NIR ALTMAN

BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES
SRIJON CHOWDHURY, INGA DANYSZ, EVA GOLD
MARIE MATUSZ, MARINA SULA

CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE
FEBRUARY 13 - MARCH 21, 2020
EXTENDED UNTIL APRIL 20, 2020 ONLY BY APPOINTMENT

Barely Furtive Pleasures can be experienced as a ‘psychological theatre’, a play in which each act shifts from submission to control, invisible to (hyper)visible and from desire to disgust - continuously affecting: explicitly and subconsciously.

Inhabiting conflicting positions at once, each of the works toy with the implicit and the explicit, the subject and the object. Carrying with them beauty, horror, disagreement and dissolution, they illuminate fluid demarcations, unstable territories and the unconscious. It is here in the spaces of repression, where power, control and agency are flipped, spun and recast, it is here that the psyche is split open, revealed.

While the works are presented static in the space, they each provoke a specific choreography, a gesture, a liaison - a scene possibly yet to unfold. Ambivalent in its own chronology, the exhibition exists in a moment far gone and yet still to take place, asking questions around the relapse of time and history, and our memory of how things came to be. The works’ shifting positions, often covert whilst in plain sight, reveal the transitory nature of power, control and agency: who is looking, who is in control, what is at stake? Both unsettling and alluring, they stage a psychological and emotional break up - psychosis as a form of catharsis.

The exhibition explores both presence and negation, with works that are suggestive of a body but refuse its spectacle - unconsumed, ghostly and lingering. It is in this haunting space, of push and pull, of duality and multiplicity, where the disentanglement and dissolution of the self might begin.

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES
CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES
CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

MARIE MATUSZ - THE WORLD WANTS TO BE DECEIVED THEREFORE DECEIVE IT, 2019
ALUMINUM, NEOPERNE, CARDBOARD, FABRIC ON A PLEXIGLAS PEDESTAL, 96 x 64 x 6 CM

MARIE MATUSZ - THE WORLD WANTS TO BE DECEIVED THEREFORE DECEIVE IT (DETAIL), 2019
ALUMINUM, NEOPERNE, CARDBOARD, FABRIC ON A PLEXIGLAS PEDESTAL, 96 x 64 x 6 CM

SRIJON CHOWDHURY- FENCED FLOWERS AT NIGHT, 2018
OIL ON LINEN, 182,2 x 152,4 CM
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ANTOINE, PARIS

MARINA SULA - NO NEEDS, 2019
STEEL, LEATHER, SEAT, BELTS, 160 x 80 x 40 CM
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GABRIELE SENN GALLERY, VIENNA

SRIJON CHOWDHURY- FENCED FLOWERS AT NIGHT, 2018
OIL ON LINEN, 182,2 x 152,4 CM

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ANTOINE, PARIS

MARINA SULA - NO NEEDS, 2019
STEEL, LEATHER, SEAT, BELTS, 160 x 80 x 40 CM

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GABRIELE SENN GALLERY, VIENNA

MARINA SULA - NO NEEDS (DETAIL), 2019
STEEL, LEATHER, SEAT, BELTS, 160 x 80 x 40 CM

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GABRIELE SENN GALLERY

SRIJON CHOWDHURY- CANDLE, 2018
OIL ON LINEN, 40,6 x 30,5 CM

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ANTOINE, PARIS

INGA DANYSZ- IMPOSTURES, 2018
GLASS INSTALLATION, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

INGA DANYSZ- IMPOSTURES (DETAIL), 2018
GLASS INSTALLATION, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

EVA GOLD - C.T & N.H, 2019
HAND CARVED IMPERIAL LEATHER SOAP, 5 x 8 x 2 cm

EVA GOLD - N.H, 2019
HAND CARVED IMPERIAL LEATHER SOAP, 5 x 8 x 2 cm

EVA GOLD - C.T, 2019
HAND CARVED IMPERIAL LEATHER SOAP, 5 x 8 x 2 cm

EVA GOLD - A CHANGED MAN (THE PERV), 2019
VULCANISED RUBBER, GAFFER TAPE, STEEL, BOLTS, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

