Archives: Exhibitions

Robert Walters Group partners with Saatchi Gallery and UK New Artists to explore the future of work

The Robert Walters Group is proud to partner with Saatchi Gallery and UK New Artists (UKNA) for an artistic exploration of how the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic will reshape the future of work.

Join the Discussion

In a week-long social media event, taking place 3-9 August 2020, Saatchi Gallery, UKNA and Robert Walters Group will be calling their followers to share artwork that provokes discussion about how the change and experiences of the lockdown period have influenced the world of business. Followers will be invited to submit their creations on Instagram using the hashtags #SAATCHITAKEOVER and #FutureofWork. The ten best submissions will be selected and showcased on Saatchi Gallery’s social media channels to over six million followers.

Live Sessions

During the week-long social media event, Saatchi Gallery will host two Instagram Live sessions designed to equip emerging and established artists with practical advice and insight to help them navigate their careers in the post-pandemic landscape.

The first session, taking place on 4 August 2020, will see Robert Walters Group UK Young Artist of the Year 2019 Award winner and runner-up, Conor Rogers and Camilla Hanney share their lockdown experiences, the impact of their award wins, and top tips for growing an artistic career. The second session, ‘The Business of Creativity’, on 6 August 2020 will be a live discussion between Martin Knox, former creative director of Next and artist Michael Forbes as they explore how practices traditionally adopted in the corporate world can be used to articulate and develop artistic identity.

Robert Walters, chief executive of the Robert Walters Group commented: “The abrupt onset of the Covid-19 virus brought an extraordinary shift in where, when and how we work, impacting industries around the globe. As the world emerges from this crisis, we are delighted to collaborate with Saatchi Gallery and UKNA to reflect on the changes we’ve experienced and explore how these will shape the future of work.”

How to Take Part

From Monday 3 August, artists will be invited to submit their future of work creations on their Instagram profiles, using the hashtags #SAATCHITAKEOVER and #FutureofWork.

For #FutureofWork live sessions, visit @saatchi_gallery on Instagram to watch live or on IGTV.

Drawn together by art. Inspiring our community to come and create together, we collaborated with celebrated fashion house Stella McCartney, to host an at-home ‘life drawing’. The collaboration is an extension of Saatchi Gallery’s weekly #SaatchiTakeover theme: the #HumanFigure.

Viewers will join supermodel Malgosia Bela as she poses for a celebrated group of global artists selected by Saatchi Gallery who participated and produced work in their chosen medium(s) and styles. Artists include: BP Portrait Award winners Miriam Escofet and Massimiliano Pironti, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize winner Florence Hutchings, Ukraine Artist Alliance member Denis Sarazhin, George Dawnay, Nancy Cadogan, Yifat Bezalel, Mona Osman, Alida Cervantes and Michael Cline.

Viewers are able to join in life drawing session and submit their artworks via the #StellaCommUnity hashtag for the chance to feature on the Stella McCartney social media channels. They can also use the hashtag #SaatchiTakeover for the chance to also feature on the Saatchi Gallery social media channels.

Discover the artists’ thoughts on creativity in lockdown at Stellamccartney.com and be inspired by the full Saatchi Gallery x Stella McCartney life drawing experience on the Saatchi Gallery IGTV. This collaboration is aimed to enable our Saatchi Gallery Educational Programme to continue during this uncertain time; viewers are asked to consider supporting us at: https://saatchigallery.com/donate

The Saatchi Gallery x Stella McCartney Life Drawing will launch on Thursday 28th May, with further content running on social channels until Saturday 30th May.

About the Artists

Miriam Escofet, Massimiliano Pironti, Florence Hutchings, Denis Sarazhin, George Dawnay, Nancy Cadogan, Yifat Bezalel, Mona Osman, Alida Cervantes, Michael Cline.

Questions:
1. Where and with whom are you isolating?
2. How are you staying creative and inspired during lockdown? Do you work better in isolation?
3. How has this situation changed your perspective? On the world? On art?

Yifat Bezalel

Born in 1975, Tel Aviv. Lives and works in Tel Aviv. Bezalel works specifically in drawing and teaches at the Bezalel Academy with works in the Deutsche Bank collection. He currently has a solo exhibitoin at the Tel Aviv Museum. In 2017 he was awarded the Grant for video art, Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts and the 2016 Rappaport Prize for Young Israeli Artist.

1. I spent the isolation time at home in Jaffa with my dog, Maggie-May. In Israel, we are now on the other side of self-isolation. We have been gradually returning to routine – a new routine to which we are adjusting.

2. Lockdown allowed me to stop, observe and research. Time was unlimited. As an artist, I spend a lot of time alone – it was almost like being alone was suddenly the common standard and I, for a change, was part of the mainstream; it gave me relief. I worked differently in isolation, with more peace of mind. It felt like the lockdown allowed me to be present in the moment.

3. While I was deeply saddened to see the dramatic effects COVID 19 had on the world, the situation gave me the opportunity to experience for the first time a primal-like state of being and see in hindsight I’ve been longing for this.

Nancy Cadogan

Born in 1979, UK. Based in Northamptonshire, England. Saatchi Gallery exhibition: ‘Mind Zero’, Sept 2019. Cadogan is a British figurative painter. Her work ranges from still life to landscape via portrait and is notable for its combination of a traditional painterly style with an almost abstract approach to her subject matter. In 2020 and 2021, Nancy will present a new collection of work for leading institutional and commercial galleries in Rome and New York.

1. I am isolating in the countryside with my family, which consists of three children, two dogs, a husband, eight chickens and a cat.

2. It is strangely hard, working during this time. I am used to working in isolation, but this is different as I have a full and busy house and carving out space is tricky. I have taken to working very late at night when the house is quiet, as this gives me a clear run at a good number of hours. I am preparing for a show in Rome about quarantine at the Keats Shelley Museum, and it could not be more pertinent to make work on this subject.

3. I am amazed by how adaptable we humans are and there seems to be this huge surge in creativity, community and innovation. That is remarkable, and lovely to be part of. I have enjoyed the Saatchi live sessions and connecting with the art community, and really enjoying getting back to the basics in my life; such as being with the children and cooking and being at home.

Alida Cervantes

Born in 1972, San Diego, CA. Lives and works in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego border region. Saatchi Gallery exhibitions: ‘Known Unknows’, March 2018, ‘Pangaea II, March 2015. Traveling daily between the US and Mexico, Cervantes’ work is characterized by an interest in power relations between race, class, gender and even species. Her work is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Charles Saatchi Collection, London, as well as the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library’s permanent collection.

1. I am isolating in Tijuana with my parents. During the day I work in my studio. On weekends, I cross the border and go home to San Diego.

