The exhibition “In Search of the Heptahedron” (with the coexisting present “The Coalman”at Wilhelm Hallen) is continuations of a cycle of exhibitions and occasions based mostly on the play The Heptahedron (2017), written by the French creator Thomas Clerc after a efficiency by Afif that befell throughout the “Marrakesh Biennale” (2014). Within the script, the heroine Yasmine is in search of a seven-sided polyhedron—a heptahedron. On her quest, she encounters seven enigmatic characters: the Professor, the Bonimenteur, the Moped Rider, the Fortune Teller, the Coalman, an Acrobats, and the Vacationer. They every reveal part of the key of the thing of her want. This classical and easy storyline feeds a lot of Afif’s current works, which develop into an allegory of the artist’s place within the society.
With the present “In Search of the Heptahedron” on the gallery house at Fasanenplatz, Afif takes up exactly this ensemble of characters. Impressed by Abi Warburg’s technique of pictorial associations, seven Curator’s Boards (2023) coated with pictures reveal the depth and potential contradictions that every of the figures holds. The magnetic panels had been initially utilized by Afif to form the seven figures when he was appointed creative director of the “Bergen Meeting” (2022). With the chairs from the collection Interface: The Heptahedron Seats (2020), which break up Donald Judd’s minimal furnishings designs, Afif stays his very first analysis to provide a type to the heptahedron. A brand new gentle sculpture hanging within the middle of the room continues to spin the narrative. The eight gentle bulbs supported by the chandelier are animated by an invisible prompter that unfolds your entire situation of the play, translating the alternate of phrases between the seven characters and the heroin into syncopated decorative lighting. The work titled That is Decorative (2023) not solely references Afif’s titular exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien (2018), the place the textual content of the play was introduced for the primary time as a piece, but additionally reinterprets a chandelier design by architect Adolf Loos from 1911; the creator of Decoration and Crime (1910).

at Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin
till June 17, 2023