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EXHIBITION
SAÂDANE AFIF
“LYRICS”
A luminous show of time for a sung retrospective

>> Exhibition from 8 October to 20 November 2005

Friday 7 october
> From 10 a.m to noon : private opening
> From 20 p.m to midnight : public opening

>>> Download the Press Kit (439 Kb)

Tout, 1998


Among the most inventive artists on the young French art scene, Saadane Afif works with notions of displacement and contrast. His pieces, vibrating with multiple meanings, function by using collusion as their driving force. He employs objects, scale models, installations, sounds, and writing to classify the unclassifiable and mirror-in the work of art itself-the dialog that arises between the viewer and the artist. This dialog is continuously fueled by various allusions and is infiltrated on every side by historic, psychological, social, and cultural elements.



Bar des héros-playliste, 1999

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A "sung retrospective"

Afif has chosen the Palais de Tokyo as the last stage of a project that he has been working on for months. "Lyrics," his "sung retrospective" at the Palais de Tokyo, is an extension of the shows "Melancholic Beat", presented at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, "Down at the Rock and Roll Club" for the Moscow Biennial, and his exhibition at Albi's Centre d'Art Cimaises et Portiques of Albi. It is certainly a far cry from a classic retrospective. For each of these shows, the artist has invited a composer to "translate" into music his earlier installations, pushing to the extreme the potential of translation and re-creation of his work "in song."


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Interpretation and reinterpretation

Afif produces these songs as works of art by integrating them visually into the exhibition space. The lyrics cover the walls and visitors can listen to the songs on headphones. An installation made up of various materials scavenged by the artist from the holdings of the Palais de Tokyo will also serve as a stage for a concert scheduled to be performed the evening of the show's opening. Having drawn up a list of precise instructions, Afif commissioned various authors to write texts, then got the word out to musicians. Afif interpreting, interpreted, and reinterpreting his own work, which gives rise to a constant back-and-forth that certainly shakes up our perception of art.


Le sôt, 1997

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A radiant countdown

Afif doesn't spare our relationship with time either. As time passes during the show, rounds of light appear on the floor minute by minute until it is thoroughly saturated. These circles of light, which are designed to appear randomly in the exhibition space, embody time and make us aware of its presence. Time takes over the space of the Palais de Tokyo the way the songs take concrete shape on the walls. This is a musical score in the radiant and musical form of a "suite of time."

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The renewal of a formal vocabulary

By playing with sound, light, and their materiality, Afif creates a convivial, "atmospheric" space that directly questions our perception of relationship to time and our experience of the world. Thanks to the many contributions of other artists, "Lyrics" functions as a renewal of the artist's formal vocabulary.

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The show's features
The installation is made up mainly of texts from about 20 songs, the songs themselves, a sculpture-composite stage created from recycled materials, and a system of light projection.

The songs' lyrics, which have been written by authors like Lili Reynaud-Dewar or Tom Morton, are posted in adhesive letters stuck to the walls. The stage is likewise part of a series of display furnishings that Saadane Afif has recovered over the years. Somewhere between a belvedere, a stage, and a lounge, the artist's installation is a place for relaxation, contemplation, and listening on headphones to the CD of sung pieces.
The main work of this project is a monumental version of "Hours" first shown at the Moscow Biennial (2005). Some 60 concert projectors are scattered around the exhibition space. At each minute over the course of an hour, the projectors are lighted one after the other, casting a circle of light on the floor. The exhibition space is thus structured by both time and light.

Nord-Sud, 1998-2001


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With the support of :
For "Melancholic Beat" : lyrics by Lili Reynaud-Dewar, music by Ludovic Poulet (Portradium) & Tujiko Noriko
For"Down at the Rock and Roll Club" : lyrics by Tom Morton, music by Rainier Lericolais & Marcelline Delbecq
For"One Million BPM" : lyrics by Mick Peter, music by Julien Perez
For le Best of : lyrics by Maxime Matray
Label Semishigure of Robert Meijer

This exhibition is produced with the support of the Michel Rein Gallery, Paris
and with the cooperation of Cimaise et Portique, Albi & Radiodays-De Appel, Amsterdam
www.mtts.be, Ypres.

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General Curators :
Nicolas Bourriaud, Jérôme Sans

Curator of the exhibition :
Akiko Miki

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At the same period:
“Robert Malaval,
kamikaze”
14 Sep > 08 Jan 05

Nobuyoshi Araki
"Arakinema"
08 Oct > 23 Oct 05

Rebecca Bournigault
“La chambre
interdite”
08 Oct > 20 Nov 05

Sarah Morris
“Endeavor [Los
Angeles]”
08 Oct > 08 Jan 05

Valéry Grancher
“Shiwiars”
Sep-Oct 05

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Permanent partnership




With the support of Porter Novelli,
Public-Relations Consultants

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Communications Manager
Sofianne Le Bourhis
assistée de Mylène Ferrand
Tél : + 33 1 47 23 54 57
sofianne@palaisdetokyo.com

Press Contact
Tél : + 33 1 47 23 52 00
presse@palaisdetokyo.com

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