安德鲁斯‧施密特，《堡垒》，2017，青铜，漆，塑料，织物，亚克力，线，高193 X 周长 90cm ，照片：Niels Schabrod © 图片由艺术家和国王画廊提供
Andreas Schmitten, “Festung”, 2017, bronze, lacquer, plastic, fabric, PMMA, thread, h=193, Ø90c, Photo: Niels Schabrod, © courtesy the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE (Berlin/London)

Owing to Edouard Malingue Gallery’s great commitment, Condo will finally come to Shanghai in July 2018. “Condo” — taken from “Condominium” (com “together” and dominium “right of ownership”, referring to a territory formally shared by different powers) — is a new format for international galleries to collaborate in exhibition-making. This inaugural edition of Condo Shanghai will include nine participating local galleries from Shanghai, which will welcome and share their spaces with thirteen international galleries, displaying major works by artists they represent alongside those of the invited galleries.

藤原西芒，《瑞贝卡》，2012，综合媒体装置，尺寸不定 © 图片由艺术家、利兹美术馆及施博尔画廊提供
Simon Fujiwara, “Rebekkah”, 2012, mixed media installation, dimensions variable © courtesy the artist, Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds), and Esther Schipper (Berlin)

Edouard Malingue Gallery, together with two renowned German galleries, will present The Soul of the Soulless, a three-person exhibition. Esther Schipper will present a large-scale installation by the British-born artist Simon Fujiwara and König Galerie sculptures and drawings by German artist Andreas Schmitten. As the host gallery, Edouard Malingue Gallery is proud to present the works of the local Shanghainese artist He Yida in dialogue with these two excellent artists on the same platform.

藤原西芒，《瑞贝卡》，2012，综合媒体装置，尺寸不定 © 图片由艺术家、利兹美术馆及施博尔画廊提供
Simon Fujiwara, “Rebekkah”, 2012, mixed media installation, dimensions variable © courtesy the artist, Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds), and Esther Schipper (Berlin)

Simon Fujiwara (born in 1982) has an oeuvre that crosses multiple media, from sculpture and installation to video and painting, mining worlds as diverse asadvertising and archaeology. His work reflects on the connections between the individual and the social through fictional personal histories andarchaeologies. This exhibition will show Rebekkah (2012), a work that combines sculpture and video. Fujiwara’s work takes as point of departure Rebekkah, a sixteen-year-old girl who once took part in the2011 London riots. The artist filmed her two-week-long trip to China, which was part of her “resocialisation” programme. In China, she visited a factory of flat-screen TVs and a sportswear manufacturing plant, witnessing the real production environment of some of the goods stolen by her and her partners in the riot. She also visited Xi’an, home of the Terracotta Army, and subsequently Rebekkah toured a factory where modern terracotta figures are produced. Here casts of her were made in the style of the terracotta warriors.

藤原西芒，《神兽》(欧洲貂皮)，2017，木架，皮毛大衣碎片，130 x 95 x 2.6 cm，照片：Roman März © 图片由艺术家及施博尔画廊提供
Simon Fujiwara,”Fabulous Beasts (European Mink)”, 2017, Shaved sections of vintage fur coat on wooden stretcher, 130 x 95 x 2.6 cm, Photo: Roman März © courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper (Berlin)

To date, there have been over 130 terracotta-warrior-style sculptures of Rebekkah made, which are presented around the world in Fujiwara’s exhibitions. These terracotta casts of Rebekkah are products manufactured in large-scale assembly lines, the craft value and hand produced mistakes of each assembly line worker visible in the sculptures. Yet at the heart of this new production is a young British woman who engaged in the destruction of the long-solidified relations between production and occupation. Fujiwara’s work is very often inspired by real events in the real world; through his distinctive narrative and subtle logical structures, the artist explores the construction of individual and social identities.

藤原西芒，《面具》（默克尔 E5.2）＆《面具》（默克尔 EF1-2），2016，布画，化妝品，1）106 x 106 x 7 cm （加框），2）106 x 106 x 7 cm（加框）照片：Filippo Armellin © 图片由艺术家及施博尔画廊提供
Simon Fujiwara, “Masks (Merkel E5.2)” & “Masks (Merkel E5.1)”, 2016, make-up on canvas, Part 1):106 x 106 x 7 cm (framed), Part 2):106 x 106 x 7 cm (framed) Photo: Filippo Armellin © courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper (Berlin)

Andreas Schmitten (born in 1980) has a body of sculptural works with bright, alluring colours. Forms are inspired by everyday life and yet somewhat appear awkward. Distorted and abstracted furniture and vessels no longer possess functionality, while the glossy, shiny surfaces have an eerie aesthetic quality. In this exhibition, Schmitten displays among a series of sketch paintings that appear similar to instruction manuals for products two new vitrine works and his sculptural installation “Festung” (“Fortress”). The white lacquered bronze-sculpture is an abstract female figure, which appears in different shapes often in his body of work. This enigmatic figure is leaning towards the pink window-like object, reminding of European Gothic Church windows f.e., creating an interaction between the human body and the architecture. Also typical for his work is, playing with perfection or beauty on one hand and with arbitrary parts, like in this case the embroidered seams, on the other.

