Josilda da Conceição is pleased to present ‘Moderate tear, refurbished to be heard’, a duo exhibition where recent works by Johann Arens and Nadim Choufi are brought together. Both artists share a commitment to a poetic rendition of everyday materials that reinserts autonomy and agency. They each find tenderness in found language – ranging from furnishing and signages to lines of poetry – which they press, laminate, and rearrange to not only distill their meaning but also to remind us that redefining these artifacts, whether from public space or spoken language, is integral to our right to participate in shaping our neighborhoods, our collective ideologies, and the societal and spatial structures that underpin our ways of living.
Nadim Choufi is an artist primarily working in sculpture, moving image, and text. He lives and works in Beirut and Rotterdam. He explores ideals of progress, how they manifest and seduce, and the price of such visions on the lives subjected to their realization.
Johann Arens works with installation and collage to survey how shared infrastructures impact our communal life and shape civil behaviour. These site-related works respond to facets of the public domain; community centres, schools, hospitals, digital learning centres, internet cafes, local markets as well as art spaces and are often tailored to be platforms to celebrate and spark forms of communality.
On show from February 22th until March 29th
