»Muscle Memory« is the first institutional solo exhibition of Swedish artist Nina Canell in Germany since eight years. The large-scale presentation at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden brings together more than 20 works by the internationally acclaimed sculptor, including new works created especially for Baden-Baden. The exhibition is curated by Hendrik Bündge.
The title of the exhibition “Muscle Memory” points towards the artist’s enquiry into sculpture as a vessel or conduit of transfer, tentatively asking whether memory can be located outside of human cognition. Sensing is considered as a kind of energy transfer that can be located within as well as outside of materiality. In Nina Canell’s work systems break down and disperse into multiple materialities ranging from pneumatic touch(ing), heat, subterranean cables and electrostatic surface contact. Moving between seemingly diverse elements Canell’s distinct sculptural approach foreground process and ambiguity in favour of any visible conclusions.
Nina Canell (* 1979 in Växjö, Sweden) studied in Dublin, Ireland and lives and works in Berlin. She participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, such as the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2017), the Museo Tamayao, Mexico City (2017), the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2014), the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2013, together with Rolf Julius). Most recently, her works have been exhibited in an international cooperation exhibition at the Center d'art contemporain d'Ivry - Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, the Stedelijk Museum for Actuele Kunst - S.M.A.K. Ghent, Belgium and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland.