Karine Giboulo
Wellen / Waves
March 4–April 15, 2017
Art Mûr Leipzig
Spinnereistraße 7. Halle 4b
04179 Leipzig
Germany
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday 11am–6pm
T +49 341 47842926
leipzig [at] artmur.com
admin [at] artmur.com
www.artmur.com
Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
Art Mûr is pleased to present Karine Giboulo’s first solo exhibition in Germany. The Montreal-based artist has gained attention for her elaborate miniature worlds that are reminiscent of dioramas and ethnographic museum displays. Behind their precious scale and warm colours are harsh observations and critiques of the world’s economic and social ills. Past projects have brought Giboulo to China (All you can eat, 2008), Haiti (Democracy Village, 2012), India (City of Dreams, 2013) and to an Innu First Nation reserve in Natashquan, Canada (Broken Circle, 2015).
Wellen / Waves
In the discourse of contemporary art, the migrant occupies a liminal position only available in theory. Existing within the in-between space of Nation and State, culture and unculture, possessed and dispossessed, they embody a subjectivity consistently objectified and as a result rarely understood, rarely the object of empathy. To be nowhere yet everywhere, nearby however far, and forever drawn to a situation most of us take for granted—a peaceful existence in the absence of threat, starvation, genocide, execution, persecution—is their plight. Karine Giboulo’s work is relevant to our contemporary moment, not for what it represents but how it represents it. In miniature, our dominance over the fate of the migrant rests with our status as conscientious observers.
No one is illegal. Every human deserves access to peace, prosperity, and the freedom to achieve their own agency, whatever that agency may be. Should it take small figurines contained within a mock barbed wire encampment, appropriately arranged in a gallery setting to remind us of the fact that our world system has consequence and the toll of this consequence is human suffering? Occasionally, in its purest form, art holds the possibility of reminding us about the choices we make each day, and inspires within us the will to create the world we hope to see, not the world we must represent.
(Excerpt of a text by MF Rattray)
About Art Mûr
Established in 1996, Art Mûr has evolved into one of the largest private contemporary art galleries in Canada. The gallery represents both emerging and established artists with practices ranging from painting and sculpture to new media and performance art. Well-known for its dynamic programming, which includes both solo and thematic group exhibitions, Art Mûr plays an important role in the diffusion of contemporary art in Montreal and since September 2016, in Leipzig. It is a cultural hot spot where collectors, curators, and artists coalesce.
Art Mûr represents over 30 artists collected by numerous museums throughout North America and Europe and who have participated to significant events such as Venice Biennale, the Prague Biennial and the Sharjah Biennial and have won prizes as prestigious as the Sobey Art Award, the General Governor’s award, the Borduas Prize and many others. Art Mûr also initiates regular collaborations with young independent curators, curators and directors of museums.
