Georges Adéagbo (b. 1942 in Cotonou, Benin) creates site-specific installations where news cuttings, posters, books, postcards, clothes and his own handwritten texts are interwoven with sculptures and paintings from Benin into complex three-dimensional collages.

Adéagbo’s work has been shown internationally since the 1990s, and especially since his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1999. He bases his work on the city that has invited him, exploring and examining its architecture, history, culture and the myriad of other aspects that make up the identity of a place. Through chains of association, autobiographical references and cultural translation he creates what has been called an ‘archaeology of knowledge’, giving rise to new narratives.

“In Georges Adéagbo’s new work for Moderna Museet, he creates a collage of events and individuals, where history, philosophy, politics and religion are recurring themes. Jesus, Queen Christina, René Descartes and Okwui Enwezor are all included in his installation. By creating new contexts and meanings, Adéagbo changes our habitual way of seeing the world,” says Matilda Olof-Ors, curator.

Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors
Co-Curator: Stephan Köhler

Find more information about the exhibition here

Programme:

Lecture by Stephan Köhler : The art scene in Benin

Tuesday, 16 June, at 6-7 pm
Where: Malongen, Nytorget 15 C, Stockholm
Language: English
Admission free, bar, Georges Adéagbo will be present

Stephan Köhler is a curator based in Hamburg and Cotonou, Benin. For many years, he has collaborated closely with Georges Adéagbo, who is being featured at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, on 28 June – 7 September, 2014. In connection with the installation of the exhibition at the Museum, Stephan Köhler will be giving a presentation on the emerging contemporary art scene in Benin and other West African countries. He will also talk about the artist’s residency run by Köhler and Georges Adéagbo in Benin since 1999.

RSVP by 15 June to c.lundqvist@modernamuseet.se  , The event is organised jointly by NKF and Moderna Museet.

Public opening and artist talk: “The Birth of Stockholm…!” / “La Naissance de Stockholm…!”, Georges Adéagbo

With: Georges Adéagbo, Stephan Köhler and Matilda Olof-Ors
Friday, 27 June, 6-8 pm
The artist talk begins at 6.30 pm
Language: English and French

Georges Adéagbo explores the historic and cultural aspects of the city or place where he exhibits his installations, building his complex collages on what he finds. Objects, books, newspapers and clothes he sourced in Stockholm and Benin are combined with illustrations and woodcuts and intertwined with the artist’s hand-written texts. Through chains of association, autobiographical references, cultural displacements and translations, Adéagbo continuously constructs new narratives.

www.modernamuseet.se