SMOKE IN THE NEXT CITY
SOLO EXHIBITION BY BASSEM SAAD
FROM FEBRUARY 11 TO MAY 21, 2023
TRIANGLE-ASTÉRIDES, MARSEILLE
CURATED BY VICTORINE GRATALOUP

Triangle-Astérides, National Centre for Contemporary Art based in Marseille, is happy to announce the first solo exhibition in an institution by Bassem Saad, lebanese artist based in Berlin.

“Smoke In the Next City” brings together the three films made by Bassem Saad to date — Saint Rise (2018), Kink Retrograde (2019), and Congress of Idling Persons (2021) —, sculptures, lenticulars and text-based works (including two new productions, one being site-specific) around the notion of toxicity, bodies in the public space, and recent uprisings.

The two works commissioned for the exhibition question the relationship between prison and the post-colonial starting from objects seized from inmates in the Marseille Baumettes prison and placed in the Mucem’s collections (Marseille museum dedicated to the Mediterranean).

Bassem Saad is an artist and writer born in Beirut on September 11th. His work explores historical rupture, infrastructure, spontaneity, and difference, through film, performance, and sculpture, as well as through essays and fiction.

Bassem’s solo and collaborative work has been presented and screened at MoMA, CPH:DOX, Transmediale, Architectural Association, Harvard University VES, and Alserkal Avenue. His writing appears in Jadaliyya, FailedArchitecture, and The Funambulist. He was a fellow at Eyebeam, Leslie Lohman Museum, and Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program. He is currently a fellow at the Berlin Program for Artists.

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An exhibition conceived and produced by Triangle-Astérides.
In coproduction with SCIC Friche la Belle de Mai.
In partnership with: Beaux-Arts de Marseille – INSEAMM, Frac PACA, MOCO, Mucem, Instants vidéo, VDS Bâti Renov, Picto.