New York, USA

www.azizcucher.net
“Time of The Empress” is a series of animated drawing works made in 2011-2012 that present modernist buildings in an endless loop of a simultaneous state of construction and disintegration. There are 20 individual structures which can be combined in different configurations which can be presented as projections or on flatscreens. The piece was initially shown in a 3 projection configuration at Aziz & Cucher’s exhibition “Some People” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and in this context it served as a prologue for the rest of the show. The version shown here on c-collection.org is has been specially commissioned by and is owned by C-Collection.

The piece was inspired by Aziz & Cucher’s encounter with ruined buildings in Sarajevo and Mostar (Bosnia) that stand as remnants of the war in the Balkans in the 1990s. It was further inspired by a passage from the "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguerite Yourcenar, which reads:

“The future of the world no longer disturbs me, I do not try still to calculate, with anguish, how long or how short a time the peace will endure; I leave that to the gods. Not that I have acquired more confidence in their justice, which is not our justice, or more faith in human wisdom; the contrary is true. Life is atrocious, we know. But precisely because I expect little of the human condition, man’s periods of felicity, his partial progress, his efforts to begin over again and to continue, all seem to me like so many prodigies which nearly compensate for the monstrous mass of ills and defeats, of indifference and error. Catastrophe and ruin will come; disorder will triumph, but order will too, from time to time. Peace will again establish itself between two periods of war; the words humanity, liberty, and justice will here and there regain the meaning which we have tried to give them. Not all our books will perish, nor our statues, if broken, lie unrepaired; other domes and other pediments will arise from our domes and pediments; some few men will think and work and feel as we have done, and I venture to count upon such continuators, placed irregularly throughout the centuries, and upon this kind of intermittent immortality.”

“Time of The Empress” casts a meditational glance at historical cycles of growth and decay, destruction and renewal, as it also implies the impermanence of the present. Anthony Aziz (b.1961) and Sammy Cucher (b.1958) have been working as a collaborative team since 1991. Their work combines photography, digital imaging, sculpture and video installation.

Their work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in solo exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, the Photographers' Gallery in London, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, The Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France; the Herzliya Museum of Art, Israel; and the Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas. “Some People”, their recent exhibition of four newly commissioned video installations, opened in April 2012 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

place & year of birth
New York

featured galleries
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solo exhibitions
2012
“Some People,” Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
“New Landscapes,” Gazelli Art House, Baku, Azerbaijan

2009
“Aziz + Cucher,” Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
“Aziz + Cucher,” National Museum of Art, Kaunas, Lithuania

2008
“Scenapse: New Photography,” ClampArt, New York
“Scenapse: New Photography,” Galeria Trama, Barcelona
“The Linked Ring.” University of Hartford Art Gallery, Hartford
“Aziz + Cucher”, Stiftelsen 3:14, Bergen, Norway

2006
“Interiors” and “Synaptic Bliss,” Artereal Gallery, Sydney

2005
"Synaptic Bliss,” Galeria Trama, Madrid "Synaptic Bliss,” Galeria Trama, Barcelona

2004
"Synaptic Bliss.” Villette Numerique 2004, Parc de la Villette, Paris 2002
“Passage,” Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel

2001
“Recent Work,” Henry Urbach Architecture, New York
“New Work,” Galerie Yvonamor Palix, Paris

2000
“SERIES 96:00,” Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela

1999
“Aziz + Cucher,” Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

1998
“Aziz + Cucher,” Reali Arte Contemporanea, Brescia, Italy
“Unnatural Selection,” Wolfson Gallery, Miami/Dade Comm. College, Miami

1997
“Plasmorphica,” Jack Shainman Gallery, New York Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France

1996
“Unnatural Selection,” The Photographer's Gallery, London
"New Work," Espace D'Art, Yvonamor Palix, Paris
“Unnatural Selection,” Galleria Photology, Milan
“Aziz + Cucher,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City

1995
Venice Biennale, Venezuelan Pavilion, Venice “Dystopia,” Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

1993
"Faith, Honor, and Beauty,” Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

1992
"Faith, Honor, and Beauty,” New Langton Arts, San Francisco


group exhibitions
2013
"To Deny our Nothingness," Gallery Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
"Re:Cinema," Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, Australia
Auckland Festival of Photography, Elam School of Art, Auckland, New Zealand

2012
"Do or Die: The Human Condition in Painting and Photography," Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden
“Fairy Tales, Monsters and the Genetic Imagination,” Frist Center for the Arts, Nashville
“Unnatural” Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach

2011
“Paradesign,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
“Cabaret,” Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York
“Beauty Culture”, Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles
“Down to Earth,” Gazelli Art House, London
“Altered States,” Michael Foley Gallery, New York
“So, Who do you think you are?” San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
“Reconceptualizing Vision,” PingYao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China

2010
“Degrees of Separation: Contemporary Photography from the Permanent Collection, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
“Changing the Focus,” Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA
“SKIN,” Wellcome Collection, London, UK

2009
“Huesped,” Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
“Genipulation,” Centre Pasqu’Art, Biel, Switzerland
“Sensate,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
“Arcadia,” ClampArt, New York

2008
“246 and Counting: Recent Acquisitions,” SFMoMa, San Francisco
“Passageworks: Contemporary Art from the Collection”, SFMoMa, San Francisco

2007
“In the Dermisphere.” Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
“Double Vision,” Deutsche Bank, New York
“Digital Portraits,” Clampart Gallery, New York
“Jump Cuts,” CIFO, Cisneros Foundation, Miami, FL
“Second Skin,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
“A Travers le Miroir,” Musee d'Art et d'Archeologie, Aurillac, France

