Adel Abdessemed

Adel Abdessemed (1971, Constantine, Algeria) is a prominent figure on the international art scene.

From drawing to video, from sculpture to installation, Adel investigates the wounds of our present. His work has been exhibited, over the last thirty years, in numerous important solo exhibitions, at MoMA PS1 in New York, MIT List Art Center in Cambridge (Massachusetts), Magasin – Center National d’Art Contemporain in Grenoble, at Parasol Unit in London, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin, Musée National d’Art Moderne- Center Georges Pompidou in Paris for the retrospective, «Adel Abdessemed. Je suis Innocent » (2012), CAC in Malaga, or at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montréal. Two major monographic exhibitions are taking place in 2018: Otchi Tchiornie at the Musée du Grand-Hornu in Belgium and L’Antidote at MAC Lyon.

Adel Abdessemed’s work has been part of four Venice Biennales (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015), where he received the Benesse Prize (2007), two Istanbul Biennales (2007, 2017) and the Havana Biennale ( 2009), Gwangju (2008), Lyon (2007) and São Paulo (2006).
In 2010, he participated in the first Aichi Triennale, in 2017 in the Milan Triennale and in the Oku-Noto Triennale in Suzu (Japan).
In 2018 he participated in the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale. The same year, he also participated in Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, where he exhibited a series of photographs and sculptures curated by Jean Nouvel.

In 2015 he directed the set design and lighting for Retour à Berratham, during the Avignon Festival, for the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj.
In 2016, he was invited to draw the poster for the Avignon Festival and to create his Surfaces project. At the same time, he was commissioned by the Bold Tendencies organization for the Bristow work as part of his artistic program in Peckham, London.

He collaborates with creators from all fields, from poetry (two books created with Adonis and many with Hélène Cixous) or architecture (Jalousies. Complicités avec Jean Nouvel, in the Lambert Collection at the Museum of Vence, in 2015). .
Recently, the three-volume monograph, Works 1988-2015, has been published by Koenig Books, which brings together the catalog of almost 30 years of creation.