2. The lockdown actually works well for me because I can focus much better without any distractions like social activities going on. In my regular life, I am also isolated because I spend most of my time in the studio, but this quarantine has no opportunity to make any plans whatsoever and I actually like that.

3. This pandemic has made me appreciate the people I have around me and the life that I am able to lead. It has been interesting to see humanity feeling so vulnerable given that usually humans feel invincible.

Michael Cline

Born in 1973, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Lives and works New York. Saatchi Gallery exhibitions: ‘Black Mirror’, Sept 2018 & ‘Body Language’, Nov 2013. Blending aspects of Surrealism with traditional realism, his work has a satirical element, critiquing aspects of urban life but also creating a space for folk narrative and urban myth.

1. I’m isolating in NYC with my wife and children.

2. I do in fact favour working in isolation and have had the good fortune to sustain my creativity in this upended new world.

3. My family and I take long daily walks, and the world just outside our door is curiously different. It’s not just the masks or social distancing that is so striking, but there is something in the air that is hard to pin down and ineffable. The sky is different, the sounds of the city altered, even the rubbish in the streets and graffiti remain all subtly changed. The world I usually depict in my art is somewhat dystopian in nature, so it strangely feels like this new reality is looking more and more like my fictitious alternate universe, which I find both fascinating and troubling.

George Dawnay

Born in England in 1970. Lives and works in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dawnay trained for four years in the French Academic style, cast drawing, anatomical studies and portraiture. He went on to complete an apprenticeship with the Mural painter Alexander Hamilton, together they went on to create a number of Murals in Italy and abroad. He has 98.8K followers on instagram: @georgedawnay

1. I am isolating on Signal Mountain in Tennessee with my wife Dr. Suzannah Bozzone and my three children: Gabriel, Madeleine and Milo.

2. We live in a forest on the side of a mountain. It’s quite secluded. My Studio is in the Town of Chattanooga, but currently I am working out of my garage which is fine by me. I work and play with my kids; I feel lucky.

3. I’m hoping that this situation might help us to realise our “common humanity” and bring about an era of peace and prosperity. I’m overly optimistic about life, I know. How is this going to affect art? There’s going to be another Renaissance!

Miriam Escofet

Born in 1967 in Spain. Lives and works in London. Winner BP Portrait Award 2018 and BP Travel Award 2019 Judge Escofet’s work has evolved over the years through many themes and ideas, including still life, architecture and perspective, allegory, imaginary composition and most recently portraiture. She has 25.6k followers on Instagram.

1. I am isolating at home in London. I live on my own. Thankfully my studio is at home so the connection to my creative space has not been severed.

2. I think isolation comes naturally to artists. We have to take ourselves away from the world and other people in order to immerse ourselves in the creative process; solitude is essential. I do miss museums and galleries, desperately, as they really inspire me and feed my imagination, but I have relished the quietness and lack of distraction. And I have been very busy working on projects.

3. Despite the awfulness of this pandemic and the impact it has had on all our lives, I do think moments of crisis provide great opportunities for change and it would be tragic if we did not seize this moment to change our society for the better. I think it’s already happening actually – people’s priorities have changed. I don’t see a return to rampant consumerism, and I hope the newfound sense of community and caring stays with us. Our current state of strange detachment from our habitual world is bringing about much collective introspection and art feels more relevant than ever. Art can communicate powerfully to our psyche, as well as our intellect, and often explores themes of ‘being’. I know people are finding solace in art, performance, music, in these deeply troubling times, when we wonder whether life will ever be the same again.

Florence Hutchings

Born in 1996 in Kent. Lives and works in London. Saatchi Gallery exhibited artist in ‘Kaleidoscope’: March 2019 2016-2019: Awarded the Lynn Painters Stainers Prize. Florence has exhibited widely in London from the Saatchi Gallery, Beers London and The Mall Gallery as well as taking part in residencies abroad such as The Cabin residency in LA.

1. I have been isolating at my home in South London with my partner Danny Romeril who is also a painter who I share a studio with. Luckily my studio is not too far from me, so recently I have been able to walk there and back but the majority of the time I have been working from home during this crisis. This has been so different from my practise as I am normally able to work at a very large scale when working in the studio. But the challenge of working much smaller at home has been interesting for my practise, it has helped me to develop the way I use materials more delicately, trying to using collage in a similar way when working A4 compared to working a 2 metre canvas has been both enjoyable and challenging at the same time.

2. To stay creative I try and set tasks daily to make sure to at least make something every day, however this can be difficult in times like this and find it not always possible to feel creative, but the days when the creativity starts to flow are definitely helping me get through these weird times.

3. Ultimately, this has had an impact of my perspective on the art world, it’s been interesting and uplifting to see how supportive and encouraging people are on social media, such as Instagram. There’s been a real sense of trying to stay creative together and realising how difficult that can be these days but at the same time helping people try and keep making.

Massimiliano Pironti

Born in 1981 in Colleferro, Italy. Lives and works in Italy. Third Prize winner BP Portrait Award 2019, BP Portrait Award 2018. Pironti most public painting is currently part of the Gallery and Museum of the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome, the world’s central friary of the Dominicans. He has 14.8K followers on Instagram.

1. I’m isolating in Stuttgart, Germany.

2. During the first few weeks I kept to myself a lot, I was very worried, especially for my family in Italy and I couldn’t paint. Then I started working just for myself and painting whatever I felt like, also because I can’t travel and all the commissions are postponed at the moment. For example, I also started a self-portrait. I’m looking at myself a lot during this weeks, and not only externally. I can say that I work much better in isolation, without distractions of any kind. Painting is a kind of meditation and in this situation I can go even deeper. The busy and frenetic life often keeps us away from concentration.

3. This situation just reminded me how art is important in my life, it represent for me the best way to react to my fears and worries. The beauty of the art is fundamental in our existence.

Denis Sarazhin

Born in Nikopol, Ukraine in 1982. Lives and works in Ukraine. 1st Degree Diploma Award for Excellence in Paintin from the Ukrainian Art Academy. Since 2007 he has been a member of Kharkov’s section of the association of Ukraine’s Artists’ Alliance. He has 239K followers on Instagram:@denis_sarazhin

1. I’m isolating in my apartment, with my wonderful wife Victoria. She is an artist too, and we have separate studios. We work and live in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

2. Oh, I don’t have a choice to be not inspired, I’m working on my upcoming solo show. This thing is not giving to me any chance to be sad and not motivated. After the show will be done of course I would like to have a rest outside my studio.

3. I not understand anything at this moment, and will understand about this situation after my show will end, and on reactions of people: if they are still interested to visit inside gallery shows.

Mona Osman

Born in 1992, Budapest, Hungary. Lives and works in Bristol and London. Saatchi Gallery exhibition ‘Known Unknowns’, March 2018. Osman received her MA Painting- Royal College of Art, BA Fine Art Goldsmiths College.

