Opening: 2.6 - 18 - 21h
2.6 - 18.6.2022
Thu, Fri and Sat 14 - 18h or by appointment
This project is an ongoing exploration of the thematics of Azerbaijans first feature film “In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions” (1916) and its web of geopolitical and transnational relations stretching between Azerbaijan, the former Soviet Union and its republics and Europe’s international cinema. “In the Kingdom of Oil and Millions” was produced by the Belgian Pironnet brothers with financial support from the oil magnates of Baku and showed both the everyday life of the Baku millionaires as well as that of the workers in the oilfields. The film disappeared in 1920 after the Bolshevik occupation of Azerbaijan.
During a residency at YARAT Contemporary Art Centre in 2016 I researched the 1916 film and produced a series of eight paintings incorporating my everyday impressions. A few months ago, I anew started researching the Pironnet brothers and the history of Belgian interests in Russia and the Caucasus. This all amidst the turbulent news headings of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its global economic and social impact.
The video that is shown in the exhibition compiles parts of research material and various interviews conducted with Azerbaijani and Belgian historians on the subject. The exhibition also includes the sculpture ‘Black Gold’ which consists of an oil barrel with 2,5 liters of crude oil at the bottom and its upper edge covered with gold leaf, creating a circle of gold. When viewers look into the oil barrel I imagine it will feel like looking into a dark well. Black Gold is inspired by the significant role of oil in modern economy and geopolitical control as well as by one of Friedrich Nietzsche's quotes. "And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." ('Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future', 1886).
Merzedes Sturm-Lie received her M.F.A from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm in 2015 and studied in the post-graduate programme ‘Philosophy in the Context of Art’, led by Dr Peter Osborne (Professor of Modern European Philosophy) in 2016. She was selected for the 2021 ArtContest exhibition at Vanderborght Building, Brussels.
Sturm-Lie’s work has been exhibited internationally at Komplot, Brussels (BE); Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (CH); National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow (RU); Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw (PL); SESC Concolaçao, São Paulo (BR); Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg (SE); Pori Art Museum, Pori (FL); IX International Biennial of Art 2016, La Paz (BO). She lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and Stockholm, Sweden. The exhibition continues K41's nordiKeye exhibition series, curated by Krista Autio.
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