Neil Beloufa
Global Agreement
23 Aug - 28 Oct 2018
NEIL BELOUFA
Global Agreement
23 August – 28 October 2018
The SCHIRN presents a new work by the award-winning video and installation artist Neïl Beloufa. For “Global Agreement” (2018) Beloufa created walkable sculptural installations in the Schirn Rotunda, which is freely accessible to the public, as well as in an adjoining exhibition space. An interview collage on film will be visible on various monitors in parts of the sculptures. The interview collage is dedicated to the human body and its discursive and political importance. It shows Neïl Beloufa’s latest interest in the army, weapons, fitness, beauty, and the body cult as well as in the staging of power. Power is a central, recurring theme in his work—the social conflict between majority and minority, between dominance and oppression, as well as the power of images for our perception of reality. The video is based on interviews that the artist conducted with male and female soldiers from different countries via the video chat service Skype. The film as an artistic medium constitutes the focus and point of departure in Beloufa’s oeuvre. Fiction and reality fuse in Beloufa’s videos. Viewers become irritated by their own perception and eventually can no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood. In “Global Agreement” the artist raises questions concerning physical presentation as well as the reception and involvement and/or positioning of the viewer. Like the film narrative in “Global Agreement,” ultimately the video is not completed yet. Beloufa leaves the question regarding a continuation of the work open—it represents the beginning of an investigation instead.
Global Agreement
23 August – 28 October 2018
The SCHIRN presents a new work by the award-winning video and installation artist Neïl Beloufa. For “Global Agreement” (2018) Beloufa created walkable sculptural installations in the Schirn Rotunda, which is freely accessible to the public, as well as in an adjoining exhibition space. An interview collage on film will be visible on various monitors in parts of the sculptures. The interview collage is dedicated to the human body and its discursive and political importance. It shows Neïl Beloufa’s latest interest in the army, weapons, fitness, beauty, and the body cult as well as in the staging of power. Power is a central, recurring theme in his work—the social conflict between majority and minority, between dominance and oppression, as well as the power of images for our perception of reality. The video is based on interviews that the artist conducted with male and female soldiers from different countries via the video chat service Skype. The film as an artistic medium constitutes the focus and point of departure in Beloufa’s oeuvre. Fiction and reality fuse in Beloufa’s videos. Viewers become irritated by their own perception and eventually can no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood. In “Global Agreement” the artist raises questions concerning physical presentation as well as the reception and involvement and/or positioning of the viewer. Like the film narrative in “Global Agreement,” ultimately the video is not completed yet. Beloufa leaves the question regarding a continuation of the work open—it represents the beginning of an investigation instead.