1. I am mainly isolating with my boyfriend and 2 cats but for about a month we also had my teenage niece in house with her 4 cats.

2. For me the isolation doesn’t change so much as I have my studio at home. However, everything slowing down allowed me to experiment a bit more.

3. Although I always believed that one shouldn’t take itself too seriously or take things for granted, this situation made me feel like this even more. I had a lot of things planned for this year; both work and leisure wise. We are mortal and more vulnerable we’d like to think.

ABOUT SAATCHI GALLERY

Since 1985, Saatchi Gallery has aimed to provide an innovative platform for contemporary art, presenting work by largely unseen young artists or by international artists whose work has been rarely or never exhibited in the UK.

Our audience, built steadily over the past 35 years, now exceeds 1.5 million visitors per annum, with over 5,000 schools visits annually and over 6 million followers on social media. Charles Saatchi’s first show in 1985 at Boundary Road, a converted paint factory, presented works by Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, Brice Marden and Cy Twombly, today recognised as among America’s greatest artists. In 1997, Sensation: Young British Artists opened at the Royal Academy of Arts, attracting a record-breaking attendance for a contemporary art exhibition in the UK. In 2003, Saatchi Gallery moved to County Hall, the Greater London Council’s former headquarters on the South Bank. It is now located at the iconic 70,000 square feet space in the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea, London.

ABOUT STELLA MCCARTNEY

Stella McCartney is a luxury lifestyle brand that was launched under the designer’s name in 2001. Stella’s approach to design emphasizes sharp tailoring, natural confidence and an effortless attitude. The brand is committed to being an ethical and modern company, believing it is responsible for the resources it uses and the impact it has on the environment. It is therefore constantly exploring innovative ways to become more sustainable, from designing to store practices and product manufacturing. As a lifelong vegetarian, Stella McCartney never uses any leather, fur, skins or feather in any products for both ethical and environmental reasons, setting a standard for the use of alternative materials. Supporting circularity, the brand is embracing new business models that will transform how clothes are produced, sold, shared, repaired and reused; promoting long lasting product with extended use to reduce environmental impact.

The brand now offers women and menswear ready-to-wear, as well as handbags, shoes and a kids line. It has also developed under licensing eyewear, lingerie, swimwear, fragrances and a long-term partnership with Adidas. The collections are currently available in more than 100 countries at wholesale, and through 60 freestanding stores including London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

SAATCHI GALLERY WELCOMES ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE TO RESPOND TO TUTANKHAMUN

Open from: 2 November 2019

Please note that entry into this exhibition requires admission to the main exhibition, Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh. Tickets can be purchased online at www.tutankhamun-london.com.

Saatchi Gallery aims to bring contemporary art to a wider audience by providing an innovative programme platform for emerging international and local artists. For this year’s Artist-in-Residence, Cyril de Commarque and British artist Kate Daudy will respond to the key themes explored in Tutankhamun: Treasure of the Golden Pharaoh.

Artificialis, Cyril de Commarque

Artificialis has been accompanied by a programme of talks arranged by the artist.

Artificialis takes as its starting point the Anthropocene era – the period when man first had an impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems – then looks towards the future, meditating on the effect technology and scientific advancement will have on humankind and the environment.

The artist invites the viewer to contemplate this new world, starting with the notion that Homo Sapiens will be superseded by a species of its own creation, Homo Artificialis. Rather than portray this in Utopian or Dystopian terms, Commarque interrogates his own feelings through a series of sculptural mise-en-scènes, each piece documenting the transition from one age to another.

Located on the Gallery’s second floor, the installation includes four figurative pieces are made from the crudest form of plastic waste, and in sync with the show’s themes have been created by the human hand with the assistance of robotic tools. The sculptures, which include two flower-shaped neons suspended from the ceiling, are standalone works however each is united by a common visual language. The atmosphere is heightened by a sound work created by the artist in collaboration with the composer Toni Castells.”

For press information about Cyril de Commarque, please contact Albany Arts Communications:

Mark Inglefield:

t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95
m: +44 (0) 75 84 19 95 00

Harry Dougal:

t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95
m: +44 (0) 77 69 51 25 42

@cyrildecommarque #cyrildecommarque

It Wasn’t That At All, Kate Daudy

Daudy’s multi-media exhibition, It Wasn’t That At All, explores the common interests we share as human beings. With a celebrated ability to immerse herself in the subject, Daudy has produced an installation that draws on her own reflections on home and identity, closeness to nature, faith, science and human mortality.

Over several months, Daudy has been researching Egyptology and engrossing herself in understanding the faith and traditions of Ancient Egypt. She has also been exploring contemporary surgery and ancient Egyptian medical beliefs and practices. Starting with a video wall of eyes staring out from phones and TV monitors, the multi-faceted installation immerses the viewer in a journey that explores themes common not just to the hastily buried 3,500 year old Tut, but to each of us today. Whatever our circumstances we will experience death, be forced to consider questions of family, home, identity, absence and loss. Our life is what our thoughts and actions make it.

Set in a motherboard of interconnected spaces will be Daudy’s own temporary studio where she will welcome visitors to share books and ideas and participate in workshops. Together with a London-wide map of Egyptian reference points and specially commissioned podcasts, visitors are invited to consider what most matters to us and what always connects us, whether learning from the past or from one another now.

In a small city of empty plinths and display cases dedicated to noted absence, Daudy used her distinct humour to play with the viewer’s preconceived ideas of exhibitions. Presented as a traditional gallery installation – except, absent of objects. Ranging from the ancient Egyptian fortress of Buhen, subsumed by the Nile in 1964 with the construction of the Aswan Dam, to ideas and personal recollections, the labels provoke the viewer’s imagination.

With special thanks to Caroline d’Esneval for her creative and curatorial contribution.

Her accompanying book ‘I Am Easy to Find’ is a play with words referring to the coincidental discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, hidden in plain sight under the vast tomb of Ramses VI for thousands of years.”

“The transience of life and the soul dominates Kate Daudy’s uplifting exhibition, ‘It Wasn’t That At All’. From street art that washes away, impermanent writing placed around a city to words applied to fences, stones and bridges around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, much of her carefully considered and poetic art is intended not to survive. She relishes the transitory nature of our existence on this earth, a love of the gesture for its own sake and her work embodies a rejection of consumerism. Happiness can be achieved in the ephemeral and that should be valued more by society.” – Rebecca Daniels

You can see each page here.

