As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are focusing on exhibitions at spaces that are now receiving public visitors. Check out this show at a newly reopened gallery below.

“The ABC’s of Georges Adéagbo: Speaking Civilization and Showing Culture”
Through August 1 at Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin

What the gallery says: “In this project, comprised of several assemblages and installations, Adéagbo develops a personal encyclopedia of things and impressions he has collected throughout his research in Berlin and Benin, and sets them center stage with his written comments.

Adéagbo’s installations are both a cross-section of our time, with its diverging geopolitical interests, and evidence of the mediating function of cultures, which Adéagbo makes visible through his cultural transfer. In Benin, he has translated what he found in Berlin into images and reliefs; from there, he brings sculptures and masks that enter into conversation with Western artifacts. At the same time, as the title suggests, the new assemblage is a reflection on the artist’s own practice of collecting and questioning.

Adéagbo often compares his installations to a courtroom, in which many witnesses testify to the facts of a case, and the observers ultimately makes their own judgements or simply leave what at first seem to be contradictory ones standing. Above all, Adéagbo sees writing systems as building blocks of cultures, almost as a kind of DNA, whose modification can have fatal consequences.”

Why it’s worth a look: The Benin-born, Berlin-based artist Georges Adéagbo has spent the extent of his (non-traditional) art career collecting ephemera from everywhere and anywhere he can find it. In what amounts to a visual diary, the artist’s texts, record jackets, paintings, photographs, books, and other objects tell the story of individual thinkers and artists, and speak to broader ideas that emerge from societies around the world.

By juxtaposing his own personal encounters and understandings with objects, the artist welcomes viewers to draw associations and conclusions with the addition of their own perspectives. The resulting “archaeology of knowledge” is a compendium of perspectives.

What it looks like:

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.

Installation view of Georges Adéagbo’s show at Galerie Barbara Wien Berlin. Photo: Nick Ash.