Video: Adel Abdessemed invented the bicycle. Camel bone
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Contrary to popular advice, contemporary artists never stop reinventing the wheel over and over again. Moreover, in a certain sense, all conceptual art is built on the invention of the bicycle, rethinking the bicycle, sharp social criticism of the archaic idea of the bicycle and satirical allusions to the bicycle.
A striking example of this phenomenon is the work of conceptual artist Adel Abdessemed, most of which are built on the mixing and transformation of cultural clichés, styles of different historical periods and artistic trends.
One of the characteristic features of Abdessmed's creative activity is the huge variety of materials and genres with which he works. But still, whether it be sculpture, installation or performance, the artist's preferences lie in the field of contemporary art with a characteristically pronounced social orientation.
Abdessmed's favorite conceptual technique is to transform ordinary, everyday things and objects into something unexpected, or even shocking. Despite the relative restraint, one of his most recent works, recently presented at the 2014 Armory show in New York, was no exception.
The sculpture "La Chine est proche" is a full-size model of a bicycle, all of which are carved from camel bone. The title of the work is a French translation of the Italian film La Cina e vicina (China is Coming) by Marco Bellocio.
At the symbolic level, several motives echo in Abdessmed's sculpture at once. Firstly, after Mao Zedong came to power in China, the bicycle became the main vehicle officially approved by the government, and at the same time a symbol of the country's prosperity. Secondly, camel bone is a favorite material of Chinese artisans, who since ancient times have used it for the production of jewelry and talismans. Well, one more cultural allusion is the already mentioned Italian drama, which in a satirical form shows what the blind struggle for power leads to.
Abdessmed's works are popular and are exhibited in major European museums. For example, one of his most famous works, depicting the headbutt by Zinedine Zidane to the chest of Marco Materazzi in the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, was exhibited at the Center Pompidou in Paris.
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