For press information about Kate Daudy, please contact Branch Arts:

Susie Lawson | Director, Branch Arts

t: +44 (0) 7971 007 576

@katedaudystudio #katedaudy

About Cyril de Commarque

Cyril de Commarque (b.1970) lives and works in London. de Commarque has had numerous exhibitions including a solo exhibition at MACRO and an acclaimed sound performance in London for which he built a 25-meter-long polished/mirrored boat sculpture entitled Fluxland along the river Thames. His works have been featured in prominent group shows at institutions including the Grand Palais, The Foundation Louis Vuitton, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini during the Venice Biennale alongside works by Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter and Ai Weiwei.

About Kate Daudy

Kate Daudy (b.1970) lives and works in London and is recognised for her work exploring the limits of language. Known for her written interventions in public and private spaces, Daudy’s work is based on an ancient Chinese literati practice of seeking to understand the universe through art and nature. Her observations have fed into an array of artistic disciplines including sound work, performance, interactive collaboration, photography, sculpture and large-scale installation. She commonly uses wood or felt fabric to create her writings, as well as her more characteristic ink drawings. Her words reflect or contrast with the nature of the object she makes or chooses, and value what she writes on for what it might evoke or represent.

Daudy’s work explores the limits of language. She commonly uses drawing, collage, wood or felt fabric to create works which interrogate themes affecting humanity. Every piece is highly researched and returns to her a passion ignited by Chinese studies and a profound interest in calligraphy and philosophy and in the connections between artistic and scientific fields. Her work has been executed in an array of artistic forms and disciplines including sound work, performance, interactive collaboration, photography, sculpture and large-scale installation.

In 2017, Daudy’s piece Am I My Brother’s Keeper, examined questions of home and identity in the light of the refugee crisis and has become a symbol for the work of the UNHCR. Following its installation in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London it is currently touring Spain for eight months on the invitation of the Spanish government.

Daudy has had numerous exhibitions worldwide and is engaged in regular philanthropic and activist commitments. Recent highlights include a large-scale installation of her work Am I My Brother’s Keeper inside London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. The work originally created by Daudyfor UNHCR has also been shown at Manifesta in Palermo, Manchester Art Gallery, Edinburgh International Festival.

About Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

Produced by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and IMG, and presented in London by Viking Cruises TUTANKHAMUN: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh will unveil more than 150 original objects from the tomb, 60 of which are travelling out of Egypt for the first and final time before they return for permanent display within the Grand Egyptian Museum currently under construction. In residence at the Saatchi Gallery from Saturday 2 November 2019 – Sunday 3 May 2020, the exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and is the final chance to see these glittering artefacts before they return to Egypt forever.

Tutankhamun’s Priceless Treasures to Make Final London Appearance

‘TUTANKHAMUN: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh Celebrates the Centenary of Howard Carter’s Discovery; Unprecedented Collection Coming to Saatchi Gallery in November

Produced by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and IMG, and presented by Viking Cruises

In residence at the Saatchi Gallery until 3 May 2020, the exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and is the final chance to see these glittering world heritage artefacts before they return to Egypt forever.

Explore the life of King Tutankhamun, and the storied discovery that captivated the world, through more than 150 authentic pieces from the tomb – three times the quantity that has travelled in previous exhibitions – more than 60 of which are travelling outside of Egypt for the first time.

The third of 10 cities to host TUTANKHAMUN: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh the London showing follows record-breaking stops in Los Angeles and Paris. In Los Angeles the exhibition was among the most successful in the history of the California Science Centre, while in Paris it became France’s most attended exhibition of all time with over 1.4 million visitors.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the wonder and mystery of the boy king before his priceless objects return to Egypt forever.

The exhibition ends soon. Don’t miss out on the final chance to see the treasures in the UK. Sell-outs are expected and advance booking is highly recommended.

General enquiries:[email protected]
FAQs:https://tutankhamun-london.com/your-visit/tutankhamun-london.com>

MOP CAP 2017 WINNER’S EXHIBITION

A HOUSE THEN, A MUSEUM NOW: CHAPTER ONE, WIND OF 120 DAYS

SHIRIN MOHAMMAD

25 – 29 September 2019

For her first solo exhibition in the UK, Mohammad presents a multi-media installation that immerses the viewer into a factory town that she investigated while researching areas of exile in Iran. This display was a preface to a research on the history of internal exile in Iran; a former Asbestos Industrial Complex was taken as a model of a city of exile. Different parts of the complex included accommodation for the workers and their families, accommodation for the managers, engineers and their families, a mosque, the main factory building and the asbestos mine at the foot of the mountain. It is located in a desert climate exposed to the Wind of 120 Days; today all factory grounds are deserted.

About Shirin Mohammad (Born in 1992)

Shirin Mohammad was born in Tehran, Iran. Her practice develops in various mediums such as video and sound to sculpture, multimedia installation and short film. Through her work she scrutinizes the remains of lost, ignored, abandoned, and sometimes re-remembered archival materials which deal with the history of Iran; she draws attention to the way that history can be manipulated by adding a layer of documentary intervention to her overarching fictional conceit.

The Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP) is a global search for the next generation of contemporary Iranian visual artists. The central goal of the prize is to provide an opportunity for gifted artists to gain international exposure, and through doing this, make a notable contribution to the long-term advancement of Iranian arts and culture worldwide. Judges of the 2017 prize included: Hans- Ulrich Obrist (director of Serpentine Galleries),Aaron Cezar (director of Delfina Foundation), Ebi Melamed (collector), Fereydoon Ave (artist and curator), Vassif Kortun (curator) and Maaike Schoorel (artist). Selection committee included:Negar Azimi (writer and the senior editor of Bidoun), Sohrab Kashani (artist and Curator) and Tirdad Zolghadr (curator, writer and founding member of Shahrzad Design Collective).

Mind Zero presents a new body of works by British artist Nancy Cadogan and marks her first solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. Nancy’s paintings reward those who look deeply and with care; they capture the joy of thoughtful observation, of delighting in the things we surround ourselves with. With this exhibition, Nancy goes beyond mere observation to reveal the inner workings of her mind through imagined compositions.

Nancy’s paintings encourage the viewer to engage in mindful contemplation and explore how we inhabit the space, and the way one’s mind flits between places, things and memories. There is an emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline, and optical effects are achieved through the balance of colour instead of perspective and shadow. Her works touch on the theme of Japonaiserie (a term coined by Vincent van Gogh to express the influence of Japanese art in his work) in their smooth surfaces and pleasing ukiyo-e arrangement of forms.

The works speak of a pleasure in the beauty of the everyday: a chine resting on a book, mugs of tea, scented lilies, splendid foliage and flowering potted plants. The arrangement of things is dreamlike but not surreal, echoing the way our surroundings often become unfocused when in deep contemplation.

