Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

    ENELNL

    The exhibitions Urgent Conversations: Athens–Antwerp and Urgent Conversations: Antwerp – Athens are a collaboration between EMST and M HKA, a theoretical and visual dialogue, based on works from the collections of both museums, which includes more than 70 works structured in 22 topics.   

    28.04.2017 - 07.01.2018        

    M HKA, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen - Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerpen

    EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art - Kallirrois Avenue & Amvr. Frantzi Str., Athens 11743

    Charif Benhelima

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    ©Charif Benhelima
    W 145th Street, Harlem, 2002-2002
    Charif Benhelima
    Photography , 129 x 125 cm
    cibachrome

    Between 1999 and 2002, Charif Benhelima lived in Harlem, New York, where he made a large series of Polaroid portraits entitled Harlem On My Mind. Included here is W 145th Street, Harlem (2002), a glistening, shadowy image shot with an extra red filter, then enlarged as a CIBA chrome. The figure is blurry; the eyes are closed and it is not entirely clear if the subject is laughing or letting out a scream of despair. Equally unclear is exactly where the photograph was made. The red color refers to the irrepressible liveliness of Harlem that Benhelima felt there, but also to accompanying, uneasy elements: fever, passion, blood. The series as a whole transmits Harlem’s special sphere. Benhelima does not just portray Harlem's people, but also the broken streets with trash and graffiti, the poverty and the violence. There are also images of happy faces, a Christ-figure, a crucifix, a dove in flight… Benhelima’s images work in a way that gives precedence to his existential perception. A sign of hope or of despair?

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