The assemblages by the Beninese artist Georges Adéagbo follow the life courses and fates of people using the traces they leave behind: objects and documents attest to encounters and individual decisions. By having craftsmen in Benin produce paintings and sculptures based on photos and printed items collected on his travels, the artist opens up new perspectives on the seemingly familiar and challenges visitors to examine clichéd ideas and stereotypes. Adéagbo’s installations are always site-specific and dissolve hierarchies: all things are of equal importance to him. In his work, phenomena from pop culture transport stories just as much as canonised high culture: antiques from Benin can be found alongside “airport kitsch”, records by Beethoven alongside carnival music, commissioned oil paintings alongside reproductions from art history. Georges Adéagbo’s practice is an open system that is meant to be augmented and transformed by the viewers and challenges the conventional aesthetics of cohesive works as well as the singular icon acclaimed by the art market.

For his most extensive solo exhibition to date, Adéagbo is developing an installation at the KINDL that will occupy the entire exhibition space, drawing on elements from central works such as Tout de moi à tous (2007) and Une espace avec le monde (2007) and updating them with found objects from Neukölln and the KINDL archives.

Curated by Kathrin Becker in cooperation with Stephan Köhler