More sensory than literal, the scenes suggest the way a wandering mind slips over things perceived, the way ideas are connected by objects and how thoughts spill into each other. The paintings collapse boundaries and the conscious and unconscious are simultaneously present, in the real and imagined. Colour is also used vividly; bold sections of cerulean and blue, magenta and emerald green carry the immediacy of Nancy’s joy in painting. She takes pleasure in process and composition in a way that is reminiscent of David Hockney’s celebratory landscapes. Nancy says,

“This is home, this is where I paint, and I am ready to share that now. We gain so much pleasure from the environments we create, the gardens we sow, the things we collect. It is often in the small details of domesticity, or in the order of our work and materials, that we find the most joy. In a way they are about how I respond emotionally to the place I live, how my mind collects images, how I analyse or ruminate on my response, then turn to painting for resolution.”

Mind Zero follows the success of Nancy’s 2018 solo exhibition, Still Reading at Shapero Rare Books which presented a series of intimately scaled still-life paintings, each featuring a closed book paired with an emotive object. In these, she created works that stimulated ‘slow looking’ encouraging the viewer to take their time.

About Nancy Cadogan (Born in 1979)

Nancy Cadogan is a British figurative painter living in the UK. She attended City and Guilds of London Art School and Canterbury Christ Church University from which she graduated with a Degree in Fine Art Painting in 2002. Nancy moved to New York shortly thereafter, sharing a studio in the Starrett-Lehigh Building with artist Franco Ciarlo. After solo shows at Frost & Reed, New York in 2005 and 2006, she returned to the UK for a solo show at Sladmore Contemporary, London in 2008. Most recently she has featured in group shows in Miami and Southampton, USA and in The Blue Edition show in Knightsbridge, London. In 2008, Nancy was named as one of the ‘Top 20 New British Art Talents’ by Tatler magazine, describing her as ‘the new Paula Rego’. In 2017 she was one of 93 women artists chosen to exhibit their work in The Ned, London, for its permanent Vault 100 exhibition highlighting the disparity between male and female CEOs.

Presented by

Nancy Cadogan Studio

SWEET HARMONY: RAVE | TODAY is an immersive retrospective exhibition devoted to presenting a revolutionary survey of rave culture through the voices and lenses of those who experienced it.



The exhibition, opening 12 July 2019, will recapture the new world that emerged from the acid house scene and narrates the ascendancy of rave culture with the youth of today. Saatchi Gallery’s Director Philly Adams alongside co-curator Kobi Prempeh have assembled a comprehensive panel of visionaries including; Sheryl Garratt, Agnes Bliah, Juan Rincon (Voltage and SCI-Arc), Jorge Nieto (Creative Director of Village Underground) and Craig Richards, all of whom have made significant contributions in the execution of the exhibition. Their combined reflections have culminated in a unique and timely production staged over two main floors of the Gallery.



Sweet Harmony will feature multimedia room installations and audio-visual works by some of the rave movements’ most prolific and authentic visual commentators. The acid house revolution will be charted through typographic accounts, photo stories, live music events, talks and panel discussions by the movements’ architects and influencers. By reliving the revolution through the voices and lenses of those who experienced it, Sweet Harmony will portray the new world that emerged from the club scene of the 80s and 90s.



Headlining the experience are the artists and observers who captured and archived the atmosphere surrounding one of the biggest countercultural movements of the twentieth century, including photographers Tom Hunter, Vinca Petersen, Ted Polhemus, Dave Swindells and Mattko. Visitors of Sweet Harmony are invited to step into the glory days of rave culture and immerse themselves in the visually stimulating recollections, accompanied by Spotify curated playlists by music personalities related to the sub-genres of Detroit Techno, Acid House, Happy Hardcore, UK Garage, and Grime.



Saatchi Gallery will be hosting an exciting programme of live events in Gallery 10 alongside the main exhibition; bringing together an array of commissioned artworks and sound installation pieces from electronic musicians and visual artists including Lost Souls of Saturn, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), Weirdcore and Conrad Shawcross.”



<|>Sweet Harmony will run from 12 July until 14 September 2019.

About the Artists

Dominic from Luton (born in Luton)

Rave would not have happened were it not for the boredom of suburbia and rural Britain. Dominic From Luton’s visual language draws on his relationship with his hometown Luton. His photographs invite audiences to consider how contemporary conditions such as history, identity, geography, space, place and culture, impact our daily lives.

James Alec Hardy (born in Colchester)

Immersing audiences with his video installation art, James Alec Hardy traces the history and development of perceptions in contemporary technologies. He explores the way colour intrinsically behaves, questioning ideas of visual perception and our relationship to digital technologies. He has previously exhibited at Kristin Kjellegjerde, London; ArtMoorHouse, London; FOLD Gallery, London; Vanity Projects; New York, amongst others. He currently lives and works in London.

Tom Hunter (born in London)

In the wake of the introduction of the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act in 1994, artist Tom Hunter set off from Hackney with a group of friends on a bus journey that was to take them to festivals and gatherings in Continental Europe. Hunter documented this odyssey in what became known as Le Crowbar, sharing with Sweet Harmony audiences the experiences of the free party traveller community.

Vinca Petersen (born in Britain)

Vinca Petersen is a photographer, installation, multimedia and performance artist engaging in the area of social practice. Her works document the expanded portrait of the generation’s collective identity and emerge from a social and political engagement with underrepresented communities. Petersen’s photography portrays close-up encounters of the 90s rave club-scene with an unflinching female gaze, capturing the unseen stories of the acid house scene at its peak in 1989 in raw ‘being-in-the-moment’ form. Through the vision of Petersen’s own journey, audiences are immersed in the party scene through the lens of a female raver. Her photo series archiving the techno-fuelled raves have been released internationally in No System (1999) with legendary publisher Gerhard Steidl.

Ted Polhemus (born in New Jersey, United States)

With his photography taken of ravers, Ted Polhemus explores and celebrates the extraordinary ways popular culture opens a wider into a broader understanding of society. Polhemus works as a marketing consultant, exhibition advisor and coordinator for special events including the ‘Streetstyle’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and ‘Style Surfing’ at the Karyn Lovegrove Gallery (Melbourne). His works have been exhibited at The Photographers Gallery, London.

Derek Ridgers (born in Chiswick)

Renowned pop culture photographer Derek Ridgers has spent over four decades capturing the explosion of subcultures from the 1970s to the present. Whilst he is best known for capturing the rise of early skinheads and Punk and the seismic scenes that existed in dark underground subcultures, acid house also caught Ridgers’ critical gaze and will feature as part of the exhibition.

Conrad Shawcross (born in London) and Mylo (born in Scotland)

<|>Conrad Shawcross will present an elevated overturned vehicle, with wheels spinning, as his own riff on the revellers who would squash into cars to drive around motorways, seeking out telling laser beams and lights that promised the revelry within.



