The seventh and last issue of the editorial discursive space for the Bergen Assembly triennial, conceived by Saâdane Afif is dedicated to the character of an Acrobats ("who are two but together as one," as
Thomas Clerc says in his play,
The Heptahedron).
Two in one is the promise of a self, freed from the deadening game of immutable identities. Walking on their hands, upside down, feet in the air, defying gravity, an Acrobats invite us to overthrow the established order. Seven contributors shed light on this figure:
Jörg Heiser takes us on an ever-twisting journey through the universal force of gravity; Anton Escher looks at how a group of Moroccan acrobats have been invited around the world to demonstrate their prowess, participating in the modern tradition of highly-skilled migration;
Anri Sala and Tacita Dean contextualise Sala's work
A Spurious Emission (2007); Gerald Bär tells us how Fernando Pessoa used specific literary strategies to encourage the sense of strangeness in himself;
Eran Schaerf brings to life his many inner voices, which inhabit the script of his performance
Blinded in Remembering the Present? Ask Franz; and finally, curator Marcella Lista offers us a journey through La Ribot's conceptual
Distinguished Pieces series, with selected pages from the legendary choreographer's notebooks published as facsimiles.
Side Magazine is released in the run up to the opening of Bergen Assembly 2022, each dedicated to one of seven enigmatic characters. These characters will lend their names to seven exhibitions from September 8th to November 6th, 2022. A special eighth issue also will be published.
Saâdane Afif was born 1970 in Vendôme, France. Exhibitions include The Fountain Archives and Beyond…, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain (2021); This is Ornamental, Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz, Austria (2018); Paroles, Wiels Brussels, Belgium (2018); The Fountain Archives, Foundation Jumex, Mexico, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco, and Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2017 and 2019), and Anthologie de l'Humour Noir, Museum für Moderne Kunst – MMK Zollamt, Frankfurt, and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010 and 2013).
His work was included in documenta 12 (2007), 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014), Marrakech Biennale 2014 (2014), 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2015), 1st and 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005, 2015) and Taipei Biennial (2016).
Saâdane Afif received the Prix International d'Art Contemporain de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco (2006), Prix Marcel Duchamp (2009), Preis der Günther-Peill-Stiftung (2012) and the Prix Meurice pour l'art contemporain (2015).
He is the Convener des Bergen Assembly 2022: Yasmine and the Seven Faces of the Heptahedron.
