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POMERANZ COLLECTION

SAÂDANE AFIF

Time Tracks (DATRARC)
2010
Stands, light bulbs, DMX system, power distribution, programming
Ø 127cm, variable height
Unique
Inv. Nr. 95
Photo: Jan Windszus, Berlin

Born in 1970 in Vendôme, France
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Saâdane Afif is engaged with the mutability of forms and systems, he subjects his own works and the works of others to a continuous process of transformation. "For Saâdane Afif, the work of art cannot be reduced to the object it consists of apparently“, the critic Michel Gauthier aptly states. In his interdisciplinary work, Afif combines materials from varied contexts. Elements from art history, from poetry and music are absorbed and transposed into installations and objects over a lengthy manufacturing process. Part of his work is to commission lyrical interpretations of each piece to writers, while keeping the original titles but providing personal interpretations of each piece. The lyrics are eventually passed to musicians to create music pieces for a full album.

For the work Time Tracks (DATRARC), Saâdane Afif takes the opposite direction. Taking the album “Down at the Rock and Roll Club” — which derives from his exhibition at the Lenin Museum Moscow 2005 as a starting base — he created an object installation, which responds to the five music pieces. A floor lamp with five single cylindrical shades each housing one light bulb translates music into light. Each of them is corresponding to a song on the album and only lighting for the duration of every single music piece. In Time Tracks (DATRARC), Saâdane Afif creates a symbiosis of a furnishing element with devices used on concert stages.
Alexandra Alexopoulou