EVA GOLD - A CHANGED MAN (THE PERV), 2019
VULCANISED RUBBER, GAFFER TAPE, STEEL, BOLTS, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

MARINA SULA - FREE GIRL CAM, 2019
UV-PRINT BEHIND PLEXIGLAS, DISBAND, STEEL, 120 x 90 cm

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GABRIELE SENN GALLERY, VIENNA

INGA DANYSZ- IMPOSTURES, 2018
GLASS INSTALLATION, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

INGA DANYSZ- IMPOSTURES, 2018
GLASS INSTALLATION, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES - CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES - CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES
CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

EXHIBITION VIEW - BARELY FURTIVE PLEASURES
CURATED BY OLIVIA AHERNE - NIR ALTMAN, MUNICH

(RIGHT) MARIE MATUSZ - THE WORLD WANTS TO BE DECEIVED THEREFORE DECEIVE IT, 2019
ALUMINUM, NEOPERNE, CARDBOARD, FABRIC ON A PLEXIGLAS PEDESTAL, 96 x 64 x 6 CM

(LEFT) INGA DANYSZ- IMPOSTURES, 2018
GLASS INSTALLATION, DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

MARIE MATUSZ - THE WORLD WANTS TO BE DECEIVED THEREFORE DECEIVE IT (DETAIL), 2019
ALUMINUM, NEOPERNE, CARDBOARD, FABRIC ON A PLEXIGLAS PEDESTAL, 96 x 64 x 6 CM

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SRIJON CHOWDHURY (b. 1987, Dhaka, Bangladesh, lives and works between Los Angeles and Portland). Chowdhury’s dream-like paintings reference diverse histories, contemporary and ancient mythologies and mysticism. Recent solo exhibitions include: A Divine Dance, Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA (2019) and Revelation Theater, curated by Antoine Levi, Conceptual Fine Arts Live, Milano, Italy (2019). His work has been included in group exhibitions at Foxy Production, New York, NY; Magasins Généraux, Pantin, France and White Columns, New York, NY all 2019.

INGA DANYSZ (b.1990 in Warsaw, Poland, lives and works in Frankfurt/Main, Germany). Danysz’s sculptures and installations focus on the radical changes of power structures over time, questioning the paradoxes of control society and its denial of repressive power structures. Her work was recently presented at Bielefelder Kunstverein, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como and Skaftfell Center for Visual Arts, Seydisfjoerdur. She recently published the catalogue Insufficient Funds, as well as the artistic book Metamorphosis of the 21st Century Minotaur.

EVA GOLD (b. 1994 in Manchester, lives and work in London, UK). Gold’s practice incorporates sculpture, installation, moving image and writing; often combining these media in a process of fragmented storytelling, navigating feelings of desire and disgust, and their often uncomfortable proximity. In 2020 Gold will present a new commission Perv City at Parrhesiades and CCA Goldsmiths, London. Recent exhibitions include: Die Wohnung (The Dwelling), SET Project Space, London, Dinner Party, Royal Academy of Arts, London, both 2018.

MARIE MATUSZ (b. 1994 in Toulouse, France, lives and works in Basel). Her practice questions philosophical, sociological and linguistic theories of power and justice, from the Middle Ages through to present times, questioning their comprehensibility and depictability. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Golden Hour, Atelier-Amden, Amden (2019) and The closest moment of the night is at the same time the closest to the day, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2019).

MARINA SULA (b. 1991 in Lezhe, Albania, lives and works in Vienna, Austria). Sula’s practice spans installation, photography, sculpture and digital drawing, and explores the relationship of subject/object, power, love and desire. Solo exhibitions include: tba, Bazament, Tirana (2020); I’m Sorry, I can’t, don’t hate me at Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna (2019); Warten at Viennacontemporary (2019) for which she was granted the Bildrecht solo award for the best solo presentation.

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CURATOR

OLIVIA AHERNE (b.1991) is a curator from/based in the UK where she works as the Assistant Curator of Exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary. She has curated exhibitions/projects for Art Night London, SAFA Shanghai, LUX and Lewisham Arthouse amongst others. In 2018 she was awarded the NEON Curatorial Award in partnership with the NEON Foundation and the Whitechapel Gallery, and participated in the Shanghai Curators Lab.