BERLIN.- Galerie Barbara Thumm is showcasing two exhibitions by Peter Bonde (born in Denmark, 1958) and Roméo Mivekannin (born in Côte d‘Ivoire, 1986), two artists who traverse continents and periods of history, each rooted in their unique cultural backgrounds yet connected by a shared exploration of Art History and archival material. These exhibitions bring together European and African artistic traditions, reinterpreted through each artist’s unique experiences and contemporary techniques.
Danish painter Peter Bonde makes his return to Germany for the exhibitions Good enough for Nancy, at Galerie Barbara Thumm’s main space with some of his latest pieces created in 2024. Bonde’s oeuvre derives inspiration from various Nordic and European artists and from 20th century American abstraction and conceptual art. His works evoke the strokes and color palettes of Per Kirkeby and Edvard Munch’s “Self Portrait with the Spanish Flu,” revealing a further connection between his contemporary practice and Art History. Bonde creates his canvases using ultra-reflecting mirror and then paints over them with oil, sometimes layering archival material of past experiences and memories like photographs from his youth or a personal (secret) Instagram. The superimposed layers of each work and the vigorous brushstrokes are often in the center of the canvas. Thus, the painting dictates what the viewer can and cannot see, raising questions about erasure and oblivion. The artist intentionally avoids concealing the whole surface, leaving parts of the canvas uncovered to immerse the viewers into an active observation both of themselves and of their surroundings, inviting them to participate on the installation and making each piece a unique experience that can never be viewed of photographed identically.
The gallery’s project space features the exhibition Human in motion by Roméo Mivekannin with pieces from his series “L’homme qui marche / The walking man” (2022-2024). Mivekannin draws upon the photographic study Human figure in Motion from British photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who revolutionized the history of photography and cinema in the late 19th-century by “stopping action, capturing and decomposing movement,” according to the artist. Mivekannin questions the human in motion and reinterprets Muybridge’s photographs, employing sequential images of figures in movement to represent migration, memory, and time. The artist replaces the figures’ faces with black and white self-portraits. He seeks to intertwine various stories and narratives: the figures’, Muybridge’s and his own. Mivekannin’s choice is intentional and subversive as he presents his face gazing directly to the observer. He aims to turn the passive viewer into an active spectator, to “move from the suffered gaze to the chosen gaze,” sharing an implicit sense of agency between the artist and the audience.
Peter Bonde attended the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, where he taught (1996-2005) after teaching at the Funen Art Academy (1994-1996). He represented the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1999 (with Jason Rhoades) and has exhibited widely across Europe for over three decades. He lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Roméo Mivekannin is an art historian, architect and author. Born and raised in Africa, he moved to France for his studies and has since exhibited in various institutions around Europe and Africa. His works question the notion of gaze, memory, colonization and “otherness” in Western Art History. He lives and works between Toulouse, France, and Cotonou, Benin.
