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Bielefelder Kunstverein presents Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc Kannibalen

Bielefelder Kunstverein presents Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc Kannibalen, 9 February–28 April 2013.

In his works, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc researches into the history of colonial development, its effects on cultural identity and global contexts. Amongst others, he is very concerned to engage with film history and the decolonisation of African states in the 1960s. In all his videos, photographs, drawings, as well as through archival material, he investigates the causes of collective amnesia.

The exhibition on the Kunstverein’s first floor is presenting three groups of works in all. Among them, numerous new works are on view. The artist starts out from various objects and materials and makes connections between the three continents, Africa, South America and Europe. Abonnenc’s latest film, An Italian film (Africa Addio). First part: copper (2012), confronts viewers with the problematic extraction of copper in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The second group of works originates with a ring originally belonging to Abonnenc’s great grandfather from French Guyana. The third component of the exhibition is finally a collection (Inventaire des objets africain de la collection Émile Abonnenc, 1931/1933, Moyen Ogoué, Gabon), which is owned by Abonnenc’s family and has been arranged by the artist into indexical photo displays.

Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, born in 1977 in French Guyana, lives and works in Paris. In 2012, two institutions, the Serralves Foundation (Porto, Portugal) and the Pavilion (Leeds, UK), have mounted solo exhibitions for the artist. The exhibition at the Bielefelder Kunstverein is Abonnencs’s first solo exhibition in Germany.

Bielefelder Kunstverein
im Waldhof
Welle 61
D-33602 Bielefeld
www.bielefelder-kunstverein.de

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