Ceel Mogami de Haas

Untitled (Bibliography series)

each element: video HD, color, mute, 60'', loop, 2016.

IN ORDER TO COMMIT TO REDUCING OUR ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION TOGETHER, THE VIDEO WORKS OF THE MIRE PROGRAMME ARE BROADCAST ONLY DURING PEAK HOURS, FROM 7AM TO 9.30AM, FROM 12PM TO 2.30PM AND FROM 5.30PM TO 8PM. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND HAVE A NICE TRIP.

Questioning the notion of encyclopedia and the relationship to knowledge, the artist draws on his vast knowledge of literature, particularly Anglo-Saxon poetry, and other sources from the history of art, design, cinema and architecture, to propose a complex deployment of open forms. In his work, questions of voice, language and dialogue are very present. Numerous objects are animated, and animals and things carry an existential, critical yet often humorous discourse. In the three short, untitled video loops from the Bibliography series (2016), constructed in 3D animation, the artist shows a specific book, surrounded by various objects, in an intriguing composition. The eye of an imaginary camera examines this doubly artificial still life in a slow circular motion. Interweaving numerous references, the work is deliberately complex, involving a trial-and-error approach. In this way, Ceel Mogami de Haas raises broader questions about access to knowledge, transmission and the representation of sources, as well as their transformation and interpretation. The three works on show – Wilson Bryan Key’s Subliminal Seduction, Jacques Derrida’s Glas and Hubert Selby’s The Demon – are matched with objects that could be illustrations of their content, or imperative resources for getting through their reading. The work both distances us (dry, rational treatment of the image) and gives us access to an intimate sphere (what we read, what we surround and nourish our minds with). This, of course, has an immediate or delayed impact on the viewer.

Collection of the Fonds cantonal d'art contemporain (FCAC), no inv. 03328 / 1 - 3

Autres artistes à Chêne-Bourg

Giulia Essyad

Raphaela Vogel

Miriam Laura Leonardi

Ceel Mogami de Haas was born in 1982 in Selebi Phikwe, Botswana. He lives and works in Amsterdam and Geneva. Before completing a Master’s degree at HEAD, Geneva, he studied photography in Amsterdam and American literature in France. He was also an artist-in-residence from 2017 to 2018 at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam.

His work ranges from drawing and sculpting to video animations, sound compositions and curating exhibitions. In particular, he co-founded one gee in fog in Chêne-Bourg, Geneva, a space that welcomes different worlds of creation, visual arts, publishing or music. Questioning the notion of encyclopaedia and relationship to knowledge, the artist draws on his vast knowledge of literature, mainly Anglo-Saxon poetry, and other sources of art history, design, cinema or architecture, to come up with a complex deployment of forms that are difficult to define. They are intended as collages, open to the viewer’s interpretation. In his works, issues regarding voice, language and dialogue are very present through fiction. Many objects are animated, while animals speak and carry an existential, critical but often very witty discourse.