‘F*rgiveness’

30 April – 25 June 2022
Preview: Friday 29 April, 5–8pm
Special opening hours: 29 April – 1 May, 11am–7pm
Kurfürstenstraße 24/25, Berlin
 
Her toes are nobody else’s business but her own and she wakes up not knowing where she is.

Lavender citrus some chamomile floral jasmine herbaceous cedar something earthy and warm the calmness of an intellectual home a handmade metal chime on the ceiling ah the chime an equally beautiful home another couple their identical metal chime their mental divorce walking without walking away

She sees something moving very fast, so fast that she does not recognise what it is, if it is anything it must be a hummingbird.

A good day today so was yesterday so was the day before yesterday so was the day before the body ah the body ah the aching body a black leather jacket a pair of shoulder pads bra full bra free a strolling black cat in a slow motion a half bitten nicotine chewing gum a tongue cope cope and hope five alphabets apart the handsome duo

She turns the corner on the street of the intellectual house and that is where she sees the hummingbird. The cool evening air and her faux leather gloves. The hill is like her belly slightly permanently raised. If she is lucky she will be able to see the bloody sun.

– Bob Kil

Elif Saydam (born in 1985 in Calgary, Canada) lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘...schläft sich durch’ at Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg in 2021; ‘Everybody’s Fool’ at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, ‘Gut feeling’ at Tanya Leighton, Berlin, and ‘Selfing’ at Melange, Cologne, all in 2020. Their work has been included in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Landes-Stiftung Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Bonn; Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Bad Ems, Germany; Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nuremberg, and MMK Museum for Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main. Saydam’s work is held in the Public Collection of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Germany.

As the recipient of the 2020 Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung “Catalogue for Young Artists” award, a monograph titled ‘Elif Saydam: TWO CENTS’ will be published by Mousse Publishing (Italy), released in April 2022. The book launch will be celebrated with an afternoon of readings at Hopscotch, Berlin on the last day of ‘F*rgiveness’, Saturday 25 June 2022.

Special opening hours: Friday 29 April – Sunday 1 May, 11am–7pm.

Tanya Leighton, Kurfürstenstraße 24/25, 10785 Berlin