The Museum of Modern Art (MKM) in Duisburg presents for the first time in Germany, a large, comprehensive survey exhibition by the multidisciplinary and internationally renowned artist Susan Hefuna. The exhibition, compiled by Swiss curator Stephan Kunz in close collaboration with the artist, features numerous groups of works by Susan Hefuna from various decades through her artistic universe and her comprehensive, multifaceted rich oeuvre. Hefuna’s forms of expression encompass a broad spectrum of media, ranging from drawing, sculpture, and installation to video, photography, and performance. On view in the exhibition are in addition new text-based textile wall pieces and costumes, a huge side specific installation and her multilayered collage Cityscape and Landscape works on paper.
She reveals culturally and socially themes that are also personally relevant. Hefuna plays with the culturally conditioned gazes of the viewer and the complex meanings of image and language in several cultural contexts.
Susan Hefuna’s work is characterized by her interest in architectural and cultural structures in cities like Granada, Cairo, Istanbul, Berlin, Zurich, London, and New York that shape social interactions. Inspired by cityscapes and urban architecture, the artist is absorbing themes and intersections between place, time, and perception in her geometric explorations. In her practice, the artist questions subjectivity and the existence of multiple realities between public and private spaces.
The title “Susan Hefuna – passage” refers to the passage of time, to passages, exits, and entrances. Visitors of the Museum move from room to room, discovering the artist’s universe like a common thread of structures, layers, words, and forms.
Susan Hefuna – passage show allows visitors of the Museum to explore and discover the artist’s works. Like chapters in a book or film, Hefuna’s works poetically tell stories of the artist’s places and traces. In the various rooms of the MKM the past, present, and future can be perceived simultaneously. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the world, in the universe of Susan Hefuna.
Her work has been exhibited around the world and is part of major public collections, including the New York MoMA, the Guggenheim Museums in Abu Dhabi and NYC, the Centre Pompidou, and the Louvre in Paris, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE, the V&A, Tate Modern and the British Museum in London.
Hefuna’s work has been represented at several biennales including: 2019 Biennale d’Architecture d’Orleans, France; 2015: Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London, UK; 2012 Sydney Biennale, Australia; 2009 Fare Mondi, in both the Arsenale and Guardini at the Venice Biennale, Italy; 2008 the Seville Biennial, Spain; 2007 the 2nd Riwaq Biennial, Riwaq, Palestine and the Ninth Sharjah Biennial, UAE; 2006 Biennale Bulgaria; 2003 Rencontres, Photo Biennale Bamako, Mali and in 1998 the 7th International Cairo Biennale.
Susan Hefuna is represented by PiArtworks, London/Istanbul
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2013 Hefuna was awarded with the Contemporary Drawing Prize by the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation in Paris.
Quote by artist Susan Hefuna:
“A drawing cannot conceal anything. It’s impossible to lie in a drawing. A drawing shows everything. A drawing has no gender. A drawing has no nationality. A drawing does not need a passport. There is no time and space. It’s a universe of its own. Look at an artist’s drawings and you will know everything about the artist.“
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A new book: Susan Hefuna – passage is published on the occasion of the exhibition in Duisburg and it is the thirteenth publication of Susan Hefuna’s works published with Kehrer Verlag, and
This is the thirteenth publication of Susan Hefuna’s works by Kehrer publisher.
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