Foam: 3h Bruno Zhu - New Arrivals, 2015

Bruno Zhu

On 24 November at 19.30 Foam presents a talk by artist Bruno Zhu, within the context of his Foam 3h exhibition New Arrivals. 

&rdquo;A recurrent portrait of an unnamed man reappears in the form of a carpet installation. His shirt is open, chest exposed and he smiles. He is laid down on bed sheets surrounded by fashion magazines. A group of pillowbooks burst out from the fireplace. It is too early for Christmas indeed, but are they gifts or a seasonal anomaly? In the meantime we can&rsquo;t deny we are in a reading room of sorts, look at the books, so many, but out of reach. They are locked away, we can only look from a distance, culture is precious you know, it disintegrates, better not touch.&rdquo;
Artist&nbsp;Bruno Zhu will give participants a brief tour of the museum, akin to a house viewing, starting from Foam&rsquo;s entrance and ending up in the reading room. Once in the reading room, the core of the talk will be a walkthrough of the different <a href="/museum/programme/bruno-zhu">New Arrivals</a>&nbsp;exhibition elements, especially in relation to the new work The September Issue.
&rdquo;A cosy, soothing predisposition is suggested as we contemplate where we were that year, and what year we would like to be in.&rdquo;
The artist talk will reflect upon the development of the show, how it embraced site specificity to tell a story about individual perception in the age of networked consumer circuits, and invite new strategies to perceive ordinary situations. A familiar soundtrack might hum in the background&hellip;
&rdquo;Damn those who think the world is theirs when on headphones.&rdquo; The exhibition <a href="/museum/programme/bruno-zhu">New Arrivals</a>&nbsp;is on view from 30 October to 13 December 2015. 
This event is in English.&nbsp;

<div class="sidebar__content">Event Info 
Tuesday&nbsp;24 November 2015 19.30&nbsp;hrs.
&nbsp;
PRICE Participation is free with <a href="/museum/visitor-information">museum admission</a>
&nbsp;
This event is in English.</div>

Bruno Zhu Artist Talk 

With New Arrivals, Bruno Zhu (Portugal, 1991) remodels the Foam 3h library into another reading room &ndash; one that flattens the representation of reading itself. 

<div class="sidebar__content"> Exhibition opening 
Thursday 26 January from 17.30 hrs.&nbsp;</div>

<div class="sidebar__content"> Bruno Zhu Artist Talk 
Tuesday 24 November 19.30 hrs.</div>

<div class="sidebar__content"> Conversation with Bruno Zhu 
Learn more about the artist's practice, his&nbsp;life and his exhibition.</div>

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, Bruno Zhu transformed the Foam 3h space, which is also a library, into another reading room – albeit a two-dimensional one.

visible in

 He filled the area with photographs of carpets, bookshelves, lamps, and phonebooks. As no actual reading could be done, Zhu rendered the room into a symbolic space that referenced the idea of reading.

Zhu light-heartedly explores his fascination for photography’s ambivalent nature as a symbol and an object in and of itself. One might be tempted to qualify Zhu’s work as post-digital, because of the influence of the technology and the Internet, but the artist insists not to be tied to one style. “Things are getting more awkward, more humorous, more visceral and more urgent, so why rely on a label to box all these things up?” His peculiar work invites the viewer into a world of brightness and positivity.