MMFA 2017 - Adel Abdessemed

CONFLICT

February 16 - May 7, 2017

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is presenting an immersive work by Franco-Algerian artist Adel Abdessemed entitled CONFLICT. Surrounding visitors on all sides, this installation features a group of 31 black chalk drawings of life-sized military figures with their guns drawn.

An additional drawing, Cri (2007) - see just above to the left - was created by the artist especially for this project. It was inspired by the Nick Ut’s famous Vietnam War photograph of the “Napalm Girl” taken following a napalm attack in 1972. 

That Nick Ut's photo shown just above has won World Press Photo competition acclaim. The naked running girl burned by the napalm and screaming from pain is Kim Phuc. She is presently a UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassador, and has been living in Canada since 1994.

In his work, Adel Abdessemed question violence and the symbolism of war images. The artist conjures from our memories an iconic photograph and allies himself with civilian victims of war and refugees. “I don’t talk, I don’t write, I scream,” he declared.

The work attempts to put a visitor into a situation when a civilian would feel total terror of being encircled by aggressive-looking, armed solders. But the true realism of such a setting is not conjured sufficiently realistically or strongly, and it remains largely an intellectual experience. It lucks the immediacy of visceral horror that people must feel in similar real situations. Nevertheless, the installation succeeds in making people to ponder on such situations and to feel a true aversion towards war, aggression, and any atrocity. 

This installation is part the Year for Peace at the Museum, a vast programme of activities and exhibitions launched in November 2016.

About Adel Abdessemed

A French national, Adel Abdessemed was born in 1971 in Constantine, Algeria. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Batna, then in Algiers and Lyons. His work has been shown at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Parasol UnitFoundation for Contemporary Art, London. In 2012, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, hosted a major retrospective of his work. In 2015, he took part in the 56th Venice Biennale. His work can be found in prestigious collections, including the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain in Geneva, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Fondation François Pinault in Venice and the Fondation Yuz in Shanghai.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.