S.M.A.K. presents the first solo exhibition in a European institution of Charbel-joseph H. Boutros
S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium, just opened the first solo exhibition in a European institution of Charbel-joseph H. Boutros (°1981, Libanon), an artist raised in a country marked by civil war.
Boutros’ art is primarily the result of inner reflections. It comprises precise objects and meticulously arranged ensembles that link an intimate melancholia with the universal, and also with the environment of the exhibition space. The artist endeavours to reformulate our familiar reality with a minimum of effort, and an exhibition is therefore a kind of geography that is reframed in such a way. Boutros is fascinated with the intangible and the invisible. Elements such as light, time, breath and sleep, for example, determine all our lives, yet are difficult to record.
The exhibition at S.M.A.K., titled The Sun is My Only All, is also an ode to The Distance between Your Eyes and the Sun, a presentation the artist made for the Beirut Art Center in 2019, but which closed the following day due to political unrest and was never reopened. Removed from the public eye, the works remained in situ throughout the exhibition period. Although the version in S.M.A.K. is approximately the same size as the one in Beirut and also includes the same constellation of works, the artist considers it as a new entity with its own specific relationships to the institution, its employees, the space, the oeuvre, the artwork, time...
For exemple, the work Catwalk (2019-2020) is an elevated footpath that runs along the walls of the exhibition space and may only be used by the museum staff so that they and the visitors must take alternative routes. For Charbel-joseph Boutros, an exhibition is living matter that he uses to deepen some of his works, but also as a way of entering into atypical relationships with artworks, projects and the public. In so doing, he establishes a dense network of situations, patterns and scenarios.
Within The Sun is My Only All, the work The Exhibition Between Us (2019 - 2020) departs from the two people who are the first and last to visit the exhibition. Their names are chiselled onto marble plaques on the spot, which already include the start and end dates of the project.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros
The Sun is My Only Ally
08.02.2020 – 10.05.2020
S.M.A.K.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros works between Beirut and Paris. He was a researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands and resident in the Pavillon of the Palais de Tokyo inParis. Boutros’ work was shown internationally at the 12th Istanbul Biennial, the 3rd Bahia Biennial and the first Yinchuanin Biennale. He has exhibited in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris;Punta Della Dogana, Venice; Centre Pompidou, Metz; CCS Bard College, New York; MAM- BA Museum of Modern Art, Salvador; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and La Criée, centred’art contemporain, Rennes.
S.M.A.K. purchased the work Dead Drawing (2012) in 2018 and included it in the exhibition From the Collection: Highlights for a Future in 2020.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros An artwork that is shown close to the model of the unrealized project where ideally that work should be shown, 2019 Blown glass sphere, water from the atlantic ocean, a teardrop from a gallerist left eye, metallic structure, carpet, desert and beach sand, model of an unrealized museum, dimensions variable, 2019 Work commissioned for Home Works 8, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut Courtesy the artist, Grey Noise.
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros A mixed up dream #3, 2016 cabinet, salt, sugar. Courtesy the artist, Grey Noise
..jpg "Charbel-joseph H. Boutros GEOGRAPHY & ABSTRACTION, Beirut Art, Center, carpet, concrete cylinders, darkness and heat, 2017-2020 Courtesy the artist, Grey Noise, Jaqueline Martins Gallery, work commissioned for Home Works 8 - Ashkal Alwan, Beirut")
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros GEOGRAPHY & ABSTRACTION, Beirut Art, Center, carpet, concrete cylinders, darkness and heat, 2017-2020 Courtesy the artist, Grey Noise, Jaqueline Martins Gallery, work commissioned for Home Works 8 - Ashkal Alwan, Beirut
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros Life, variation #2, 2019-2020 Concrete block, watermelon seeds, Courtesy of the artist, Grey Noise and Jaqueline Martins Gallery
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros If close to the sun a drop may fall 2019, 2019 albums’s tape, wax
Courtesy of the artist, Grey Noise and Jaqueline Martins Gallery
Charbel-joseph H. Boutros No Light In White Light, Night cartography, 2011-2020 Ongoing series carbon and acrylic spray on white paper Courtesy of the artist and Grey Noise.