New exhibition devoted to young contemporary creation opens at the Centre Pompidou

The Centre Pompidou presents “Image into Sculpture”, a new exhibition devoted to young contemporary creation in Espace 315.

What is an image for the younger generation of artists and what is its relationship with certain media, such as sculpture and installation? “Image into Sculpture” focuses on a new approach to images through the works of four young artists born in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Navid Nuur, Nina Beier, Simon Denny and Yorgos Sapountzis.

These artists position themselves in an interdisciplinary field breaking free from the hierarchies between media, hybridising photography, video, the Internet, television, mobile phones, magazines, texts, found or deliberately produced images. Artists of this generation are interested in images, regardless of their provenance. While questioning the notions of images and media in the wake of W.J.T. Mitchell’s iconology or the recent anthropological approach of someone like Hans Belting who questions the status of the image in its relationship with the medium and the body, “Image into Sculpture” is akin to an echo-like response to the 1970 MoMA exhibition Photography into Sculpture, where works literally merging photography with sculpture were displayed for the first time.

Inside Espace 315, Navid Nuur’s floral foam pillars dotted with fingerprints give the exhibition its rhythm and are in constant dialogue with Nina Beier’s furniture and found image hybrids, Simon Denny’s TVs sets drowning inside images and crates as well as Yorgos Sapountzis’ fabric environments housing a performative video.

The exhibition is co-curated by Christine Macel, chief curator at the Mnam, and artist Navid Nuur (born in Tehran in 1976, living in The Hague); together they invited Nina Beier, Simon Denny and Yorgos Sapountzis, three artists now based in Berlin.

The works of Navid Nuur will be exhibited in a solo show at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht in 2013, and have already been exhibited in many institutions including the Fridericianum (Kassel), the van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven), S.M.A.K. (Ghent), as well as the Sankt Gallen Kunsthalle. His sculptures were shown, among others, in the Tuileries Gardens and the Jardin des Plantes, both in Paris, on the occasion of the 2011 and 2012 FIAC art fairs. He participated in the 54th Biennale di Venezia in 2011 and won the Dutch Royal Prize for Painting that same year. His work is the object of many publications, including four monographic catalogues (the most recent of which accompanies his 2013 show at Parasol Unit, London). He is the author of a number of artist books and magazines.

Nina Beier [born 1975 in Arhus (DK)] has exhibited in monographic shows at the Mudam in Luxembourg and the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen. She furthermore took part in collective exhibitions at London´s Tate Modern, Miami Moca, the Macro in Rome and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. Her work was shown in a project space in the Art Unlimited section of the 2012 Art Basel fair. Two monographic publications (one accompanying the Charlottenburg Kunsthal show, the other being an anthology comprising critical texts and images of the artist) were dedicated to her work.

Yorgos Sapountzis [born in Athens [GR) in 1976] has exhibited in solo shows at the MUSAC in Léon and at the Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, as well as in group exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2013, the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek (Denmark), at the Frankfurt Kunstverein, the Ludwig Forum of Aachen and in Berlin´s Monbijou Park during the “Based in Berlin” show. His works are a part of the Louisiana Museum collection. His first monographic catalogue was published by Sternberg Press on occasion of his solo show at the Usrsula Blickle Foundation and Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster in 2012.

Simon Denny [born in Auckland (NZ) in 1982] has taken part in collective exhibitions at the CAPC in Bordeaux, the Kunsthaus in Bregenz and the Witte de With space in Rotterdam. A monographic exhibition will be dedicated to his work in Vienna’s Mumok in 2013. He was awarded the Prix Bâloise on occasion of the 2012 Art Basel fair. Two monographic catalogues of his works have already been published, the most recent of which on occasion of his 2012 solo show at the Aspen Art Museum (USA).

At the same time, the Centre Pompidou’s Galerie des enfants hosts an exhibition conceived by Navid Nuur.