Leon Kahane

Name: Les Drancéens
Start: 2021-07-20T14:00:00+02:00
End: 2021-08-28T18:00:00+02:00
Location: Kunst im Traklhaus, Waagplatz 1a, 5020 Salzburg

Les Drancéens

20 July–28 August 2021 / 2–6 pm CEST

Kunst im Traklhaus, Waagplatz 1a, 5020 Salzburg

Leon Kahane, Les Drancéens, 2021, exhibition view, Kunst im Traklhaus, photo: Rudolf Strobl

Exhibition opening Saturday, 17 July 2021, 4-8 pm

The exhibition Les Drancéens deals with the story of the "Cité de la Muette", a modernist residential complex built in the early 1930s in Drancy, a suburb of Paris. During the Nazi occupation, major sections of the Cité were used as the largest deportation camp in France. Kahane uses photography and video in his approach to this place and its history, which is closely connected with his own biography. These media are presented in an installation specially developed for the Galerie im Traklhaus, together with the work Jerricans to Can Jerry (2020).

Since 1973, the birthplace of poet Georg Trakl has housed "Kunst im Traklhaus", and has developed into a prestigious exhibition space for contemporary art. In co-operation with the Summer Academy, the solo exhibition Les Drancéens by Berlin artist Leon Kahane will open in July.

Leon Kahane, born in Berlin in 1985, creates conceptual video works, photographs and installations that centre on themes of migration, identity and coming to terms with majorities and minorities in a globalised society. His interest frequently focuses on geopolitical and social changes of the recent past. Time and again he calls attention to events and institutions that express the contradictions inherent in history. They reflect historical, political, economic and biographical aspects, which he takes up and explores in his works.

Especially the socio-cultural situatedness of current political debates and dynamics is central to his artistic approach, which is a form of cultural critique.

Exhibitions
2021 Les Drancéens, Kunst im Traklhaus, Salzburg (AT). 2020 Jerricans to Can Jerry, Leipzigerstrasse 61, Berlin. 2019 Sag Shibbolet, Jewish Museum Munich, Munich (DE). Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS-Dokumentationszentrum Munich, Munich. 2018 Sag Shibbolet, Jewish Museum Hohenems, Hohenems (AT). Brauchen wie einen linken Populismus, ACUD MACHT NEU, Berlin. Der Wert der Freiheit, Belvedere 21, Vienna. 2017 ars viva 2017, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (DE). How to live together, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. Conditions of Political Choreography, NBK, Berlin. Dejima, GAK, Bremen (DE). Belonging to a Place, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto (CA). 2016 For Official Use Only, GFZK Leipzig, Leipzig (DE). L’exposition Imaginaire, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. ars viva 2017, kunstmuseum kloster unser lieben frauen, Magdeburg (DE). Pas de Deux, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. 2015 Republic of Boxes, uqbar, transmediale, Berlin. The Future of Memory, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. How to Live Together, 6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow. 2014 Disappearing Things, 55th October Salon, Belgrade. 2013 The World Is Stable Now, Gallery Alexander Levy, Berlin. Idiopolis, ReMap 04, Athens. Seen By, Museum für Photographie, Berlin. 2012 The History of Now, F-Stop Festival for Photography, Leipzig. Desertmed, NGBK, Berlin. 2011 Exit Strategies with Fabian Bechtle, Artitude Art Association, Berlin. Melanchotopia, Witte de With, Rotterdam (NL). 2010 final degree exhibition of Ostkreuz School for Photography. Glaube Liebe Hoffnung, c/o Berlin.

Education
2018 Founding of the Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art
2014 Residency in Hong Kong
2011–14 Assistant to Hito Steyerl
2010 Assistant to Wolfgang Tillmans
2010 (ongoing) Student at the University of the Arts, Visual Arts faculty, Berlin
2007–10 Photographic studies at Ostkreuzschule in Berlin.

photo: Hermann Bredehorst