South likes: Issa Samb at Iniva, London

South likes: Issa Samb at Iniva, London
From the Ethics of Acting to the Empire Without Signs
Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London, U.K.
4 June – 26 July, 2014

Text by Michelangelo Corsaro

Issa Samb is for sure no ordinary artist. Someone might remember him hanging out next to his installation under a tree in last Documenta. Or someone else might recall a video by the German artist Antje Majewski, who met him in Dakar a few years ago and fell into a trance while talking about a shell. For his last show at Iniva Samb borrowed the title from a manifesto on acting produced by Laboratoire Agit’Art, which he co-founded back in 1974. Referrring to the Buddhist teachings of Mahamudra, the title refers to radical acting, which concentrated on the gesture and the body and eliminated speech. The show gathers a wide selection of works and materials shipped from Senegal, as well as other objects found in London’s street markets. Other showcased objects include an oversize cock’s head, archival material and several dolls. In addition Some texts by the artist are on display at Iniva together with short films, in which Samb plays the role of an actor, from the oeuvre of French director Jean Michel Bruyère. Other showcased objects include an oversize cock’s head, archival material and several dolls. It will be clear however that Issa Samb’s practice goes well beyond the boundaries of the objects he produces. Whether one wants to call it performative of ephemeral, his art is indeed provocative as well as unequivocal but, most importantly it cannot find solace in any complacent aesthetic.

Michelangelo Corsaro

http://www.iniva.org/exhibitions_projects/2014/issa_samb#