Exhibition visit with Ali Kaaf "Zwischen Ja und Nein fliegt die Seele"

17 September and 01 October 2020

Foto_Ali_Kaaf.jpg
Ali Kaaf, Rift M V, 2018 (l.) und Rift M IX, 2019 (r.), Tusche, Ausbrennungen auf Bütten

Dear friends of the Museum of Islamic Art,

We would like to invite you to visit the new exhibition "Zwischen Ja und Nein fliegt die Seele" by Ali Kaaf, to make up for the missed event in March. The artist will personally guide us through the exhibition.

Date: Thursday 17.9. and 1.10.2020, 6pm
Location: C&K Gallery, Joachimstraße 17/corner of Auguststraße, 10119 Berlin

The number of participants is limited to 8 persons per event. A binding registration at info@fmik.de is required. You will then receive a confirmation e-mail for the event.

This year Ali Kaaf was a fellow of the AArtist Residence Program, a cooperation between the German Foreign Office and the Landesverband Berliner Galerien. The program includes a solo exhibition at the C&K Gallery in the year of the fellowship.
Ali Kaaf's work is characterized by the combination of European and Arab culture and art tradition. One source of inspiration for his current works on paper is his preoccupation with Islamic mysticism and philosophy of the Middle Ages, which is strongly influenced by Greek New Platonism. Thus the exhibition title, which stems from the dialogue between two 12th century philosophers, Averroes and Ibn Arabi, gives an indication of the artistic concern. The line symbolizes the search for perfection, which can only be experienced in the intermediate realm of yes-no. Kaaf translates this striving for knowledge into his own abstract and subtle visual language, in which he attempts to penetrate the depths, to the unspeakable. To this end, he creates spaces, often through superimposed papers, in which an impression of transcendental absoluteness can unfold. Under the influence of 20th century art history, Ibn Arabi's Words transforms Kaaf into the visual language of a contemporary artist. The exhibition brings together works on paper from 2018-2020, in which artistic techniques such as collage, burn-out, incisions, ink, digital processing, photography are combined in a highly concentrated manner and with a wide range of variations.

Ali Kaaf, Syrian, born in 1977 in Oran, Algeria; lives and works in Berlin since 2000; studied fine arts at the Institut des Beaux-Arts in Beirut (1994-98) and at the Udk Berlin with Marwan and Rebecca Horn (2000-05); numerous awards and grants: 2020 AArtist in Residence, German Foreign Office in cooperation with the lvbg; 2015 Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, USA; collections and exhibitions. a. Collection Solidere Beirut, Lebanon; MAXXI National Museum for the Art of the XXI Century Rome; Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin

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Contact

Freunde des Museums für Islamische Kunst im Pergamonmuseum e.V.
c/o Museum für Islamische Kunst
Geschwister-Scholl-Strasse 6
10117 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30 26642 5201
Email: info@fmik.de