Chantal Crousel is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of Hassan Khan at the Chantal Crousel Gallery. Artist, musician and writer, born in 1975, Hassan Khan lives and works in Cairo. He has published numerous texts in Arabic and in English. As a musician, he has composed soundtracks for theater and performed his own pieces. The work of Hassan Khan was presented, among others, in the 8th Biennial of Istanbul ( 2003 ), in the first Triennale Torino ( 2005 ), in the 15th Biennial of Sydney ( 2006 ); in the first Biennial of contemporary art of Thessaloniki in Greece ( 2007 ) and more recently in the 8th Manisfesta, Murcia, Spain (2010). In 2007, a solo exhibition will organized at Le Plateau, Paris, as part of the Festival d’Automne. The Kunsthalle, St. Gallen (2010) also gave him, in the summer 2010, an important solo exhibition.
His latest work Jewel, a 35mm film commissioned for the exhibition « Told/Untold/Retold » present-ing 23 contemporary Arab artists at the Mathaf, Doha (Qatar), is appreciated as one of the highlights of this event.
For his gallery exhibition from January 29th to March 5th 2011, Hassan Khan will present at the gal-lery the following works :
Evidence of evidence II, vinyl print, 350 x 298 cm, 2010
This damaged oil painting, seemingly executed by a hobbyist, was found in a house sale in the bin marked “take for free”. The original painting sized 34 x 25 cm is enlarged and printed on vinyl. As it is severely damaged, every crack and chipped bit of paint, every fold of the canvas are clearly visible and the passage of time is made literal in a way that, at least for the artist, holds emotional resonance.
Muslimgauze R.I.P., video, 8 min 07, 2010
Muslimgauze R.I.P. is a single channel-video made in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the 8th Manifesta (2010). Muslimgauze was a music project formed in 1982 by the experimental musician Bryn Jones (died in 1999) influenced by the Middle East without ever having been there. The name of Muslimgauze is a play on the word « muslin » (a type of gauze) combined with the word « Muslim ».
In Ljubljana, for the preparation of an exhibition last summer, Hassan Khan came upon a location and a young boy reminding England’s Thatcherist economic and social features in the 80’s. The film evokes a home in Manchester in 1982.
G.R.A.H.A.M., video installation, 13 min 54, 2008
Hassan Khan’s video installation G.R.A.H.A.M. is essentially a portrait. It consists of a continuous, ten-minute real-time shot of the artist’s friend Graham sitting, slowed down to last fourteen minutes to subtly enhance every detail. Despite the fact that Khan is interviewing the subject about his life, the piece is silent, as Graham was asked not to answer the questions verbally, but to maintain con-tinuous eye contact with his interrogator.
At one point during the video, Graham lights a cigarette in the most perfect of cinematic gestures; this stands out as a key moment during his “incorporation” within a dialogue that shifts the positions of mutual authority and submission between the artist and his muse.
Lust, 50 photographies, 32 x 23 cm (encadrées), 2008
“Lust est une série de cinquante petites photographies prises par Hassan Khan avec son téléphone portable. La résolution inégale, les couleurs sourdes et l’attention portée à la composition et la présentation se combinent pour créer une série d’images minimales, traces d’un subconscient idiosyncrasique photographique. Chaque image enregistre des objets fugaces, des gens et des lieux : une documentation de voyage et de la vie quotidienne qui attrape une surabondance intangible et théâtrale. Les images sont, peut-être paradoxalement, aussi exceptionnellement claires qu’énigmatiques : un porc pornographique en céramique, des assiettes publicitaires, une image d’un bureau aux lumières fluorescentes du Palais de la Culture en Egypte et un spectre de lumière d’une chambre d’hôtel dans différentes villes où Khan a séjourné dans les douze derniers mois. […]” Clare Davies La série complète sera présentée dans l’exposition.
Banque Bannister, cuivre, approx. 1,95 x 123 cm, 2010
La sculpture en cuivre, Bank Bannister est l’exacte réplique de la rampe d’escalier de l’entrée de la Banque Nationale égyptienne au Caire.
