Adel Abdessemed: Description d’un combat

The art gallery Wilde in Geneva, hosts “Description d’un combat”, a solo exhibition by the artist Adel Abdessemed.

Abdessemed started working with printed sheet metal – the metal used for food tins and cans containing dangerous substances, in 2005. After the sculptural series “Queen Mary II” (2007) and the “Mappemondes” (2010), he began a new body of painted works, still ongoing today. These combine pieces of the same metallic and recycled material and chosen words, placed in the pictorial backgrounds, as a sort of side notes in the margins.

The works in the series are bold and yet seductive, like invitation cards. The tradition of making visually appealing souvenirs from scrap metal is widespread in North Africa where Adel Abdessemed produces all of these works, in his workshop in Fez, Morocco.