Shawcross’ sculptural work encourages visitors to explore forms beyond their physical boundaries. Shawcross is the youngest living member of the Royal Academy and a previous Artist in Residence at the Science Museum between 2009 and 2011. In recent years he has exhibited at London’s Hayward Gallery, Tate Britain, the Musee d’art Contemporain in Lyon, ARTMIA in Beijing and has been commissioned for a number of public art projects.



<|>Myles MacInnes (Mylo) is a leading light within the Scottish pantheon of DJs. Famed for his 2004 debut album, Destroy Rock & Roll, Mylo has remixed for artists such as Amy Winehouse, Moby and The Killers. Mylo’s composed piece will be combined with Shawcross’ elevated overturned vehicle on a collaborative immersive installation for the exhibition.

Mattko (Matthew Smith)

The 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Act criminalized free parties and in accordance with its pivotal effect on rave culture is given prominent billing in Sweet Harmony. West Country photographic artist Mattko (Matthew Smith) documented the before, during and after of that process in his acclaimed book Exist to Resist, which tracks the history of rave activism, eco-protest and grass roots opposition from 1989 to 1997. With Sunnyside his sound system partners in rave crime he travelled the country making diary documentary work of personal truth to counter mass media demonization. His reportage depicts the raves they threw and the demonstrations they took part in as part of their daily lifestyle. More than ever a working contemporary artist Matt’s work now tracks 30 years of the evolution of British rave culture from outsider phenomenon to massive creative industry.

Ewen Spencer (born in Newcastle upon Tyne)

Ewen Spencer is a filmmaker and photographer chronicling youth cultures and subcultures around the world. Spencer’s photography draws a correlation between music genres and its influence on the style and sociology of the current generation – in turn raising questions concerning style and music when a multicultural, working class youth pre-dated social media and the internet. He has collaborated with notable musicians including The White Stripes, and has worked for Channel 4, Nike, and Adidas.

Dave Swindells (born near Bath, based in London)

Dave Swindells documented a wide variety of subcultures and club scenes from warehouse parties to Leigh Bowery’s Taboo before the explosion of acid house and rave began in the late 1980s. Swindells wrote about the clubs each week as Nightlife Editor at Time Out and also photographed the events for i-D, The Observer and The Face. His era-defining images set the scene for the spirit of the time, focusing on the ravers themselves and immersing visitors in the clubs, disused factories, bucolic rural locations and festivals as rave expanded in the 1990s.

Chelsea Louise Berlin (born in London)

Artist Chelsea Louise Berlin draws on her vast collection of ephemera from the early 1980s onwards to celebrate the lo-fi visual culture intrinsically linked to the UK club scene. With the archives tracing the history of club culture, her array of visual artefacts references her artworks. She takes the crucial parts of rave’s aesthetics into stunningly creative bodies of work to recall the acid house movement and its spread across the globe.

Seana Gavin (based in London)

Seana Gavin’s photographs document her life as part of Spiral Tribe, the sound system collective that influenced club culture for a decade onwards since its formation in 1990. Gavin was heavily involved in the free party movement from 1993 to 2003, spending long periods of time in convoys journeying with the collective. Her selection of photographs captures her unique perspective of life on the move and provide an alternative look on society. Gavin has been profiled in Dazed, Wonderland, AnOther Magazine, Twin, i-D Magazine, and Super/collider.

Project Zoltar

Celebrating fifteen years as London’s leading underground guerrilla multi-platform collective, Project Zoltar return as collaborators within Sweet Harmony’s Rave Room, creating an installation that will house live DJ sets. One of the founding collaborators alongside Kieron Livingstone, Dan Macmillan describes Zoltar as the “bastard child of acid house and punk rock, a Molotov cocktail of art, film, visual and clothing that imbues social commentary through our creations.”

Carsten Nicolai (born in Berlin)

Carsten Nicolai is an artist and musician known for his production work as Alva Noto and is part of a generational movement that works intensively in between music, art and science. Diverse musical projects include collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ryoji Ikeda (cyclo), Blixa Bargeld or Mika Vainio. Nicolai toured extensively as Alva Noto through Europe, Asia, South America and the US. Nicolai will be exclusively providing visuals and beats from his recent UNIEQAV tour.

Lost Souls Of Saturn

Lost Souls of Saturn is a multidisciplinary project from Seth Troxler (electronic music DJ and producer) and Phil Moffa (DJ, producer and sound installation artist), combining music, imagery, and storytelling into an inextricably linked whole. ‘Transmission’ is a collaboration between the duo and Aaron Kulik (visuals), Marc Ippon de Romda (light Installation), ATO Designs (production design) and Andrew Lochhead (concept development). The interactive and immersive installation represents not only a significant creative output by the artists involved, but serves as a contemporary example of electronic music and rave’s ongoing and boundary pushing dialogue with the visual arts. Transmission premiered during Art Basel in June 2019, before making its UK debut at Sweet Harmony.

Jeremy Deller (born in London)

Jeremy Deller is a conceptual, video and installation artist working collaboratively to create works that instigate social interventions. Through an involvement with other people in the creative process, the Turner prize-winning artist deals with strong political aspects and acknowledges the power of collaboration. Deller’s works invite active participation, and present freedom of expression as a social vector to initiate dialogue between cultures, people, part, present, and what the future could be.

Minnie Griffith and Max Mcgarvie (based in Berlin)

Griffith and Mcgarvie grew up with Spiral Tribe and the Mutoid Waste Company, attending their first festivals during their formative years and developing a lifelong creative passion from their experiences at the heart of the rave movement. The two young DIY artists make electronic music, vivid graphics, and dynamic installations that are participatory and immersive. Just as raves occupied and transformed abandoned spaces, Max and Minnie invite audiences to collectively experience the essence and spirit of today’s raves, alongside consumerist mirage that raves subverted through collective experience.

Weirdcore (based in London)

Creating a commissioned piece for Sweet Harmony is Weirdcore; an experimental design and animation creator pushing the boundaries of consciousness and visual interpretation. He has collaborated with some of the most exciting modern artists and directors such as Aphex Twin, Charlie XCX, Skrillex, and Mos Def. Most recently, Weirdcore has created the CG world for Tame Impala’s “Cause I’m a Man” and is currently working alongside M.I.A on her new album visuals.

Adrian Fisk (born in Devon)

Adrian Fisk has documented youth counter-culture against the 1990s socio-political background, exploring themes of globalisation, urbanism and social activism. Fisk’s works have been featured in National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Vogue, i-D Magazine, and The Economist and exhibited internationally. His current work explores the theme of the ‘passage of the soul, during a journey of healing, through the use of psychedelic plant medicine’.

His short film installation commissioned by the Saatchi Gallery, ‘Burning Extinction’ (2019) captures the energy and intensity of the Extinction Rebellion climate protests in Oxford Circus London to the 1996 soundtrack ‘Babylon is Burning’ by Zion Train; a seminal track of the environmental movement in the 1990s.

