New exhibitions: Grace Ndiritu Reimagines the FOMU Collection - Susan Meiselas - melanie bonajo
Press conference Thursday 16 February, 11 am at FOMU
Grace Ndiritu Reimagines the FOMU Collection
17.02.23 - 07.01.24
For Grace Ndiritu Reimagines the FOMU Collection, British-Kenyan artist Grace Ndiritu constructs an original photographic universe of paintings, textiles and interior design inspired by female artists O’Keeffe, Modotti and Albers. It represents a radical and holistic reinterpretation of the classic collection exhibition.
Ndiritu’s art practice explores our rapidly changing world. She sees shamanism as a means to reactivate ‘the dying art museum’. With this new exhibition, Grace Ndiritu has created a refuge, a space for slowing down and reflection. She invites you to see with an open mind, make intuitive connections and abandon rational thought processes. Ndiritu is interested in architecture as a type of 'spiritual technology' and has designed a wooden scenography inspired by mid-century Californian homes, modernist museum interiors and world's fairs.
Ndiritu’s photographic installation A Quest for Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography (2014) formed the springboard for her exploration of the FOMU Collection and the ensuing exhibition. Ndiritu uses free association to combine photographs and coloured walls. Her surprising amalgams give fresh meaning to works by, among others, Alexandre, Bianca Baldi, Samuel Bourne, Dirk Braeckman, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Lynne Cohen, Gilbert Fastenaekens, Gertrude Fehr, Geert Goiris, Willy Kessels, Rinko Kawauchi, Man Ray, Auguste Salzmann, Filip Tas, Nadine Tasseel and Wolfgang Tillmans.
A highlight of the FOMU Collection, the Kaiserpanorama will also be on display after undergoing a complete restoration and has been integrated into the design of Ndiritu's show. The device was a modern piece of automated machinery when it was made in 1905 and presented a 3D photographic spectacle to the public. Twenty-five people at a time can sit on stools circling the viewing cabinet and enjoy the magic of three-dimensional images.
Press images & interviews
Below is a selection of press images in low res. A larger selection of press images and high res images are available on request. The images may not be cropped and you always have to mention the full copyright.
Grace Ndiritu will be in Antwerp for the opening of the exhibition and available for interviews. Contact Isabelle Willems and Sarah Skoric to request an interview.
Visit the website of Grace Ndiritu for a biography and more information on her work.
Read the essay Hettie Judah wrote about Grace Ndiritu and her work for Trigger magazine.
From 1 April to 10 September 2023 S.M.A.K. (Gent) will present Healing The Museum, a mid career-survey looking at Grace Ndiritu’s diverse practice. This multi-layered exhibition project encompasses performance, film, shamanism, social actions, publications, textile work and also includes a critical collection presentation.
A first monograph on Ndiritu’s work published by Motto, Berlin, will appear simultaneously.
Selection from A Quest for meaning, Grace Ndiritu (collection FOMU)
Grace Ndiritu, A Quest For Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography, 2014, Collectie FOMU / Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap BK/9433 © Grace Ndiritu 2023
Grace Ndiritu, A Quest For Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography, 2014, Collectie FOMU / Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap BK/9433 © Grace Ndiritu 2023
Grace Ndiritu, A Quest For Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography, 2014, Collectie FOMU / Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap BK/9433 © Grace Ndiritu 2023
Grace Ndiritu, A Quest For Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography, 2014, Collectie FOMU / Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap BK/9433 © Grace Ndiritu 2023Selection of works from the FOMU collection on display
Alexandre (Albert Edouard Drains), Iguanodon de Bernissart (opgegraven in 1878), ca. 1883, Collectie FOMU P/1984/209
Wolfgang Tillmans, Faltenwurf 2019/1984, 2020, Collectie FOMU 2022/20. © Wolfgang Tillmans, courtesy Maureen Paley, Londen
Rinko Kawauchi, Zonder titel, uit de reeks ‘Illuminance’, 2011, Collectie FOMU 2022/17 © Rinko Kawauchi 2023
Susan Meiselas - Mediations
17.02.23 - 04.06.23
“How do you work as a photographer? There’s always this uncomfortable, unequal balance of power. How do you break that down? How can it become a dialogue?” – Susan Meiselas
For nearly five decades, Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas (US, 1948) has been using her camera to bear witness and to connect with people. Meiselas has travelled the world and tackled a wide range of subjects, from the sex industry to war and human rights violations. She draws attention to what is often hidden or ignored by the public. Susan Meiselas continually seeks direct contact and dialogue with the people she portrays. Her approach is collaborative and incorporates her subjects’ perspectives.
Meiselas conducts visual field studies that can span years and in which photographs rarely stand alone. While photography remains the artist’s primary medium, she has increasingly employed other formats - including books, videos and sound recordings - to elaborate on her photographic work and to build stories around it.
Her work is driven by urgent questions about who photographs serve, not only what they show. Today, Meiselas is considered to have paved the way for both photography that is politically engaged, systematically documented, reflected on and contextualised, and that which closely involves the subjects in the work.
This retrospective takes its name from an installation created by the artist as a critical look at the photographs she took during the popular uprising in Nicaragua in 1978 and 1979. The title, Mediations, reflects Meiselas’ overarching aspirations for photography: “You think it is useful to go out into the world or you don’t. I am someone who does see the value in that. But it is only worth doing if you become a bridge for information and ideas.”
Susan Meiselas will give an Artist Talk at FOMU on wednesday 15 February.
Press images & interviews
Below is a selection of press images in low res. A larger selection of press images and high res images are available on request. You can use a maximum of 3 images free of rights for articles about the exhibition. The images may not be cropped and you always have to mention the full copyright.
Susan Meiselas will be in Antwerp for the opening of the exhibition and available for interviews. Contact Isabelle Willems and Sarah Skoric to request an interview.
More information about Susan Meiselas and her work.
melanie bonajo - When the body says Yes
17.02.23 - 04.06.23
When the body says Yes is an immersive video installation by melanie bonajo. The artist believes that touch can be a powerful remedy for the loneliness that has become endemic in our society.
bonajo brought together a group of international genderqueer people, many with a bicultural identity, to cast a collective spell in the form of a pleasure-positive camp where “skinship” is celebrated. Do you know the sensual dimensions of your “No”? How do you feel when your body says “Yes”? When the body says Yes is a gentle invitation to let yourself be transported on a journey of discovery.
melanie bonajo (them/their) is an artist, filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, hug workshop leader, and activist. Their videos, performances, photographs and installations investigate topical issues arising from the capitalism system. bonajo spotlights themes such as isolation and the erosion of intimacy in an increasingly sterile, technological world. They then provide anti-capitalist methods for reconnecting and for rediscovering sexuality, intimacy and feelings.
With When the body says Yes, melanie bonajo represented the Netherlands at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The work was commissioned by the Mondriaan Fund and curated by the team of Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg, Geir Haraldseth and Soraya Pol. The installation is a collaboration with Théo Demans.
Press images & interviews
Below is a selection of press images in low res. A larger selection of press images and high res images are available on request. You can use a maximum of 3 images free of rights for articles about the exhibition. The images may not be cropped and you always have to mention the full copyright.
melanie bonajo is available for interviews. Contact Isabelle Willems and Sarah Skoric to request an interview.
More information about melanie bonajo and their work.
Press conference & interviews
The press conference for the new exhibitions is on Thursday 16 February, 11 am at FOMU. The curators wil guide you through the exhibitions. Grace Ndiritu, Susan Meiselas and melanie bonajo will attend the press conference. Interviews are on request.
Please confirm your presence before 15 February.
Isabelle Willems
Sarah Skoric