∆ TRIANGLE FRANCE ∆

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OOLOI
Paul Maheke
Solo exhibition

Curated by Céline Kopp and Marie de Gaulejac

June 30 – September 29, 2019
Opening: Saturday 29 June, from 5:00–10:00 P.M.

Floor 3 - Tour Panorama
Friche la Belle de Mai
41 rue Jobin
13003 Marseille

For his first solo exhibition in a French institution, Paul Maheke calls in OOLOI, a third gender figure from Xenogenesis, Octavia Butler’s sci-fi trilogy published in the late 1980s. This project is a new step in his ongoing research on representations of marginalized subjectivities in the Western imagination and on the possibility of considering history through a non-human or invisible subjectivity or corporeality. In recent years, Paul Maheke’s practice revolved around the emergence of colourful territories composed of apparitions and presences. As if to escape the regime of the visible and its categorizations, these presences manifest in multiple and elusive ways from within the fluidity of transitional spaces, in-between images, texts, and objects. Stepping away from the representational, occurrences fade in the light and evade through the sonic cracks of a reality projected by the artist as an emancipatory third space where representation or words cannot hold. A distant space and time which frequencies reach our bodies. And if a body is to appear, whether the artist himself or one of his collaborators, they host a multiplicity carved through improvised gestures.

Paul Maheke’s work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Sultana, Paris; Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art (2019); Kevin Space, Vienna; Chisenhale Gallery, London; and as part of the 6th edition of Les Ateliers de Rennes, Biennale d’Art Contemporain, at Galerie Art et Essai in Rennes (2018). It has been included in many collective projects, namely the 58th Venice Biennale; at the ICA Miami (2019); Block Universe, London, in collaboration with Melika Ngombe Kolongo alias Nkisi (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris as part of «Move» festival (2018); and Baltic Triennial 13, Tallinn (2018). Upcoming projects and performances include Performa 19 in New York in November 2019. He is also currently nominated for the 21th Prix Ricard.

Performance: 30 August, 6:00 P.M.,
Paul Maheke will present an extract from SÈNSA, performance and ongoing research created in collaboration with Melika Ngombe Kolongo (Nkisi), whose next public presentation will be held as part of Performa 19 in New York next fall. This performance draws on a research into rhythm and prediction, taking its inspiration from the cosmologies of the Bantu-Kongo and articulates the complex strains of identity and representation by abstracting them in subtle ways, in particular that of marginalised voices.

OPENING HOURS
From Wednesday to Friday, 2:00–7:00 P.M.
Saturday & Sunday, 1:00 P.M.–7:00 P.M.

ADDRESS
Floor 3 - Tour Panorama
Friche la Belle de Mai
41 rue Jobin
13003 Marseille
The exhibition front desk is located on the ground floor of the Tour Panorama.

Programmed and produced by Triangle France - Astérides
Co-production: SCIC Friche la Belle de Mai
In partnership with GMEM - CNCM - Marseille
Sponsors: PICTO Méditerranée; Hôtel La Résidence du Vieux Port
Special thanks to Galerie Sultana, Paris

This exhibition is part of Plein Soleil, the Summer of contemporary art centers, a project by d.c.a., the French network of contemporary art centers.

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Paul Maheke, OOLOI, exhibition view, Triangle France - Astérides, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2019. Photo: Aurélien Mole.