M HKA Ensembles

Book, 19,5 x 12,5 cm, 122 p., language : English, publisher : Mousse Publishing, ISBN : 978886749-236-7.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2028/520).

Literary synopsis

Things are not always what they seem in this fast paced freaked out little tale that begins with a disappearance and ends with a joke. So where has Anand disappeared to and what did he want to tell his friends? And why is a vaguely illegal mid-90s secret student order called The Holy Idiot’s Society (T.H.I.S) connected to the suave and dangerous Carlo Bucci? Is Ida Kang, the highly intelligent and beautiful heiress entrepreneur, really in love with Anna? Who are the Primes and why are they so angry? Will X kill again or has he been permanently damaged? Why does the appearance of the Hybrids shake the world so violently? And how do all these pieces come together in a perverse evolutionary tale that unfolds across the globe.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

The number 12 might be a key to this mysterious story. The novella was written after Khan led the Sommerakademie in Bern in August 2015, which included 12 “fellows”. There are 12 clues, 12 chapters and 12 artworks, one by or commissioned by each fellow, taking up a page in each chapter. Chapter 5, titled The Big Eye in the Sky, includes a photograph by Patricia L. Boyd of what seems to be the legs of a young woman with a tattoo of a circled cross on her thigh. In Chapter, 10 there are two images of hands molding clay by Hannah Fitz. The artworks are like manifestations of Khan’s surrealistic tale, but seen through a distorted lens or interpreted obliquely on paper. Twelve Clues includes artworks by Antonina Baever, Bonnie Begusch, Sacha Beraud, Veronica Gerber Bicceci, Clare Butcher, Hannah Fitz, Ericka Florez Hidalgo, Shahab Fotouhi, Patricia Boyd, Tomas Maglione, Cerrajero Rodriguez and Martine Syms.

- Amany Ali Shawky

 

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