September 14 - November 12, 2017
Alicia Framis
Fearless
Kunsthalle Nürnberg
This striking discrepancy between ideal and reality is the background to the complete oeuvre of artist Alicia Framis, who was born in Barcelona in 1967 and lives in Amsterdam today. The right to a life in freedom and safety, as well as protection from discrimination, torture and state despotism is laid down in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights dating from 10th December 1948, along with every human being‘s right to work, education, cultural participation or freedom of speech and religion. Nevertheless, these human rights are massively violated somewhere in the world every day – even in the
193 states that have signed the charta to date. Adherence to the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, therefore, appears as the ideal social state; one far from being achieved in everyday human life but requiring constant, repeated insistence.
Alicia Framis' installations, costumes, objects and performances draw attention to social, cultural or political problems, while offering alternative models of thought and ways of acting. For the project 100 Ways to Wear a Flag (2007) for example, Alicia Framis invited young fashion designers to design items of clothing from Chinese flags and document the results in photographs. Fear of the consequences of misusing the state symbol led the models to conceal their identity in the designersdocumentary photos.
With the exhibition fearless the Kunsthalle Nürnberg is now presenting the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the Spanish artist‘s work in Germany, parallel to the award of the International Human Rights Award from the City of Nuremberg and the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival (NIHRFF). The selection of works spans a period of twenty years and ranges from interactive installations to the documentation of performances and projects in photographs and video films. The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Framis in Progress, which appeared on the occasion of the artist‘s first retrospective show in the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Galerie im Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck, and in MUSAC, Castilla y Léon (2013–2014).
To mark the opening of the exhibition Alicia Framis is planning a live performance, which will examine the issue of the growing, diffuse fears in society, as well as the meanwhile standardized measures of global control and surveillance.
Image: ALICIA FRAMIS, 100 Ways to Wear a Flag (with Roberto Piqueras), 2007, Color Photograph,
60 x 60 cm