M�M�M�M�M� M�M�M�M�M�M� �M �M �M �M �M M��M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M Rasheed Araeen, A Retrospective Vaclav Pozarek We Began by Measuring Distance Cabinet d’arts graphiques Julije Knifer Opening: May 29, 6 pm 10, rue des Vieux-Grenadiers, 1205 Geneva � � � � � � � p. 3 Press release p. 5 Rasheed Araeen, A Retrospective (1st floor ) p. 10 Vaclav Pozarek (2nd floor) p. 12 We Began by Measuring Distance (3rd floor) p. 13 Julije Knifer (2nd floor) p. 15 Cabinet d’arts graphiques: Yūichi Yokoyama (2nd floor) Other exhibitions p. 17 A Collection of Spaces (4th floor) p. 19 L’ Appartement (3rd floor) p. 21 Timothée Calame, Prix culturel Manor 2018 (4th floor) p. 23 PiQasso p. 24 Informations and Partners M�M�M�M�M� M�M�M�M�M�M� �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M � � � � � � � � � � � � � Rasheed Araeen, A Retrospective Vaclav Pozarek We Began by Measuring Distance Cabinet d’arts graphiques Julije Knifer Opening: May 29, 6 pm Press Conference: May 29, 11 am This summer, on occasion of the retrospec- spectators, who can sometimes alter their tive devoted to the Pakistani artist Rasheed arrangements. The retrospective, spanning a Araeen, MAMCO is inaugurating the first 60 years’ career, leads the visitors through phase of its reflections concerning the five chapters, from the works of the 1950s, internationalization of its exhibition corpus through the sculptures of the 1960s and and the emergence of a world art history. 1970s; then, following his increasingly affir- med political commitment in the 1980s, to the series of cruciform panels from the RASHEED ARAEEN 1980s-1990s; and his most recent pieces, brought together under the title Homecoming. The political relationship that Rasheed Araeen has with so-called “minimal” forms, As Nick Aikens explains, Araeen’s practice and his commitment to postcolonial theory, has constantly rethought the formal, ideolo- gave his practice an exemplary value in the gical, and political affirmations of Eurocentric “de-colonization” process of art history in the modernism. This questioning lies at the heart second half of the 20th century. For, the Western of his practice, both in artistic and intellectual hegemony of museums and historiogra- terms. It fed both into his involvement with phical institutions had imposed the myth of the Black Panthers movement in the 1972, a “universal museum of modern art” whose and the setting-up of the review Third Text in truly ideological nature can now be gauged. 1987. It underlay his performances in the It is thus both the resonances of an evolutio- 1970s, and his para-minimal Structures. What nary and progressive vision of art history, is more, it led to his identity self-portraits from and the cultural contexts under considera- the early 1980s and his photographic com- tion, which have today been put into ques- positions from the same period. And, as we tion by the inclusion of other narratives. can be reminded by the paintings from the recent Opus series, inspired by Islamic deco- Rasheed Araeen was born in 1935 in Karachi rative art, Araeen responds to the universalist (Pakistan), where, with no formal artistic edu- pretentions of Western modernism by an cation, he produced his first works during the affirmation of the multiple origins of abstract 1950s, which already attested to his interest language. in the geometric compositions suited to an expression of his impressions. When he arri- Yet, the globalizing imperative to bring in “dif- ved in London in 1964, as a qualified engi- ferences” is not enough to resolve the issues neer, Araeen was struck by Anthony Caro’s coming from a dominant ideology. For a colored metal sculptures. By the end of the museum like MAMCO, what is at stake is 1960s, he had developed his own language, rather to gauge to what extent taking into based on the use of simple forms, and the account these differences modifies our notion of symmetry, as can be seen in his understanding of the forms and practices we first Structures. Apart from their constructive collect. What should be considered is our and minimal aspect, these sculptures are conception of recent historiography, and the also an invitation to a relationship with the M�M�M�M�M� M�M�M�M�M�M� �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M � division of its periods, as much as the aesthe- pieces, from the 1970s to today. tic contours applied to the movements in His sculptures vary between abstraction and question. For example, how we do see the “concrete objects”: the proportions allude museum collection containing the work of turn by turn to an elementary or singular form Siah Armajani (*1939), an Iranian artist who of furnishing, while other set-ups bring to emigrated to the USA, or of