seeking al-tawhid in andalusia PHOTOGRAPHY BY AKIM MONET
Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood Bur Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel. +9714 353 5383 - www.xvagallery.com
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seeking al-tawhid in andalusia PHOTOGRAPHY BY AKIM MONET
About XVA GALLERY Established in 2003, XVA is one of the leading galleries in the Middle East that specializes in contemporary art from the Arab world, Iran and the Sub-continent. Exhibitions focus on works by the regions foremost artists as well as those emerging onto the scene. The gallery’s artists express their different cultural identities and perspectives while challenging the viewer to lose prejudice and ignore borders. XVA Gallery exhibits both locally and internationally; collaborating with galleries and participating in international art fairs in order to further expose Middle Eastern contemporary art. For more information on XVA Gallery, please visit www.xvagallery.com
About AKIM MONET Born 1968 in Geneva. Swiss Citizen. Lives and works in Berlin. Studied comparative literature and art history at Cornell University, New York State. Akim Monet has been showing his work publicly since 2002. He has had several solo exhibitions of which “Passage to India” in New York and Mexico City, “Homage to Gaudi” in Geneva and Belgium, “Pergamon” in Paris, and “Seeking Al-Tawhid I” in Kuwait. Monet's work is on public display at the Deutsche Bank Collection, New York. In addition to numerous articles in the international press, a monograph about Monet’s work was published in 2003: “The Space Between” (New York: Infinite Point Press). isbn 0-9728647-0-9
SEEKING AL-TAWHID IN ANDALUSIA The idea for "Seeking Al-Tawhid" came to me while thinking about the longstanding nonacceptance of depictions of humans and animals in Islamic art, and the resulting development of the Arabesque in which abstract geometry and stylized organic motifs are used to symbolize, within our manifest realm, that which is beyond manifestation. I pondered about a possible connection between the invention of this visual language, which leads the eye back and forth between the second and third dimension, and the practice of photography, in which the representation of three-dimensional subject matter is rendered on a flat surface. I discovered that the infinitely extensible designs in Islamic art, that are themselves made up of individual, self-replicating units
have been interpreted as visual demonstrations of the singleness of God and his presence everywhere. They represent 'unity in multiplicity' and 'multiplicity in unity'. Technically the term for this 'Oneness' is Tawhid - a belief in God's uncompromised unity and transcendence. The bestknown expression of this Divine Unity is 'La-ilaha-ill-Allah', (Quran 112:1): 'There is no god but God'. With these thoughts, I embarked on a journey that began in 2006 in Andalusia, where in the words of British orientalist and archaeologist Stanley Lane-Poole, "Whatever makes a kingdom great, whatever tends to refinement and civilization was found in Moorish Spain." Akim Monet
plates
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Untitled 2, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 3, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 6, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 7, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 9, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 12, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 15, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 26, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 28, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 32, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 70 x 100 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 127 x 177 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 35, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 40, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 41, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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Untitled 43, 2006 Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges 100 x 70 cm - Ed. 7 + 3 AP 177 x 127 cm - Ed. 3 + 2 AP
framing
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Untitled 28, 2006 (Framed example pictured here)
Untitled 28, 2006 (Large version also available)
Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges
Archival Pigment Print on 100% cotton acid free watercolor paper with straight edges
Paper size: 70 x 100 cm Framed size: 74,6 x 104,6 x 4,5 cm
Paper size: 127 x 177 cm Framed size: 137 x 187 x 6,5 cm
Ed. 7 + 3 AP
Ed. 3 + 2 AP
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statements Akim Monet is a true visionary in more ways than one. Andres Serrano, artist
Part of the beauty and intensity of Akim Monet's photographs has to do with the convergence of opposites, of past and present. They stand sublimely poised in the space between. Hilarie M. Sheets, writer for Artnews Magazine, The New York Times, and Art+Auction
Fascinated by the moment captured by the opening and closing of the shutter - creating what the artist calls the “burn� of the image Monet's photographs conjure a mystery and beauty akin to alchemy. Liz Christensen, curator, Deutsche Bank Fine Art
In his works, Monet succeeds in establishing, through careful treatment of light and luminescence, and delicate handling of image and icon, his own personal dialogue within contemporary art. Dr. Ariane Grigoteit, curator, Deutsche Bank Collection
Akim Monet b. 1968 Swiss, lives in Berlin Germany Cornell University, NY Bachelor of Arts (Comp. Lit. & Art History) 1990 PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECTS Homage to Rembrandt Bugatti, Berlin (Germany) Life in Death - the Catacombs Palermo, (Italy) Rodin – an engagement Musée Rodin, Paris (France) Seeking Al Tawhid Andalucia (Spain) Corrida La Goyesca Ronda (Spain) In the Vatican Gardens Rome (Italy) Villa Adriana Tivoli (Italy) Pergamon Berlin (Germany) The Caves – a meditation Vallorbe (Switzerland) Exotic Flowers Bali (Indonesia) & NYC Homage to Gaudi Barcelona (Spain) Passage to India Countrywide (India)
2014 2010 2009 2006
2004
2001 2000 1992
PUBLIC COLLECTION Deutsche Bank Collection, Frankfurt 2004 Trading Floor, 60 Wall Street, New York Global Asset Management Headquarters, 345 Park Ave, NYC
biography SOLO EXHIBITIONS "Seeking Al-Tawhid in Andalucia" 22 Apr. – 4 May 2013 JAMM Gallery, Kuwait "Rodin – A photographic engagement" 25 June 2009 Atelier Akim Monet, Berlin "Pergamon" 17 Nov. – 10 Dec. 2005 Galerie du XXe Siècle, Paris, France "Akim Monet - Hommage à Gaudi" 10 Apr. – 8 May 2004 Maruani & Noirhomme Gallery, Belgium "Hommage à Gaudi" 15 Jan. – 5 Feb. 2004 5, rue de la Muse, Geneva, Switzerland "Passage to India” 3 – 7 Apr. 2003 Muestra, Mexico, Carosso Fine Art, NYC “The Space Between” Book presentation 23 – 25 Feb. 2003 sponsored by Collection Deutsche Bank benefit «Free Arts for Abused Children, NYC» “Passage to India” 19 Jun. – 10 Aug. 2002 Carosso Fine Art, New York, USA
CATALOGUE DESIGN Anne-Marie Visconti Claudio Fortugno Akim Monet www.agenziapropaganda.it