The Coalman

The two exhibitions In Search of the Heptahedron and The Coalman are continuations of a cycle of exhibitions and events based on the play. The Heptahedron (2017), written by the French author Thomas Clerc after a performance by Afif that took place during the Marrakesh Biennale (2014). In the script, the heroine Yasmine is looking for a seven-sided polyhedron – a heptahedron. On her quest, she encounters seven enigmatic characters: the Professor, the Bonimenteur, the Moped Rider, the Fortune Teller, the Coalman, an Acrobats and the Tourist. They each reveal a part of the secret of the object of her desire. This classical and simple storyline feeds many of Afif‘s recent works, which become an allegory of the artist‘s place in the society.

With the show In Search of the Heptahedron at the gallery space at Fasanenplatz, Afif takes up precisely this ensemble of characters. Inspired by Abi Warburg‘s method of pictorial associations, seven Curator‘s Boards (2023) covered with images reveal the depth and potential contradictions that each of the figures holds. The magnetic panels were initially used by Afif to shape the seven figures when he was appointed artistic director of the Bergen Assembly (2022). With the chairs from the series Interface: The Heptahedron Seats (2020), which break up Donald Judd‘s minimal furniture designs, Afif takes up his first attempt to give a form to the heptahedron. A new light sculpture hanging in the center of the room continues to spin the narrative. The eight light bulbs supported by the chandelier are animated by an invisible prompter that unfolds the entire scenario of the play, translating the exchange of words between the seven characters and the heroin into syncopated ornamental lighting. The work titled This is Ornamental (2023) not only references Afif‘s titular exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien (2018), where the text of the play was for the first time presented as a work, but also reinterprets a chandelier design by architect Adolf Loos from 1911; the author of Ornament and Crime (1910).

The exhibition at Wilhelm Hallen continues this exploration, focusing on the solitary figure of The Coalman. Central to this is an exhibition orchestrated by the Berlin based curator Yasmine d’O. that features Afif‘s personal collection of hand-carved coal sculptures made by coal miners. Exhibiting 97 objects of this vernacular tradition, King Coal Laments (2023) is spanning three of the four walls of the gallery space. In addition, Is it possible that you have no coal left? (2023), an edition of a facsimile letter from French composer Claude Debussy to his coal merchant, will be on view, alongside the black edition of the Interface chair series, Chair (The Coalman) (2023). The curtain installation The Coalman (2023) showcases the figure of the Coalman, created as a visual by the Berlin-based graphic design agency Neue Gestaltung, and materializes his appearances in the passageway space by responding to the script shown on a prompter. In the entrance of the gallery space, the work Kohle (2023) by the artist Sarah Ancelle Schönfeld echoes the curatorial text Arguments written by Yasmine d’O., and the drawing Nothing More (2023) by the composer Augustin Maurs refers to the work he recently presented for the Bergen Assembly in the Coalman section. During the opening evening, visitors were served The Coalman’s Cocktail (2023), a limited edition cocktail created especially for the exhibition as the result of a collaboration between mixologist Franck Audoux, Freimeisterkollektiv, and curator Yasmine d’O.

Neue Gestaltung, Yasmine d'O. and Saâdane Afif
The Coalman, 2023
Automated curtain (digital print on polyester), two screens
Edition of 1 + 1 AP
Curtain: 289 x 400 cm | 114 x 157 in
Screen: 55 Zoll | 55 in

The work This is Ornamental (2023) is a light sculpture that continues the narrative surrounding the play The Heptahedron (2017). The eight light bulbs supported by the chandelier are animated by an invisible prompter that unfolds the entire scenario of the play, translating the exchange of words between the seven characters and the heroin Yasmine into syncopated ornamental lighting. This is Ornamental not only references Afif's titular exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien (2018), where the text of the play was presented for the first time as a work, but also reinterprets a chandelier design by architect Adolf Loos from 1911; the author of Ornament and Crime (1910). Similar to the chair series Interface: The Heptahedron Seats (2020), for this work, the artist draws on an established furniture piece blurring the lines between art and design object.