Berlin, 18 March 2022 - Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc’s work intertwines his own personal history with the collective history of the Guianas, which is deeply rooted in the forests of the Amazon Basin. He reads this landscape like an archive, one marked by exploration, exploitation, rupture and loss.
For many years, Abonnenc’s research has focused on the literature of the Guyanese author Wilson Harris (1921–2018), whose ecological and decolonial vision provides the lens through which the works in the exhibition are expanded and reconfigured. In his writings, Harris establishes a connection between the psyche and the landscape, drawing from an Amerindian cosmology founded on the interconnectedness of all beings, places and times. Seen from this perspective, the rainforest becomes a realm of infinite possibilities for reshaping a postcolonial condition.
The exhibition is developed in cooperation with Lea Altner, Inka Gressel and Susanne Weiß.
Exhibition and films
The extensive floor piece made of burnt wood, An Outpost of Progress (2008/2022), references the age-old agricultural technique of slash-and-burn farming, in which small sections of forest are burnt in order to fertilise the ground and enable the planting of crops such as manioc. In the exhibition, this floor-based installation forms the basis for an intricate mesh of research, facts, narration and sensual experience, aiming to productively inhabit the space of colonial trauma.
Abonnenc’s filmic works in the exhibition emerge from this fertile ground, unfurling into a meditation on the recent history of a region of so-called French Guiana. With The Night Readers (2018), Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc revisits the Surinamese Interior War, which took place along the Maroni river from 1986 to 1992. Drawing on the archives of the French public broadcaster RFO Guyane, the film recounts the clashes between the forces of the Surinamese dictator Dési Bouterse and the Jungle Commando of his former bodyguard, Ronnie Brunswijk. The film also tells the story of the material and human devastation suffered by the civil population and of the incomplete representation of the conflict shown on the French television channel.
Wacapou, a Prologue or A Room in my Mother’s house (2018) tells a different story of the Maroni River and the communities that lived there. The small village of Wacapou is located on the right bank as one heads down the Lawa River. Further downstream, this river flows into the Maroni River. Both rivers form French Guiana’s natural border with Suriname. In 1984, Abonnenc’s mother bought a small house in the village of Wacapou. Following the outbreak of civil war in Suriname, it became less and less feasible for her to go there. The film can be seen as an introduction to an ongoing project in which tells the story of the upper Maroni River, of Creole gold miners and the environmental impact of a post-slavery economy.
The Day Reader is the second part of the exhibition cycle Gods Moving in Places which started with a group show curated by Abonnenc.
About the artist
Abonnenc’s practice, which incorporates work as an artist, researcher and curator, is committed to exploring topics neglected by colonial and postcolonial history. His works have been exhibited internationally, recent solo exhibitions include: The Music of Living Landscapes, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (DE, 2022), The Palace of the Peacock, Musée dart contemporain de la Haute-Vienne – Château de Rochechouart (FR, 2018), Concerning Solitude, Fundación Jumex, Mexico City (MX, 2018), Maintaining the Distance, Guyane Art Factory – Maison Henri et Marcelle Prévot, Cayenne (FG, 2017), and Mefloquine Dreams, MMK Frankfurt (DE, 2016). From 2016 to 2017 he was a resident at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici (IT) and in 2019 he was a guest artist at the DAAD Berlin (DE). Abonnenc is a PhD candidate at the École Doctorale Esthétique, Sciences et Technologies des Arts (EDESTA) at Université Paris 8 (FR).
Contact and opening hours ifa Gallery Berlin
ifa-Galerie Berlin
Linienstraße 139/140
10115 Berlin
25 March 2022 – 12 June 2022
Opening 24 March 2022, 17.00 – 22.00
ifa-Galerie-Berlin(at)ifa.de
www.untietotie.org
https://www.instagram.com/ifagalleryberlin/
Tuesday - Sunday 14.00 – 18.00
Thursday 14.00 – 20.00
Special opening hours Gallery Weekend
Fr 29.04., 12.00 – 21.00
Sat – Sun 30.04., 01.05., 12.00 – 19.00
In Parallel
The exhibition Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc. The Music of Living Landscapes is on show until 22 May 2022 at Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover.
Information on the exhibition
Ev Fischer, +49 (0)30 28559157, fischer(at)ifa.de
Press contact
Guido Jansen-Recken, +49 (0)30 284491 19, presse(at)ifa.de
About ifa
ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen is Germany’s oldest intermediary organisation for international cultural relations, having celebrated its centenary in 2017. It promotes a peaceful and enriching coexistence between people and cultures worldwide. ifa supports artistic and cultural exchange in exhibition, dialogue and conference programmes, and it acts as a centre of excellence for international cultural relations. It is part of a global network and relies on sustainable, long-term partnerships.
ifa is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of Baden-Württemberg and its capital Stuttgart. www.ifa.de/en