Julije Knifer mind sophisticated woodwork or panelling. (1924–2004), a Croatian artist who was These apparently abstract designs have an based in Paris, through the prism of Rasheed inexpressible dimension, as a form of archi- Araeen’s show? Can the equation that this tecture or else the ornamentation of a façade. artist has established between symmetry While seeming to be part of the history of and democracy help to shed light on the Minimalist sculpture, which had lastingly symbolism at the heart of Armajani’s work? freed itself from mimetic depiction, or the Doesn’t the irony in his re-combinable Structures plinth, Vaclav Pozarek corrupts modern bring to mind the view that the members of orthodoxy thanks to his use of craft tech- the Gorgona group, with whom Knifer parti- niques and vernacular allusions. cipated between 1959 and 1966, had of creation? In other words, is it possible for a WE BEGAN BY MEASURING DISTANCE museum to construct different conceptual tools, aesthetic categories, and other narra- A selection of works from the collection of the tives of the passing of time as we see it, while Sharjah Art Foundation, a reference Middle- exhibiting these artists, and thus exposing East institution, organized by its director Hoor ourselves to such forms? Al Qasimi, responds to the invitation to broa- den the frame of reference of practices under VACLAV POZAREK review at MAMCO and to set up a series of echoes to Rasheed Araeen’s retrospective. It These questions lie at the heart of the new allows for the discovery, for the first time in exhibitions in the summer 2018 sequence, Switzerland, of such artists as Hassan Sharif, such as the one devoted to the Czech artist Marwan Rechmaoui, and Basma Al Sharif. Vaclav Pozarek, with its invitation to measure the impact of Eastern European art (before CABINET D’ARTS GRAPHIQUES the fall of the Wall) on the abstract vocabu- lary of an artist working in Switzerland since Finally, this summer also marks the opening the 1970s. of a Cabinet devoted to practices such as illustration and graphic novels. After a space After film studies in Prague, Vaclav Pozarek devoted to the Fluxus group, and built up (*1940, Budweis, today in the Czech Repu- around the ECART archives, along with a blic), moved to Hamburg and then London. Cabinet of concrete poetry, this third space, He there entered Saint Martin’s School of Art, which is neither permanent nor ephemeral, in Anthony Caro’s class, before setting up has been conceived as an interface between home in Bern. It was his interest in concrete MAMCO’s exhibitions and a field of creation art, and in particular Richard Paul Lohse, that that chimes with local work. For, the history of initially attracted him to Switzerland. There, comic books can generally be traced back he developed a particular synthesis of to 1827, in Geneva, with the work of Rodolphe constructivist principles and questions Töpffer. The presence of a large number of concerning the application of the arts to authors, and the setting-up of fresh training reality. He has since focused on sculpture schemes with the ESBD, will allow for a new and drawing, but has also produced instal- resonance between the museum and the city. lations, photographs, and films. For his solo The programming of this Cabinet, entrusted exhibitions, Pozarek often designs logotypes, to Fabrice Stroun, will be inaugurated by a as is the case for the exhibition at the presentation of work by the Japanese artist MAMCO, covering more than 500m2 on the Yūchi Yokoyama, selected in collaboration 2nd floor, and bringing together a good forty with Mathis Gasser. M�M�M�M�M� M�M�M�M�M�M� �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M �M � Rasheed Araeen A Retrospective Organized by Nick Aikens and Paul Bernard, the exhibition was first presented at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. The exhibition is supported by the Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung. Spanning more than 60 years, this exhibition Geometry and Symmetry offers the first comprehensive survey of the work of Rasheed Araeen. It is structured Following his arrival in London in 1964, across five chapters unfolding on two levels Araeen saw the colored metal sculpture of of the museum: on the first floor are pres- Anthony Caro, which he describes as having ented Araeen’s early experiments in painting a strong effect on him. Araeen’s own Mini- in Karachi in the 1950s and early 1960s; his malist language, however, drew on geome- geometric Structures after his arrival in Lon- try and symmetry. Araeen’s interest in sym- don in 1964; key pieces from the 1970s and metry stemmed from its lack of hierarchy with 1980s following Araeen’s political awake- one side always being equal to the other.