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IAIA presented the first solo exhibition by Brussels and Tunis based artist Alex Ayed. Continuing the artist’s use of earthly and ephemeral materials, the exhibition featured an intimate selection of sculptures, audio work and a site specific installation made of sand.

 

Olive oil, sand, and deceased tiny creatures are among the materials employed in his sculptures. Both processed and natural, his wall installations and sculptures takes shape organically and unfold into their final forms as they are installed in the gallery. Ayed gathers and transports sand from the Sahara desert layering it onto the wall, as if unveiling the geological formations of a desert. A mound of sand is formed below by the residue falling from the wall.

 

“He’s not interested in bringing forms that belong to other spaces and exoticize them into the white cube. He wants those forms to embody practices or postures, to be the physical incarnations of an oral tradition. Alex plays with objects the way poets play with words : through associations, he creates mental images and each assemblage could be the substantial equivalent of a haiku.” -Myriam Ben Salah

 

Alex Ayed was born in 1989, in Strasbourg France. He attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris and received a BFA in 2013  and an MFA in 2015. He lives and works between Brussels and Tunis.

Recent exhibitions include Pathetic Fallacy, Balice Hertling, Paris (FR) 2018; Quart d’heure américain, curated by Heiwata at Mains d’oeuvres, Saint-Ouen (FR), 2017; Economy Plus, Balice Hertling, Paris (FR) 2017; Sans Titre (2016) vol. 4: Le laboratoire, Marseille (FR), 2017; Day for night, Clovis XV, Brussels (BE), 2016; Felicità, Palais des Beaux-arts, Paris (FR), 2016; Polyrythmie, Nuit Blanche de Paris, 2012.

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Special thanks to Balice Hertling Galerie