Saâdane Afif brings his own work and concepts as well as the work of others into a constant stream of deconstruction, interpretation, transformation and re-creation. Elements from art history, from poetry and music are absorbed and transposed into installations and objects over a lengthy manufacturing process.
For about ten years Saâdane Afif has been addressing the anarchical conceptualism of André Cadere. Afif’s Black Spirit, a remake of Cadere’s Barres in the form of 50 individual black parts, fitted together to form a rod, was created in 2005. In the same year Afif conceived Power Chords for two black guitars whose chords are developed to match Cadere’s colour sequences. For documenta 2007 Afif asked friends for 35 song lyrics, which were translated into chords for 13 black guitars in Black Chords Plays Lyrics. Afif’s racing bike L’André – made specially by the British firm Bob Jackson Cycles – shows off a colour sequence à la Cadere in the middle of its white frame, while the racing bike that this city-dweller constantly carries around with him becomes a contemporary ‘Barre de Vitesse’.
Saâdane Afif
L'André, 2009/2010
