IN SITU: Aslan Gaisumov – People of No Consequence
Event
M HKA, Antwerp
20 May 2016 - 04 September 2016
Aslan Gaisumov is developing an oeuvre that feeds on, but also transforms and transcends, personal and collective memory. His works are poised between visual immediacy and social commentary, between the momentary and the monumental. They are mostly videos and installations incorporating found and purposely crafted objects, but sometimes he also exhibits photographs and works on paper.
People of No Consequence is the title Gaisumov chose for his newest video installation, a single shot of a group of seniors – who have all experienced the deportation of the entire Chechen people to Central Asia 72 years ago – gathering for the first time. He reuses the title for this constellation of three recent works, which also includes the video installation Volga (2015) and the three-dimensional work Household (2016).
This is Gaisumov’s first museum solo exhibition. All the works are accompanied by short narrative wall texts doubling as captions. These are reprinted here. One word in particular – UNICEF – reveals to the attentive viewer that Gaisumov, born in 1991 in the Chechen capital Grozny, must have his own memories of the Chechen wars of 1994–2009 and the refugee camps in neighbouring Ingushetia.
The exhibition is curated by Anders Kreuger, Senior Curator at M HKA.
