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«Art & Alienation» at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Group Show, June 8 until October 19, 2025

Artists

Delphine Mouly, Ethan Assouline, Hannah Black, Jimmie Durham, Mauro Cerqueira, Milena Langer, Morag Keil, Richard Sides

Institutions

Kunsthalle Friart, Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Location

Fribourg

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

friart.ch

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg Courtesy of the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Art & Alienation Exhibition at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

On one side art and on the other alienation. Groups of works by eight artists are separated by walls that divide Friart’s industrial space into cells. From one passage to the next, the architecture produces a feeling of isolation. But it also allows the works to be freed by refusing to establish a principle of equivalence between them. By giving each space its own time, the sequences are not imposed but left to the visitors to consider themselves.

Differing from the pressure imposed on them by the social industry in which they operate, the works are not new. Often operating in series, their appearance is closer to the variant or the edit. A narrative poverty emerges from the self-sufficiency of their material presence. Far from the discursive charm of the signifier, they do not “say” anything, and do not illustrate any particular fact. Their exhibition only repeats the contradictions of art under capitalism.

Each ensemble has its own rules. But all share the fact of being determined by art as work in a capitalist context. In this dual existence, they are caught between the singularity of creation and the universality of commodities. Refusing to facilitate the transition from one to the other, they make strategic use of abstraction. In a dead end of aesthetic thought, this becomes a tool to affirm the ideological links between the unrepresentable totality of capital and the model subjectivity of the artist.

Individual Artist Highlights

Delphine Mouly’s film, Extended Play, is still a work in progress. Its length can neither be apprehended by means of perception, nor consumed in its entirety. At each stage it undergoes a new exhibited version. With a camera mounted in her vehicle, the artist uses the interior to frame long tracking shots that recount her journeys. Images and sound are subject to the vagaries of traffic and the editing choices made available by real-time driving.

Morag Keil's works, Client and Material III, subvert the ideology of contemporary work by presenting sculptural elements that challenge the norms of the profession. These works question the relationship between art and labor in a capitalist context.

Mauro Cerqueira's Casas num Beco Malcheiroso series reflects on the gentrification of Porto and the artist's concern regarding real estate speculation. The artworks address economic disparity and the impact of urban development on communities.

Jimmie Durham's pencil drawings found in a crate stored in the Friart depot play with the idea of otherness and challenge the viewer to question identity and perspective.

Richard Sides' monochromatic paintings and video installation explore the relationship between ideology and the unconscious, creating a sensory experience that delves into the complexities of modern life.

Ethan Assouline's installation evokes a book under construction, challenging the viewer to consider their existence within a conditioned environment.

Hannah Black's Politics video series delves into the interview format with political activists, exploring the boundaries between symbolic politics and real-world engagement.

Milena Langer's installation updates the problematic of structural cinema by focusing on the contemporary filmed image, challenging norms and uses of visual media.

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Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Delphine Mouly, Extended Play (Long Season Edit), 2025», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg Courtesy of the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Delphine Mouly, Extended Play (Tunnel Tunnel Edit), 2023», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Morag Keil, Client, 2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Morag Keil, Client, 2024 (detail)», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Morag Keil, Material III (detail), 2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Jimmie Durham, Fribourg, 1993», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the Jimmie Durham Estate and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Mauro Cerqueira, Casas num Beco Malcheiroso #6, 2019-2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Mauro Cerqueira, Casas num Beco Malcheiroso #2, 2019-2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Mauro Cerqueira, Casas num Beco Malcheiroso #3, 2019-2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Richard Sides, If you never take it seriously you never get hurt, 2025», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Carlos/Ishikawa, London

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Richard Sides, National Association, 2025», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Carlos/Ishikawa, London

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Ethan Assouline, réalité (detail), 2025», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Hannah Black, Politics (Red Display), 2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Arcadia Missa, London

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Hannah Black, Broken Windows, 2022», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artist and Arcadia Missa, London

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg

Exhibition View Group Show «Art & Alienation; view on Milena Langer, Liquidation (First Round), 2024», at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Fribourg, 2025 / Photo: Guillaume Python / Courtesy: the artists and Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg