Alex Ayed. Owls and Promises

11 Jun–24 Jul 022
Opening of the exhibition: Fri, 10 Jun 2022, 7 pm

Alex Ayed
Owls and Promises

Objects tell stories, belong to places, evoke memories and initiate encounters. Driven by the idea of being projected into the position of others, into their imaginary and lived-in worlds, artist Alex Ayed pursues an experimental and explorative practice with unpredictable outcomes. In a state of the improvised and chaotic, all manner of objects, whether discarded, sought-after, gifted or manufactured, are brought together in assemblages and spatial installations.
Taken out of their context and time, leaving only faded and intermittent traces, Ayed’s works elude clear attributions, yet at the same time establish new ones: correlations between the promise and its redeeming action, places and people, the hidden and the obvious are intuited, imagined, explored and recalled. Ayed's exhibition, inhabited by a distinct moment of transience and able to express itself through a tactile and seemingly provisional nature, is therefore neither a point of arrival nor ending; instead, it is a poetically vague outlook on all that could still be to come.

Owls and Promises is Ayed’s first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, curated by Theresa Rößler.
Alex Ayed (b. 1989, FR) lives and works in France and Tunesia.

Selected solo exhibitions:
Laws of Confusion, together with Lydia Ourahmane, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, US, 2021; TRANSUMANZA, Galleria Zero, Milan, IT, 2021; Roaring Forties, Galerie Balice Hertling, Paris, FR, 2020; Soap Opera, B7L9 Art Station, Tunis, TN, 2019; Exhibition 3: Alex Ayed, Institute of Arab & Islamic Art, New York, US, 2018; Pathetic Fallacy, Galerie Balice Hertling, 2018, Paris, FR; Day for night, together with Adrien Giros, Clovis XV, Brussels, BL, 2016.

Selected group exhibitions:
Tactics of Augmented Dreams, Fondation D’entreprise Hermes, Brussels, BL, 2022; Soft Water and Hard Stone, New Museum Triennial, New York, US, 2021; Risquons-Tout, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brüssel, BL, 2020; La psychologie des serrures, CAN, Neuchâtel, CH, 2020; Horology, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, US, 2019; Water Pressure, Jaou, Tunis, TN, 2018.

Programme

Fri, 10 Jun 2022, 7 pm
Opening Night with an Introduction by Theresa Rößler

Thu, 23 Jan 2022, 7 pm
Curator’s Tour with Theresa Rößler

Fri, 24 Jun 2022, 7 pm
Exhibition Tour with
Junge Kunstfreund*innen

Sun, 3 Jul 2022, 2–4 pm
Workshop for Children 6–12 years
Printing Workshop with Buchkinder Freiburg e.V.
(Registration required)

Thu, 14 Jul 2022, 7 pm
Guided Tour with Heinrich Dietz

Sat, 23 Jul 2022, 8 pm
Museums Night
Sound Performance
Martina Lussi
The exhibition is made possible by the friendly support of Bureau des arts plastiques of the Institut français Deutschland, the French Ministry of Culture, the foundation of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and the Artists' Contacts Programme of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations.