Group exhibition curated by Cédric Fauq at Nir Altman in Münich.

Sensational And Antigenerative Successions
Artists: Brandon Covington Sam-Sumana; Steffani Jemison; Ndayé Kouagou; Kengné Téguia
Curated by Cédric Fauq
October 26 - December 22, 2019
Nir Altman, Münich

It’s a show that starts with a letter (“dear mother”), addressed to the now-gone powerful figure that was holding the score. After the yearning, you come up with a question: can I go back in time with music? and you find the key – the reinvention of the beat isn’t serving progress (“go ahead”); it’s a tool for horizontal time-travels. You’re learning: if you have nothing left to lo(o)se(n), what about abolishing legacy? turning into the debtless. CF

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The exhibition will only be complete after Ndayé Kouagou’s performance “I DON'T WANT ANY OF THIS TO BE PART OF ANY OF THAT” held at the gallery at 8pm on the night of the opening.

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This project stems out of my long-term commitment in using and manipulating the exhibition format to deal with and think through blackness beyond visual representation. Believing in the necessity to offer alternatives to the number of images circulating through media and now more than ever in exhibition venues (a recent phenomenon that, despite its urgency, should also be questioned and challenged), sensational and antigenerative successions is the third exhibition in an ongoing and never-ending series of “exhibition-as-studies” tackling that issue (the first “Le Colt est Jeune et Haine” (The Colt is Young and Hatred) took place at DOC, Paris. The second “The Share of Opulence; Doubled; Fractional” at Sophie Tappeiner, Vienna. Both were held in 2018).

Invited by Nir to devise an exhibition in his space, I was compelled to think about my own relationship to Munich. Although tenuous, it had a rather special place in my heart and memory, as the first city I had travelled to specifically for an exhibition. That show was Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament, curated by Okwui Enwezor (17.03.14 — 17.08.14). I remembered, after having visited the exhibition for the second time, sitting down to write a letter: addressed to the now late curator. I had noticed the door to his office and had planned on slipping the letter through. I then realised the slight creepiness of my gesture and went to the reception instead, asking the front of house staff to forward my letter.

Obviously, the recent passing of Enwezor this year made me even more adamant to, somehow, deal with this anecdote. You could see this exhibition as another letter. One that isn’t meant to be answered. That is looking for an affiliation without asking for permission: an underclaimed legacy. As it stands, this letter is also a symphony of sorts. All the artists involved in sensational and antigenerative successions have a deep relationship to music. They are musicians, DJs, composers, interpreters. More specifically, it is the musicality of language that forms the common thread of this project, through lyrics and melody (Kengné Téguia), coded messages and musical notation (Steffani Jemison), branding as score (Ndayé Kouagou) and appropriated synthesised voices (Brandon Covington Sam-Sumana).