October 22, 2022–January 15, 2023
The autumn 2022 program at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art explores the dynamics of visual and popular culture through ideas of authenticity, ownership, and replication as seen in the work of Michel Majerus, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, and Atiéna R. Kilfa.
Michel Majerus: Early Works
October 22, 2022–January 15, 2023
By displaying works created between 1990 and 1996, the exhibition Michel Majerus: Early Works at KW aims to reveal the foundational stages of the creative activity of Michel Majerus (1967-2002, LUX). Many of these works are being viewed by the public for the first time.
The show honors the genesis of Majerus’ widely acclaimed work on a national and worldwide scale. The early pieces produced during Majerus’ education already show his artistic style. These investigate virtual and physical space, time, speed, and seriality in addition to visual culture. The artist’s methodical approach to explaining how images are created relied heavily on his ongoing observations of surface and space as well as his research into materials and techniques. His comments on the significance and influence of visual culture were built on the findings of this inquiry.
In addition to the show at KW, Michel Majerus Estate, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), Kunstverein in Hamburg, and the gallery neugerriemschneider in Berlin will continue to investigate Michel Majerus’ body of work in order to commemorate it on a never-before-seen scale. The exhibition series Michel Majerus 2022, which debuts twenty years after the artist’s passing, is devoted to various stages and facets of the exceptional body of work. Thirteen museums in Germany will concurrently display pieces by Michel Majerus from their collections.
More information here.
Christopher Kulendran Thomas: Another World
October 22, 2022–January 15, 2023
Through the lens of the unsuccessful revolutionary war for a Tamil homeland’s independence, the exhibition Christopher Kulendran Thomas: Another World at KW examines an alternate approach to technology.
The show includes a significant new commission, The Finesse (2022), which explores some of the forgotten vestiges of this freedom movement in Kulendran Thomas’ ancestral country. It was created in partnership with longtime collaborator Annika Kuhlmann. The immersive cinematic project blends AI-generated avatars with archive material while fusing pop culture and political science. A new version of Kulendran Thomas’ 2019 video piece Being Human, which divides the second-floor gallery, takes the audience on an elliptical tour of Sri Lanka, from the wreckage of the civil war there to the biennial of contemporary art built in its wake.
Christopher Kulendran Thomas: Another World is produced in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Kunsthalle Zürich and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
More information here.
Atiéna R. Kilfa: The Unhomely
October 22, 2022–January 15, 2023
Atiéna R. Kilfa’s debut institutional solo presentation is the show The Unhomely at KW (b. 1990, France). To examine the conflicts and overlaps between personal and cultural memories, Kilfa combines photography, sculpture, film, and installations. Her most recent work is influenced by her fascination with the structure of models, dioramas, still lives, and tableaux vivants, which she views as places where inherited narratives and social conventions are present and are subject to scrutiny. The Unhomely explores the memory of “home” as an impossibly “virtual” architecture by presenting a new video work alongside architectural fragments, transactional sound, and small sculpture.
The Unhomely by Atiéna R. Kilfa is an exhibition that was co-produced with the Camden Art Centre in London and will be presented there from January to March 2023.
More information here.
KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Auguststraße 69
10117 Berlin
Germany