EXHIBITION

 
We live in a globalised reality woven by thousands of stories taking place simultaneously. The world we inhabit is a crammed one, full of unexpected links impossible to assimilate or even understand. This entangled space is where Shezad Dawood carries out his multidisciplinary and collaborative practice. His work navigates an unstable present in which migratory patterns can alter marine currents and climate change connects with our humanitarian crisis. His work Leviathan constructs an epic fiction in constant evolution. In each step, the artist seeks alliances with scientists, philosophers, and activists to shape a project that understands art as a vector for communication and exchange.

Leviathan: Dreams of a future past was Shezad Dawood’s first solo exhibition in Spain, displaying a significative part of his ambitious project Leviathan, which was inaugurated in Venice in May 2017 to coincide with the 57th Art Biennale. The plurality of voices involved in the process is manifested as well in the multiplicity of media on show: from video to sculpture, and from painting to the talks program that accompanies each part of the process. The key narrating voice is given by Dawood’s ambitious ten-part film cycle Leviathan, which tells the story of a near future in which the earth is only inhabited by the survivors of a solar cataclysm. On display were episodes 1 (Ben) and 5 (Ismael). Dawood’s solo presentation recognises the current present as a malleable entity formed by multiple interactions, using the ocean as the joining force where these fictions flow.

This exhibition was a collaboration between HERO Gallery and The RYDER.