Saâdane Afif Feedback-ing

Since 2004 Saâdane Afif has been constructing his exhibitions like record releases. Under a generic title, in the exhibition space he groups together a set of elements that usually define and colour an album. For each project Afif works with a songwriter he commissions to pen lyrics for the works he is presenting. The commission is very specific: after explaining the possible meanings and forms of the pieces, he invites the author to write a song related with each one. The song must maintain the original title, stick to the spirit of what he has explained and develop a formal, metaphoric or symbolic relationship with the work, projecting its own imaginary. The lyrics are then handed over to musicians to perform them and the final result of the process is the production of an album. To date, with the catch-all title of Lyrics, each of Saâdane Afif’s exhibition projects has led to an album.

For his show at Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló, Saâdane Afif is creating a specific project that opens a new series of works and interventions that he will regroup under the overall title of Feedback. The idea in this project is to take the opposite direction to Lyrics. Starting out from the words, elements and soundscapes of the albums Down At the Rock and Roll Club (2005) and Blue Time vs. Suspense (2007), Afif is working on a sound and object installation with sculptures, photos, paintings, scale models, neon pieces, sounds, texts, posters and other images harking back to these two albums.

Addressing this project as a work in progress involving musicians, radio announcers, graphic designers, among others, the artist will develop his project in two temporally defined phases.

In two areas within the exhibition hall, from April 24th to May 8th visitors will find scale models, texts, posters and sound elements associated with the previously mentioned albums plus a music programme designed specifically for the project to be broadcast live on the radio everyday at the same time. In this task he has worked closely with the radio station of Universitat Jaime I in Castellón.

The full exhibition will open on May 8th with the installations Feedback (Down At the Rock and Roll Club, 2005-2009) and Feedback (Blue Time vs. Suspense 2007-2009), which can be visited until June 28th at the EACC.

With this project, Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló continues its engagement with art projects whose experimental underpinnings are geared towards an aesthetic search supporting the creation of singular works, underscoring the relations they maintain with their context.