Prinz Gholam

[Scroll down for French version / Veuillez trouver ci-dessous la version française]

"Both of us come from different continents, worlds and cultures. Since its beginning our work manifests itself consciously and purposely under the influence of cultural cannons and stereotypes. Doing art gives us freedom to subvert these prototypes and shift them into something more direct and related to our momentary existence."

—Prinz Gholam, 2022

Prinz Gholam is an artistic duo, working together since 2001. Together, they develop an artistic practice based on performative and collaborative processes that result in live performances, videos, and installations incorporating drawings, objects, photographs, and texts. Their work is an ongoing attempt to reactivate, relocate, and negotiate the self and the human body between their cultural constructs and the world in which we live. They investigate the political and social dimensions of the representations of the body, inspired by historical paintings and sculptures, as well as media sources, films, theater and literature.

This exhibition will present a collection of their latest works with video of performance sessions, stone objects, and large-scale drawings, following on from their artistic research in Rome, Italy, started during their residency at Villa Massimo in 2020.

Prinz Gholam is an artistic duo, working together since 2001 and based in Berlin, Germany. Wolfgang Prinz was born in 1969 in Leutkirch, Germany. Michel Gholam was born 1963 in Beirut, Lebanon. They have developed an artistic practice based on performative and collaborative processes that result in live performances, videos, and installations incorporating drawings, objects, photographs, and text. Their work is an ongoing attempt to reactivate, relocate, and negotiate the self and the body between their cultural constructs and the world in which we live. It consists of choreographic or visual arrangements in which Prinz Gholam use and reinterpret a range of images and postures taken from historical paintings and sculptures, films and media sources. In this way Prinz Gholam draws attention to the political and social dimensions of the human body, as seen through the history of its representation.

Prinz Gholam were recently awarded the Rome Prince with a residency at Villa Massimo in Rome, Italy, in 2020. In 2017, they took part in documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens. Solo exhibitions and recent projects include Mon coeur est un luth suspendu, Musée d'art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne, Rochechouart, France, 2022; There are eyes, Aichi Triennale, Nagoya City, Japan, 2022; the Survivor and the Dreamer, Dresden State Art Collections, Germany, 2022; While Being Others, Mattatoio, Rome, Italy, 2021; Similitude, Performance at Punta della Dogana, Pinault Collection, Venice, Italy; Speaking of Pictures, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France, 2018; Generosity, the Art of Giving, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, 2016; Faces shapes gestures tones acts places, Musée d'art moderne Centre Pompidou-Metz, France, 2010.

*****

«Nous venons tous les deux de différents continents, mondes et cultures. Depuis ses débuts, notre travail se manifeste consciemment et volontairement sous l’influence de différents canons et stéréotypes culturels. Faire de l’art nous donne la liberté de subvertir ses prototypes et de les transformer en quelque chose de plus immédiat, et connecté à notre existence passagère.»

—Prinz Gholam, 2022

Prinz Gholam est un duo d’artistes, travaillant ensemble depuis 2001. Ensemble, ils développent une pratique artistique ancrée dans un processus collaboratif et performatif, dont émergent des œuvres performatives, vidéo, et des installations constituées de dessins, d’objets, de photographies et de textes. Leur travail est une quête continue de réactiver, déplacer, négocier, l’être et le corps humain, entre les constructions culturelles et le monde dans lequel nous vivons. Ils investissent les dimensions politiques et sociales des représentations du corps, inspirés aussi bien par les peintures et sculptures d’histoires que différentes sources médiatiques, le cinéma, le théâtre et la littérature.

Cette exposition présente plusieurs de leurs dernières œuvres, vidéo de performances, pierres assemblées, et dessins de grand format, dans la continuité de leurs recherches artistiques commencées à Rome en Italie, lors de leur résidence à la Villa Massimo en 2020.