Cleo Campert (based in Amsterdam)

Cleo Campert has been a recorder of the infamous RoXY’s parties; capturing friends as well as famous artists and DJs from all around the world to showcase the 90s venue’s historical impact on the rave scene. Her photographs archive the private after-parties, taken at urban, underground spaces that occupied the acid house scene.

Colin Nightingale and Stephen Dobbie

Creating Sweet Harmony’s experiential room “Getting to the Rave” are Stephen Dobbie and Colin Nightingale, who work on projects that involve immerse storytelling and challenge conventional forms of interacting with art through transformative ways. They most recently collaborated with Saatchi Gallery to create Beyond the Road, a multi-sensory world merging the worlds of visual arts, music and film.

Liam Young (born in Australia)

Liam Young uses speculative design, film and the visualisation of imaginary cities to open up discussions surrounding urban existence, and the roles of architecture and entertainment. His work explores the increasingly blurred boundaries among film, fiction, design and storytelling with the aim to imagining the future of the city. Young’s body of films use new technologies of image making, including drones and laser scanners, to narrate the urban implications that these systems give rise to.

Cyril de Commarque (born in France)

Artist Cyril de Commarque designs unique and interactive soundscape installations and architectural projects to reveal the importance of taking action as a collective for social change. Most recently, the artist created ‘Fluxland’, an interactive that saw the conversion of a former freight boat along the Thames into the platform hosting discussions surrounding art, philosophy and science.

His polyhedron installation piece ‘My Eden Is A Lie’ (2018) is a recurrent shape made of neon, metal and recycled plastic and symbolises a state of melancholia in response to what Cyril states as ‘our lost quest for a better world’.

Aida Bruyère (born in Mali)

Aida Bruyère creates visual works that are inspired by mainstream media and the symbolic codes of popular culture. Bruyère has taken from her own practice of the popular dancing cultures Booty Shake and Dancehall, uncovering an exclusively female ‘dancehall battle’ from which she draws her ‘Special Gyal’ project; an inventory of movements and postures that some women have appropriated so as to seek their empowerment against the tide of sexist and violent lyrics of the accompanying music.

Anna-Lena Krause (based in Berlin)

With her photo-series ‘The Aftermaths’, Anna-Lena Krause explores the ways sociological and cultural phenomena has shaped today’s youth. With a focus on identity, and the connections between people, Krause’s works question ideas of human diversity and similarities. She has had numerous group exhibitions, including the Voices Off in Arles (2016) and the European Months of Photography in Berlin (2016).

Matthew Wilkinson (born in England)

Matthew is an interdisciplinary artist that works to encounter, unravel and expose the hierarchical structures that govern our lives. Striving to provide a new lens on established situations through any means necessary. His work has been shown in London, Vienna and Los Angeles.

Molly Macindoe (born in Qatar)

Since the late 1990s, Molly Macindoe has been meticulously capturing the underground rave scene from an insider’s perspective. Shooting a world so removed from the throes of mainstream culture, Molly has created a body of work as authentic as the subculture she follows. Once described as an ‘unashamed champion of individuality’, she has provided unprecedented visual insight into an empowered world free of boundaries. Her ground-breaking book Out of Order documents her journey through ten years of the Free Party movement and is currently on its second expanded edition. Sweet Harmony’s selection includes images from the book but also reveals her latest work, showing how the scene has since evolved, survived and thrived up until the present day, in the changing conditions of the 21st Century Britain and spread beyond Europe and to the Middle East.

Mustafa Hulusi (born in London)

Mustafa Hulusi creates visually arresting artworks that are designed to be open-ended, depicting imagery that are universal in their narrative. Hulusi’s visual graphic ‘Expander’ is the lead visual for Sweet Harmony and will be used as part of the flyposter campaign. It will also be featured along the hallways, corridors and stairwells of Saatchi Gallery during the exhibition. Most recently, Hulusi has exhibited his solo shows at Patrick Painter, Los Angeles (2009) and The PAGE Gallery, Seoul (2015).

Immo Klink (born in Germany)

Immo Klink creates images across the genres of art, commercial, editorial and fashion photography. Taking documentary approaches into fashion as well as introducing commercial aesthetics into documentary, art or campaigning is a constant in his visual language. Klink examines political and social matters of our time. He has worked as an aide in German politics and engages as a political activist in the UK. After graduating with a Master of the Laws he briefly joined Wolfgang Tillmans’ studio in London. Immo has photographed and directed political campaigns. He has worked with Reclaim the Streets, The Space Hijackers, Climate Camp, Occupy and Extinction Rebellion.

Shaun Bloodworth (born in Sheffield)

Beloved music photographer Shaun Bloodworth spent years capturing the British underground dance scene, and has played a key role in documenting the evolution of Rinse FM. He had taken iconic portraits of artists including Flying Lotus, Skream, Benga, Hudson Mohawke, and Jackmaster. His photographs have been featured in the National Portrait Gallery’s collections.

Toby Mott (born in London)

Like many enduring passions, Toby Mott’s relationship with music started when he was a teenager. Mott’s career as an artist, designer and collector, stretches from co-founding East London art group the Grey Organisation in the early 1980s to creating the cover artwork for De La Soul’s 1989 breakthrough album 3 Feet High And Rising. The Mott Collection his expansive personal collection of subculture ephemera has recently led to curating exhibits and publishing several books. The Mott Collection has been exhibited widely including New York, London and Los Angeles.

Kindly supported by

Jack Arts Spotify SCI-Arc Dazed Pioneer DJ Roland L-Acoustics Village Underground

Presented by Vigo Gallery



When Ibrahim El-Salahi is drawing he gets lost in his work and has temporary respite from his chronic back problems. At 88 the ‘Godfather of African Modernism’ says it is the only time he has let up from the pain.



For the last two years he has created an extraordinary body of work from the comfort of an armchair, refusing to let physical restriction limit his ambition. He makes around 180 miniature drawings in pen and ink on the back of medicine packets and envelopes after consuming their contents.



These are drawings in their own right but they are also seeds for a very ambitious project. He wants to make larger scale work within his constraints and achieves this by using the drawings as a source or nucleus from which to create large unique mono-print paintings transferred by screen. The image is impressed onto strong woven linen canvas many times over until a thick inky texture is achieved, amplifying the character of the marks. Limited by his physical constraint this method allows him to do something that otherwise would have not been possible.



This approach of playing with scale and ways of engaging the viewer is not without precedent. Throughout his career he has returned to the nucleus versus the whole and the organic opening up of an image.