安德鲁斯‧施密特，《堡垒》，2017，青铜，漆，塑料，织物，亚克力，线，高193 X 周长 90cm ，照片：Niels Schabrod © 图片由艺术家和国王画廊提供
Andreas Schmitten, “Festung”, 2017, bronze, lacquer, plastic, fabric, PMMA, thread, h=193, Ø90c, Photo: Niels Schabrod © courtesy the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE (Berlin/London)

Ory Dessau describes his work as ambiguous and as an uncompromising quest for self-identity and an insistent evasion therefrom. Situated within the expanded field of sculpture, his works introduce an affinity to architecture, painting, technical drawing, product design, stage design and model making, as well as to tailoring and carpentry[1]. The two new Vitrine-works “Representatives”, that Schmitten created for this exhibition seeming to display little architectural, stage-like sceneries with thrones or cinema seats spanned by baldachins. The figures in the Chimera Electrified drawings engage in all kinds of self-abusive behavior, with a process that is calm, absurd, and chilling. Such frightening and yet uncertain behavior attracts the audience’s attention towards the pain and towards the machinic quality of the body through visual means.

安德鲁斯‧施密特，《连环画》，2018，彩色铅笔，水彩，水彩纸，艺术家制框，51.5 x 34 cm， 照片：Andreas Fechner © 图片由艺术家和国王画廊提供
Andreas Schmitten, “Comic-Drawing”, 2018, pigment pencil, watercolour, on watercolour paper, artist frame, 51.5 x 34 cm, Photo: Andreas Fechner © courtesy the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE (Berlin/London)

He Yida (born in 1980) meanwhile focuses on the physical characteristics of objects as well as the plastic, form-making connections between objects. Sometimes she changes the materials slightly, while other times she presents works in the original form of the objects themselves. Scattered over the fissures among the objects is the manual labour of the artist. As a glue between the materials, manual labour reveals the fragile human traces through actions such as bending, binding, leaning, and hanging; “primitive” modes of production and “civilized” modes of production are thus mixed and confused. He Yida employs cheap modern materials or found contemporary industrial goods; then through basic modes of manual labour, without involving additional modern processes of reworking, the artist muddles modern, civilised materials and renders them primitive and fundamental. What was originally meant to be grand or great is turned into the common and the ordinary; the muddling and mixing dissolves the sacral. A rebellion is thus born.

何意达，《无题》，2018，锡箔，不锈钢，玻璃，石膏粉，112 x 95 x 27.5 cm 玻璃部分: 27.5 x 18 x 100 cm © 图片由艺术家与马凌画廊提供
He Yida, “Untitled”, 2018, tin foil, stainless steel, glass, plaster 112 x 95 x 27.5 cm glass: 27.5 x 18 x 100 cm © courtesy of the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery

The three artists respectively mix sculptures of human figures produced at large quantities, an imagination of machines fused with the human body, as well as certain materials that are practically unpolished—and from there they broach the themes of humanity and human sensations. The works of the three artists have an intense sense of materiality, placing materiality at the most notable position in terms of style and inspiration. In these works are revealed materials seemingly shorn of the spiritual—industrial, mechanical and commercial materials—yet what is sought after and interrogated happens to be the human spirit: the ethics and sensations of human survival.

何意达，《KEAI 拆包內部》，2015，密度板, 三合板, 石膏, PVC贴面, 漆, 宜家桌腿, 陶瓷, 麂皮，160 x 90 x 70 cm © 图片由艺术家与马凌画廊提供
He Yida, “Unpacking interior – KEAI”, 2015, MDF board, ply- wood board, plaster, PVC sticker, paint, IKEA desk legs, ceramic, cha mois leather, 160 x 90 x 70 cm © courtesy of the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery

Simon Fujiwara

b. 1982, London, UK

Simon Fujiwara lives and works in Berlin. His works have been exhibited in solo and group shows at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2015), MOMA – Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2012), Marian Goodman Gallery (Paris, 2015), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2014), Pace Gallery (London, 2013), Serpentine Gallery (London, 2010), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, 2013), Leeds Art Gallery (Leeds, 2015), Kunsthaus Bregenz (Austria, 2010), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, 2016), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2013), Si Shang Art Museum (Beijing, 2017), etc.  Fujiwara’s works have also been included in the permanent collection of institutions such as: The Tate Collection, London; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Sammlung Verbund, Austria; Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; and MOMA, New York.

Andreas Schmitten

b. 1980, Mönchengladbach,Germany

Andreas Schmitten lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. His works have been exhibited in solo and group shows at KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin (2016), The Journal Gallery, New York (2017), Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany (2018), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Bonn (2018), Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2016), etc. Schmitten’s works have also been included in the permanent collection of institutions such as: Heinz Ackermans (London), Kunstmuseum Bonn (Bonn), Kunstsammlung Deutsche Bundesbank (Frankfurt), Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), Cragg Foundation (Wuppertal), Sifang Art Museum (Nanjing), and G2 Kunsthalle (Leipzig).

He Yida

b. 1980, Shanghai, China

He Yida currently lives and works in Shanghai. Her solo exhibitions include: Right Misplacement (A+ Contemporary, Shanghai, 2016), In Case (C-Space, Beijing, 2013). Her selected group exhibitions include: One Second Ago (Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2017), NAN KAN: Inexplicit Ethics and De-ranking Perspective (Surplus Space, Wuhan, 2016), Daily Formalism (BANK, Shanghai, 2016), Alchemy (Between Art Lab, Shanghai, 2015), Peepshow (Long March Space, Beijing, 2015), and Follow (MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai, 2011).