MAMathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc


Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc (b. 1977, French Guyana; lives and works in Metz) In his works, Mathieu researches the history of colonial development and its effects on cultural identity and global contexts. Amongst other concerns, he is very engaged with film history and the decolonization of African states in the 1960s. In all his videos, photographs and drawings, as well as through archival material, he investigates the causes of collective amnesia. In this way, the artist is not only looking for the historical reasons behind current conflicts, but makes it possible to achieve multiple relations between personal identity, community and nation. Cultural objects always carry a form of memory within themselves, which Abonnenc sets up to be negotiated all over again in his works.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Cinéma chez les Balantes, Galerie YYZ, Toronto; L’œil se noie, with Eric Baudelaire, Kiosk, Ghent, 2014; Songs for a Mad King, Kunsthalle Basel; Kannibalen, Kunstverein-Bielefeld, Bielefeld, 2013; Tricontinental, A Graphic Survey, E.N.S.B.A. of Lyon; An Italian Film (Africa Addio), Pavilion, Leeds; To Whom Who Keeps a Record, Fondation Serralves, Porto, 2012; Orphelins de Fanon, La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel; A Minor Sense of Didacticism, Gallery Marcelle Alix, Paris; Foreword to Guns for Banta, Gasworks, London, 2011.

Recent group exhibitions include: Giving Contours to Shadow, NBK  Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; 8th Berlin Biennial, Berlin; PER/FORM, CA2M, Madrid, 2014; Le Pont, MAC, Marseilles; L’image-papillon, Mudam, Luxembourg; What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You’ve Got It, Cornerhouse, Manchester; Nouvelles impressions de Raymond Roussel, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013; Evocateur, 14th Ricard Fondation Company Price, Paris; Intense Proximité/La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Living Document/Naked Reality: Toward an Archival Cinema, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 2012; Microstoria, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Nothing Personal, Gallery Marcelle Alix, Paris, 2011; Manifesta 8, Murcia; Erudition concrète III, Le Plateau – FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris; Hydrarchy, Gasworks, London, 2010.