Nadim Karam has inaugurated his new working studio, A.MUSE.UM, on the 15th of September in Daroun-Harissa in the presence of architects, artists, collectors, art critics and curators as well as directors of cultural and art institutions from Lebanon and abroad.
About A.MUSE.UM
The space was conceived and designed by Nadim Karam and Atelier Hapsitus, the pluri-disciplinary group he founded in 1996, as an inverted landscape: a space for Karam to reflect, create and experiment. On the hillside above the atelier is Karam’s own family residence, restored by Hapsitus with minimal acupunctural interventions. Paying homage to the traditional Lebanese stone house above and immersed within the village, A.MUSE.UM re-interprets traditional landscape while creating a new contemporary platform.
A.MUSE.UM was initiated several years ago and has undergone a number of alterations until it reached its ultimate concept and actual character, i.e.: a generator of thoughts as well as a receptacle of the artist’s mindscapes. It is the starting point of an intended dialogue between art, architecture, thought processes and contexts of creation.
About the Exhibition A.MUSE.UM: Traces of a Rhizomatic Dream
The curated exhibition, A.MUSE.UM: Traces of a Rhizomatic Dream, highlights the symbiosis between art and architecture; it comprises Karam’s selected works and an interactive installation by artist Jason Akira Somma.
The exhibition is a physical parcours within the inverted architecture of Nadim Karam’s new studio, and an immersion in the mental traces of his dreams germinating across the globe.
The showcased work re-emphasizes the artist’s concepts of architecture of performance and story-telling architecture developed during his decade of studies at Tokyo University, which became the fundamental underlying ideas behind his most recent body of work. The exhibition invites visitors to ‘perform’ the architecture delineated by Karam’s negotiations of space: his new painting series entitled Choreography of Space inspired by the space itself, his traditional Lebanese house and the work of contemporary dance choreographer William Forsythe- his work on memory (Trou de Mémoire), thoughts (Contextual Thoughts and Thoughts on the Move), his refusal of status quo (Fight: In Progress and Trigger and Media Shout,), as well as his filmed performance (Celebration of Life: The Funeral).