When doubt turns into destiny

Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce When doubt turns into destiny, the fifth solo show at Galerie Max Hetzler by Navid Nuur. This will be his second show at the Paris gallery.Navid Nuur demonstrates a fascination with process, dissipation, dissemination and ephemeral constituents such as light and projections. Referring to his works as ‘interimodules’, the artist articulates a specific way of thinking and experiencing the temporary. The term describes an ‘intermediate’ state of things that are concerned through their brief existence and interdependence.

For his exhibition at Galerie Max Hetzler, Nuur explores the concepts of public and private spaces as well as light that functions as a key element in all works on view.

Navid Nuur plays with the fine line between public and private in a work that incorporates construction site safety fences and used locks partly reshaped for instance. The industrially made object that can be found in common places is temporary set into a private one. Fences and locks intertwine in a sort of confrontation between the handmade and the machine.

The show also addresses the value and accessibility of a work. Visitors are invited to take a sheet of paper and rub it against a metal board. The resulting piece that one can bring home bears the essence of the show and will thus get its own destiny, from the artist’s ‘private space’ within the gallery, to the viewer’s own world.

The notions of doubt and faith invoked in the title of the show, When doubt turns into destiny, connect all works on display. Coincidence and intuition play a major role in Nuur’s creative practice.

The ceramics for instance result from a long process. After wandering though Paris with the unfired potteries in hand, pushing them with his whole body against diverse locations as to imprint them with the spirit of the city, the ceramics are fired and glazed with uncommon materials gathered from the very core of the capital, such as stones and waste. The primitive forms of the pottery are ‘fed’ by the city’s history. Nuur activates material objects, bringing them to life through heat and light, letting the traces of that process become part of his artistic gesture.

Navid Nuur (1976, Teheran) lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands. Nuur studied at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam and Plymouth University. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions such as Be-Part, Platform for Contemporary Art, Waregem (2017); DCA Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee; Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest (both 2014); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; Parasol Unit, London (both 2013); Matadero, Madrid (2012); Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen (2011). Group exhibitions include Centre Pompidou Metz; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (both 2018); Art Stations Foundation, Poznan (2016); Kunsthalle Kiel, Kiel; Bienal de la Habana, Havana (both 2015) and La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2011). Navid Nuur’s works are included in renowned collections such as Koç, Istanbul; Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. In 2020, Nuur will be the subject of solo exhibitions at Marta Herford Museum (Germany) in January and Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in April.