Hicham Berrada

Hicham Berrada’s artistic practice resembles that of a painter whose materials are not colour and canvas, but the natural laws to which reality and all matter observe. His installations, sculptures, videos and performances are based on scientific studies, which he uses to activate the forces of ecological processes and the elements.

While Berrada first defines certain parameters, he subsequently transfers control to the elemental force. Using the means of nature, he creates dreamlike worlds that are in a state of suspension between becoming and passing. He does not paint landscapes or poetic universes, but uses chemical substances and physical reactions to create them in process-related works that unfold dynamically in time and space.

The fact that the artist initiates, orchestrates, manipulates and simulates natural processes miraculously demonstrates that nature is incalculable. Based on Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, the artist’s interventions show that both the earth and the universe are subject to the random fluctuations of atoms that are invisible to the human eye. Aléas means coincidences and the works in the exhibition make these fluctuations visible by triggering their aesthetic potential.

Hicham Berrada was born in 1986 in Casablanca, Morocco, and lives and works in Roubaix, France. His works have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at the Louvre, Lens, Punta della Dogana, Museum of the Pinault Collection, Venice, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Abbey Notre-Dame-La-Royale de Maubuisson, Palace of Versailles (garden), Paris, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Frankfurter Kunstverein, MoMA PS1, New York and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, at the Taipei Biennale, Taiwan (2020) and the Lyon Biennale (2017) among others. Works by the artist are in the public and private collections of: Futurium, Berlin, Mercedes Benz Art Collection, Stuttgart, Pinault Collection, Paris / Venice, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf.

The exhibition is supported by: