SAVVY Contemporary presents the documentary film LA PERSONNE DE GEORGES ADÉAGBO, which gives a bird’s-eye view on the Georges Adéagbo’s conceptual artistic practice.

The film is orchestrated around Adéagbo’s universe, not only seen through his own eyes, but also as perceived by Daniel Birnbaum, Carlos Basualdo, Laura Cherubini, Stephan Köhler, Pier Luigi Tazzi, Chiara Bertola, Agustín Pérez Rubio, Octavio Zaya and Okwui Enwezor in interviews. The gravity and multifacetedness of Adéagbo’s oeuvre unfold as the film director Matteo Frittelli takes the viewer on a tour of Adéagbo’s installations from his Cotonou court yard through the Palazzo Vecchio Florence, Venice Biennial 2009 to MADRE Napels.

LA PERSONNE DE GEORGES ADÉAGBO, which was premiered at the Paris Triennial in the Palais de Tokyo in 2012, is a revelation and sets a milestone in artist documentary filmmaking.

The screening will be followed by a discussion between Kerstin Schankweiler, Stephan Köhler and George Adéagbo, and open Q&A with the public.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 7.30pm 

The conceptual artist Georges Adéagbo was born in 1942 in Cotonou (Benin). He lives and works in Cotonou and Hamburg. After studying law in Abidjan and Rouen, Adéagbo returned to Benin in 1968. Until he was accidentally discovered in 1993 by a European curator, he made daily installations in his yard complex without regarding himself as an artist. In 1999 he participated in the Venice Biennale and was awarded for his installation at the Campo Arsenale. For Okwui Enwezor’s Documenta 11 in Kassel 2002, Adéagbo presented an in-situ installation, which was later acquired in a modified form by the collection of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Adéagbo is one of today’s most renowned and prolific artists with works in major collections, e.g. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Toyota City Museum and KIASMA Helsinki. Amongst many other international exhibitions, his work has been shown in: 1997 Johannesburg Biennale, 1998 Sao Paolo Biennale, 1999 Venice Biennale, 2000 PS1 New York, 2001 The Short Century by Okwui Enwezor in Museum Villa Stuck Munich, 2002 Documenta 11 Kassel, 2005 Belgique Visionnaire by Harald Szeemann in Bozar Brussels, 2006 Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2008 Palazzo Vecchio Florence, 2009 MAK Vienna, Venice Biennale, 2011 MUSAC Leòn, Kiasma ARS 11 Helsinki, 2012 Paris Triennale, Biennale Regard Benin. 

Stephan Köhler (1959) is an independent curator and researcher in cultural studies. He worked periodically with James Lee Byars since 1986, realized numerous exhibitions when curator at large for the Toyota Municipal Museum of art for ten years, for example the first presentation of Roman Opalka’s work in Japan, or the theme show “In Bed”. Since 2001 he lives and works in Benin and Germany, channelling cultural exchanges through exhibitions and artists’ residence projects. He serves as chairman for the association “Regard Benin” and was one of the three curators of the Biennial Regard Benin 2012. 

Kerstin Schankweiler is a research assistant at the Art History Institute of the Free University of Berlin in the Department of the Arts of Africa. Her dissertation “Die Mobilisierung der Dinge. Ortsspezifik und Kulturtransfer in den Installationen von Georges Adéagbo” (The mobilization of things. Site specificity and cultural transfer in the installations by Georges Adéagbo) was published by transcript Verlag in 2012. 

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