Ugo Rondinone Mentor 2024
Each year, Reiffers Art Initiatives invites a major international figure in contemporary art to become the mentor of an emerging artist of the French scene. The mentor makes the final choice of the winner of the mentorship program from a selection of emerging artists put forward by the artistic committee. The mentorship will result in an exhibition during Art Basel Paris.
Mentor 2024
Ugo Rondinone
A leading figure in contemporary art, Ugo Rondinone takes on the role of Reiffers Art Initiatives mentor in 2024, following in the footsteps of Rashid Johnson (2021), Kehinde Wiley (2022) and Lorna Simpson (2023). He has chosen to accompany Tarek Lakhrissi, a young French artist. The fruit of this mentorship will be presented at the Reiffers Art Center from October 15 to November 16.
Ugo Rondinone is recognized as one of the major voices of his generation, an artist who composes searing meditations on nature and the human condition while establishing an organic formal vocabulary that fuses a variety of sculptural and painterly traditions. The breadth and generosity of his vision of human nature have resulted in a wide range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects, installations, videos, and performances. His hybridized forms, which borrow from ancient and modern cultural sources alike, exude pathos and humor, going straight to the heart of the most pressing issues of our time, where modernist achievement and archaic expression intersect.
Ugo Rondinone was born in 1964 in Brunnen, Switzerland. He studied at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna before moving to New York in 1997, where he lives and works to this day. His work has been the subject of recent institutional exhibitions at Belvedere, Vienna (2021) Tamayo Museum, Mexico City (2022 ) and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2022), Petit Palais, Paris (2022), Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia, Venice (2022), The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, (2023), Storm King, New York (2023), The Städel Museum, Frankfurt (2023) and Museum SAN, Wonju (2024). In 2007 he represented Switzerland at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
YOUNG TALENT
Mentorship 2024
Tarek Lakhrissi
Among the selection of young talents proposed by the artistic committee, Ugo Rondinone elected to support French artist Tarek Lakhrissi.
Visual artist and poet, Tarek Lakhrissi develops his practice around different media such as writing, performance, video and sculpture. Words and language are the source of his work. Exploring poetry, popular culture and affects, Tarek Lakhrissi's work redefines an emancipating imagination and anticipates an equally emancipating future.
Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Migros Museum (Zurich), Museum of Contemporary Art; 22nd Biennale of Sydney (Sydney), Julia Stoschek Foundation (Berlin), Louvre (FR), Fondation Ricard (Paris), Quadriennale di Roma; Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Roma). Lakhrissi's work can be found in the collections of CNAP, FRAC Aquitaine, IAC, FRAC Grand Large, Defares and the Sandretto Foundation. He currently teaches at ZHDK, Zurich (Switzerland) and is represented by Galerie Allen (Paris).
"As Reiffers Art Initiatives mentor, Ugo Rondinone will accompany young French artist Tarek Lakhrissi until their joint exhibition in October 2024 during Art Basel Paris. I'm delighted that Reiffers Art Initiatives will take this opportunity to contribute to the international promotion of an exciting emerging creation.".
Paul-Emmanuel Reiffers
The Program
THE MENTOR
The artistic committee presents the mentor with a selection of young artists whose visual and conceptual work has caught their attention.
The 2024 selection of 10 emerging artists is made by members of the artistic committee, and the final choice of the "Mentor and Young Talent" program's winner is entirely up to the mentor.
THE YOUNG TALENT
The mentor passes on his or her experience and advice to the young talent in a long-term intergenerational dialogue.
During the mentorship, which lasts several months, the mentor engages with the selected artist around their respective practices, in a spirit of openness and dissemination of artistic know-how.
THE EXHIBITION
The result of the work accomplished during the mentoring program is presented in an exhibition that opens every year in Paris in the Fall, during Art Basel Paris.
Art Basel Paris is a key event in Paris, bringing together major players in the contemporary art world to present and showcase the creations of the mentorship winner.