship titled Jam proximus ardet la dernière vidéo (2021) or the burning bronze sculpture Tonight no man will sleep (2022). Figuratively, due to the sheer power of the experience of the exhibition—the many intimate rooms, a sense of violence, and how this explosive character seems to be as fragile as ourselves.
“Out, Out, Brief Candle” is a famous quote from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. A quip reference to the artist’s video installation in which his foot smashes a candle—Politics of the Studio, Out, Out, Brief Candle (2020). A violent act is bringing the fire to a halt, abruptly, convincingly, leaving us alienated in complete darkness and claustrophobically struggling to find our way out of the darkroom—darkness versus light, power versus vulnerability.
Hélène Cixous: “There aren’t many artists who take my breath away, bowl me over with fear or laughter, reach out and shake me with a word or a vision. Adel Abdessemed is one of these shockers. He can simultaneously make me fly and delight me.”
Adel Abdessemed illuminates links between history, poetry, and current social and political events. The artist acts as an impartial witness to a faltering world. Allegorically, his works seem to go beyond controversy and the spectacle to amaze the viewer. His monumental installation Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2022) is a great example. An enormous metal crusher is driven by perpetual motion. The mechanical ballet hypnotizes the viewer, pulling us in as if we are seconds away from being crushed.
More information at Galleria Continua’s website.
Last Updated on May 23, 2023
Julien Delagrange
Julien Delagrange (b. 1994, BE) is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the director of CAI and CAI Gallery. Previously, Delagrange has worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, and the Ghent University Library. His artistic practice and written art criticism are strongly intertwined, examining contemporary art in search of new perspectives in the art world.
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