Adel Abdessemed

The fuselage of a 17-meter Lear Jet 988 RD has been crushed flat and rolled up into the shape of an Algerian pastry. Bourek, which is also the name of the sweet, is the artwork by Adel Abdessemed, which he made after a telephone conversation with his mother, who was busy rolling out fine pastry sheets as they spoke and expressed the desire to flatten the distance between them. Bourek is somehow a perfect metaphor for today's globalized and nomadic life. The collapsed aircraft, which is both monumental and fragile, reveals the joining of its strata only from above, but prohibits anyone from entering. The artist manages thus to implode the technological and opulent North and the humble, innovative and festive South and at the same time create an impressive informal sculpture dealing with the idea of large-scale handling.

Adel Abdessemed

Born in 1971 in Constantine, Algeria.
Lives and works in Paris, France.

Adel Abdessemed embodies the idea of globalization by refusing to be limited to a single ideology or medium and works with video, animation, performance, and sculptural installations around the world. Over the last few years, he has been considered as one of the most promising artists with an international career.

Recent solo shows:
2009: Adel Abdessemed: Les ailes de dieu, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Adel Abdessemed: RIO, David Zwirner, New York (USA). 2008: Adel Abdessemed, Christine König Galerie, Vienna, Austria; Adel Abdessemed: Don’t Trust Me, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (USA); Adel Abdessemed: Drawing for Human Park, Le Magasin - Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France; Adel Abdessemed: Situation and Practice, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA); Adel Abdessemed: Trust Me, The Common Guild, Glasgow International, Glasgow, Scotland.