Blood Mountain Foundation
Asim Memishi: Tenets of Impermanent Value
23 February–3 April 2011
Opening:
Tuesday, 22 February 2011, 6–8pm
Vérhalom utca 27/c
Budapest 1025, Hungary
+36 1.326.1844
+36.30.415.2123
info [at] bloodmountain.org
www.bloodmountain.org
Opening hours: by appointment
Blood Mountain Foundation (BMF) is pleased to present new work by Asim Memishi, second participant of its Artist-in-Residence programme.
The exhibition draws on the context and history of the site of BMF as well as the architecture of the building and its surrounding. Located in the Buda district of Rosehill in a neo-baroque villa that is indicative of the Habsburg era, Blood Mountain is a street named after a violent Ottoman battle and is a symbol of Hungary’s complex history and cultural heritage. While Memishi’s work alludes specifically to these elements, it also addresses his continued examination of the relationship between power and resistance, truth and perception, and history and fiction. Using a geometric vocabulary, he examines everyday sign system through the language of triangles: mapping quotidian objects of our physical world and continually questioning their “Tenets of Impermanent Value”.
The show comprises two installations, a mural and a series of pen-on-paper drawings. Memishi’s application of techniques (chalk-line drawing) and tools (plum line) of the building trade resonate with the common practice of invaders throughout history in surveying and re-appropriating newly occupied lands. The use of raw linen represents the rough surface of uncultured land – which Buda was before the Ottoman occupation of the 16-17th centuries – while the delicate pen on paper works recall the practice of cartography. The Interspersed with measuring sticks—a stardard equipment used in surveying land—and characterised by an overall architectural language, the exhibition refers to the built-legacies left behind by occupiers of Hungarian history, which also include the Habsburgs and Soviets at and near Blood Mountain.
Jade Niklai, Director of BMF, said:
“We are delighted that our second artist-in-residence has chosen to focus on such important chapters in Hungary’s past and ones so relevant to BMF’s own locality ad identity. Memishi’s application of working methods commonly associated with the building industry, also reflect BMF’s support of cross-disciplinary thought and creative practice. BMF is hugely privileged to be showing Australian-born Memishi’s art to European audiences for the first time”.
The artist’s statement:
“BMF is at the helm of something unique, something challenging and above all, relevant and stimulating to contemporary art and practice. It is a model that extends the artist to his/her limits. It is a studio experience providing context, dialogue, process, tension and ideas. BMF is a space to enact consciousness, a place to think and work.”
Asim Memishi is an Australian-born artist committed to exploring the possibilities of the triangle, the strongest geometric shape, through what he calls ‘the cartography of the everyday’. Of Albanian heritage, the lasting influence of the Ottoman Empire is of great personal interest to Memishi and his art is at best defined as a cross-section of art, architecture and history.
Blood Mountain Foundation is a non-profit organisation committed to generating fresh discourse about contemporary culture and current affairs. Based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, it seeks inspiration from the city’s rich history and diverse cultural heritage and provides opportunities for exchange between local and international artists and the broader community through curatorial and educational programmes, residencies and special projects. The Artist-in-Residence offers up to four emerging to mid-career international artists the opportunity to live and work in Budapest for a month each year. Participants are encouraged to engage with all aspects of the city and to develop new work inspired by their experiences.
For high resolution images and other press inquiries please email info [at] bloodmountain.org
