GERRY BIBBY & HENRIK OLESENConversation in a Yes/No Landscape. Insect Incest

The exhibition of Gerry Bibby and Henrik Olesen at Sismógrafo takes its starting point in conversation, in exchange as a subject, in agreements and their opposites. Taste presumes conflict, structures of judgement proliferating – black/white, thumbs up / thumbs down, yes no, but no but yes. This exhibition feeds on expectations and productive slippages; attraction and mis-recognition. Presenting new works, entirely produced in Porto.
 

Gerry Bibby (Australia, 1977) lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo projects include a workshop and presentation Flexing Muscle (with the Bureau of Writing) Art Space in Sydney as part of the 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016), as well as a residency in Cyprus with the exhibition Yes No Future, at Point Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia, Cyprus (2015). In 2014, he had solo exhibitions with Gallery Silberkuppe in Berlin, and Gallery Deborah Schamoni in Munich and the exhibition Combination Boiler at The Showroom, London. Together with Juliette Blightman he was invited for KUB Arena, Kunsthaus Bregenz, where he began writing his first book The Drumhead, published by Sternberg Press, Berlin in 2014. Recent group shows were Textilities... and Roses too, at Fondazione Ratti, Como, Playing Pool with Eggs at Galerie Bernhard, Zurich, and Re-XXXcovery VI, at Autocenter, Berlin, among others. He was part of the extensive group show Abandon the parents, at Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen that was curated by Henrik Olesen (2014). In 2013 he developed a work for frieze projects London and participated in the Lyon Biennial. He is a regular contributor to the Berlin based art magazine Starship, that is co-published bi-annual since 2014 by Nikola Dietrich, Martin Ebner, Ariane Müller, and Henrik Olesen. HENRIK OLESEN (Denmark, 1967) lives and works in Berlin. Recently he had parallel solo exhibitions at Gallery Buchholz and Reena Spaulings in New York. Further solo presentations include: Museum Ludwig/Wolfgang-Hahn-Price, Cologne (2012), MoMA – Projects 94, New York (2011), Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2011), Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2010), Portikus, Frankfurt (with Judith Hopf) (2007), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich (2007). His work is included in the recent group exhibition L’image volée at Fondazione Prada, curated by Thomas Demand. He further contributed to Alfred Jarry Archipelago, La Ferme Du Buisson, Noisiel (2015), Slip of the Tongue, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2015), The Venice Biennale, Venice (2013), The New Museum, New York (2012), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2012), and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2012), among others. He was curator of the group show Abandon the parents, at Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen (2014). His monographic publications encompass What is authority? Pork Salad Press; Some Faggy Gestures, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst; How do I make myself a body? Malmö Konsthall and Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel; et al. Henrik Olesen is co-editor of the Berlin based art magazine Starship that is published bi-annual since 2014 together with Nikola Dietrich, Martin Ebner, and Ariane Müller.

Nikola Dietrich (Germany, 1972) is a Berlin based art historian and curator. She graduated from the Humboldt University of Berlin and worked at gallery Klosterfelde in Berlin, before she moved to Amsterdam where she attended the De Appel Curatorial Program in 2001. Afterwards, she was part of the curators’ workshop, founded by René Block in the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, where she co-curated exhibitions with Terry Fox, and the substantial exhibition “In the Gorges of the Balkans”. She was the curator at Portikus in Frankfurt from 2004-2007, where she realized over 20 exhibitions accompanied by publications, among them projects with Francis Alÿs, Akram Zaatari, John Baldessari, Judith Hopf, Paulina Olowska and Bonnie Camplin. Subsequently she became head curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Basel until 2013 where she conceived exhibitions with Hilary Lloyd, Henrik Olesen, Tim Rollins & K.O.S. ,  and the widely recognized exhibition “Tell It to My Heart. Collected by Julie Ault”, among many others. She is co-editor of Starship Magazine since 2014, published in Berlin.