When he was in prison in the 1970s he drew on small scraps of cement casings, which he would join together whilst the guards were not watching to create a whole. Thereafter all his black and white works were expansive in nature, such as starting with the nucleus and adding pieces of paper, letting the work grow organically, or in series within notebooks.*



As far back as the 1950s Ibrahim was contemplating how to engage people’s attention, hence his first forays into what became known as the School of Khartoum. Disappointed by the lack of attention from his fellow countrymen and women when he showed his Slade work at the Grand Hotel in Khartoum in the late 1950s, he noted that by writing in Arabic calligraphy on the drawings it attracted interest and people paused to read. From there the words and letters slowly evolved as he explored the pictorial qualities and hidden shapes within calligraphic forms. It was a practical means to an end, a way into the work and a communication. The pain relief imagery now also includes a nod to these early works, as he makes use of the pictorial possibilities of braille on the medicine packets.



This body of work made despite and because of circumstance allows the viewer to delve into the mind of the artist and experience his memories of a long and fruitful life. Since completion of this project the artist has been inspired re-entering his new studio for the first time in over two years.

Biography

Born in Sudan in 1930, Ibrahim El-Salahi is one of the most important living African artists and a key figure in the development of African Modernism. El-Salahi grew up in Omdurman, Sudan and studied at the Slade School in London. On his return to Sudan in 1957, he established a new visual vocabulary, which arose from his own pioneering integration of Sudanese, Islamic, African, Arab and Western artistic traditions. In 2013 Ibrahim El-Salahi became the first African artist to be given a full retrospective at Tate Modern. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; The British Museum, London; Tate Modern, London; The Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi; The Ashmoleum Museum, Oxford, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; The National Gallery, Berlin, and many others.



* The Guggenheim this January purchased a notebook of 83 drawings completed in the run up to his solo retrospective at Tate Modern in 2013. His prison diary was also purchased last year by MOMA and has just been co-published in Arabic and English editions with the Sharjah Art Foundation. The way he diligently set about producing this most recent body of work echoes the approach applied to these landmark works. It serves as a record of memory and contemporary experience fused with ambition to communicate.

CARMIGNAC PHOTOJOURNALISM AWARD: ‘ARCTIC: NEW FRONTIER’ BY YURI KOZYREV AND KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN

15 March – 11 June 2019



Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen (NOOR) were awarded the 9th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award dedicated to the Arctic. The endowment allowed them to carry out their pioneer double polar expedition ‘Arctic: New Frontier’.



Yuri Kozyrev travelled the route of the Russian maritime ports of the Arctic, accompanying the last remaining Nomadic people of the region, the Nenets, during their seasonal movement known as transhumance. This was interrupted for the first time in the Nenets’ history in 2018, because of the melting of the permafrost, and Kozyrev skirted the coast of the Barents Sea in the north of the country, and travelled aboard the Montchegorsk, the first container ship to use the Northern Sea route unassisted. He encountered people who had been made ill by nickel mining in Norilsk, and then travelled to Murmansk, where the first floating nuclear power plant is under secret construction.



Kadir van Lohuizen started his journey on the Norwegian island of Spitzberg in the Svalbard archipelago. He then followed the Northwest Passage, which is now the shortest route between Europe and Asia thanks to the melting ice. In Greenland, he met scientists who have recently discovered the existence of frozen rivers beneath the ice-cap, which are directly contributing to the planet’s rising water levels. South of Cornwallis Island, off the coast of Canada, he lived in the small community of Resolute, which has recently been home to a training facility for the Canadian Army, as climate change has led to ever-increasing routes through the Arctic region.Finally, he travelled to Kivalina, an indigenous village on the northern tip of Alaska, which, according to current forecasts, will disappear underwater by 2025.



The forces of tourism, militarisation, exploitation of gas and mineral resources, and the opening of trade routes mean that the Arctic is today the site of clashes between countries and multinationals who are locked in a chaotic competition for control of these zones, which have taken on strategic importance in the history of humankind due to the effects of global warming



The photographs in ‘Arctic: New Frontier’ by Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen are an alarming testimony to the speed of transformation in the region and the upheavals that are taking place on a global scale.



About the Artists



Yuri Kozyrev



Yuri Kozyrev (Russia, 1963) has witnessed many world changing events. He started his career documenting the col- lapse of the Soviet Union, capturing the rapid changes in the former USSR for the LA Times during the 90s. In 2001, Yuri Kozyrev started to cover international news, working in Afghanistan and Iraq as a photographer for TIME Magazine. Yuri Kozyrev has received numerous honors for his work, including several World Press Photo Awards, the OPC’s Oliver Rebbot Award, the ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism, the Frontline Club Award, the Visa d’or News and the Prix Bayeux-Calvados, and was named 2011 Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International competition.



Kadir van Lohuizen



Born in The Netherlands in 1963, Kadir van Lohuizen started his carrier as a photo-journalist in 1988 by reporting the Intifada. During the mid-1990s, he has covered conflicts in Africa and the aftermaths of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He is best known for his long-term projects documenting seven rivers of the world, which he roamed from source to mouth.



Kadir van Lohuizen has received numerous prizes and awards in photojournalism. In 2000 and 2002 he was a jury member of the World Press Photo contest and is currently on the supervisory board of the World Press Photo Foundation.



About the Carmignac Photojournalism Award:



In 2009, while media and photojournalism faced an unprecedented crisis, Edouard Carmignac created the Carmignac Photojournalism Award to support photographers in the field. Directed by Emeric Glayse, it funds annually the production of an investigative photo reportage on human rights violations and geostrategic issues in the world. Selected by an international jury, the laureate receives a 50.000€ grant, enabling them to carry out an in-depth research in the field, with logistical support from Fondation Carmignac. The latter presents a travelling exhibition and the publication of a monograph upon their return.



The 10th edition is dedicated to the Amazon and will address issues related to its deforestation. The laureate will be announced at the festival Visa pour l’Image, Perpignan, in September 2019.



About Fondation Carmignac



Created in 2000 under the initiative of Édouard Carmignac, Fondation Carmignac is a corporate foundation with an art collection of about 300 works, which also funds the Carmignac Photojournalism Award. The Collection, presented and shared inside the company’s offices, celebrates American art from the 1960s to the 1980s, with iconic works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to 20th and 21st century masterpieces by Gerhard Richter, Willem de Kooning, Martial Raysse, Miquel Barceló or Ed Ruscha, and contemporary art including works by Zhang Huan and El Anatsui. In 2018, the Fondation opened a public site in Porquerolles, a Mediterranean island, where visitors can discover contemporary artworks of the Carmignac collection in the beautiful surroundings of a national park, along with a sculpture garden and temporary exhibitions every year. The island is not the result of a random decision: “As in all legends or initiatory journeys, the voyage to the island is always a dual crossing -both physical and psychological. It is about crossing over to the other side,” states the Director of the foundation, Charles Carmignac.



From the April 13th till November 3rd 2019, the Fondation will present a new exhibition.