2006
“A Curator’s Eye: The Visual Legacy of Robert A. Sobieszek,” LACMA, Los Angeles Photo Espana 2006, Madrid
“Future Face,” Taiwan Museum of Art, Taiwan
“Second Skin,” Entry 2006 Expo, Essen, Germany (curated by Ellen Lupton)
“Contemporary Art Reflecting Medicine,” Kust-Museum Ahlen, Germany “
What a Great Space You Have,” Luxe Gallery, New York

2005
"Synaptic Bliss,” Eyebeam, New York (curated by Benjamin Weil) “Jump Cuts”, The Americas Society, New York
“La Peau est ce qu’il y a de plus Profond,” Musee de Beaux Arts, Valenciennes, France
“Perdere la testa,” Lattuada Studio, Milan
"Art + Architecture 1900-2000,” Palazzo Ducale, Genova

2004
"Photography and the Death of the Portrait,” Hayward Gallery, London
"Future Face,” Science Museum, London
"Making Faces,” Musee de l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland
"Paradise Now,” University of Maryland, Baltimore
LOOP International Video Festival, Barcelona

2003
"Only Skin Deep,“ International Center of Photography, NY (curated by Coco Fusco)
"Rethinking Photography V,” Rourm Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
"Chimeres,” Musee des Beaux Arts, Monaco "Cara a Cara,” Culturgest, Lisbon

2002
"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” Migros Museum, Zurich
"Body Design,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
"Out of Site," New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY (curated by Anne Ellegood)
"Human Park," Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona
"Latent Space," Netherlands Institute for Architecture, Rotterdam
"Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design," Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum,
New York (curated by Ellen Lupton) "The Other Face," Deutsches Museum, Munich
"Skin Talks," Musee de la Civilization, Quebec
"Unexpected Selections,” the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Miami

2001
"Organic/Inorganic," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
"Sense of Space," Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen, Holland
Photography Biennale, Turin, Italy
"Rejouissez-Vous!" Centre d'art Contemporain - Le Parvis, Tarbes, France
"Terrors and Wonders," Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
"Face Off," Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels
"Flesh and Fluid," CCS, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
"Brooklyn,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL (curated by Michael Rush)

2000
"Sharing Exoticism," Biennale de Lyon (curated by Jean Hubert Martin)
"Made in California, 1900 - 2000", Los Angeles County Museum of Art
"The Anagrammatical Body", ZKM. Karlsruhe, Germany (curated by Peter Weibel)

1999
"One Hundred Years of Art in Germany," Nationalgalerie, Berlin
"Hamburg Triennale", Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
"Ghost in the Shell -- Photography and the Human Soul, 1850 - 2000", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA (curated by Robert A. Sobieszek)
"The Anagrammatical Body," Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Graz, Austria "Out of Portrait,” Galerie Michael Kahn, Strasbourg
Braga Photo Festival, Braga, Portugal

1998
"Art- Document- Market- Science: Photography's Multiple Roles," Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
"Maschile Femminile," Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Italy (curated by Achille Bonito Oliva)
"The Male Image," Wessell O'Connor Gallery, NY (curated by Vince Aletti) "FOTOBIENAL VIGO," Vigo, Spain
"Magritte and Contemporary Art,” Oostende Museum of Modern Art, Belgium
"HYGIENE," Espace D'art Yvonamor Palix, Paris
"Art and Genetic Engineering," Galerie Rudof Mangisch, Zurich

1997
"LOVE HOTEL,” National Gallery of Australiia, Canberra Mois de la Photo, Montreal
“THE NEW FACE ,” Kunstverein Konstanz, Germany
“Esto Es: Recent Latin American Art,” Centro Cultural, Mexico City

1996
“Pixel Perfect,” San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA “Double Vie, Double Vue,” Fondation Cartier, Paris
V FotoBienal ‘96, Vigo, Spain
“Family, Nation, Tribe, Community, SHIFT,”
Haus der Kulteren der Welt/NGBK, Berlin (curated by Frank Wagner)
"Prospect '96,” An International Survey of Contemporary Art,
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (curated by Peter Weirmeir)
"Non! Pas Comme Ca!,”Centre D'art Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
“Version 2.2, Image et texte et informatique,” Centre Saint Gervais, Geneva

1995
“Photography After Photography”, Siemens Kulturprogramm, Munich “Obsessions: From WunderKammer to Cyberspace”,
Rijksmuseum Twenthe, The Netherlands
“Bit-by-Bit: Post-Photographic Imaging”, Hunter College, New York
“The New Child”, University Art Museum, U. C. Berkeley

1994
“The Ghost in the Machine”, List Visual Arts Center, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA
“Second Nature”, The Friends of Photography/Ansel Adams Center,
San Francisco (curated by Andy Grundberg) VI FOTOBIENIAL 1994, Vigo, Spain
“Mirror, Mirror”, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose
“Un Homme et Son Image”, Dazibao Gallery, Montreal

1993
"The Final Frontier”, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York


bibliography
(excerpt)

“It’s an Absurd World so Send in the Clowns,” Hilarie M. Sheets, The Sunday New York Times, April 29, 2012. “Aziz + Cucher: Some People”, Lisa D. Freiman, Editor. IMA/Hatje Cantz Editors, September 2012

Pablo Baler, “Interrupted Reading: The Aesthetics of Metastasis”, essay in “The Next Thing: Art in the 21st Century,”
Rowman & Littlefield, 2012

Hillarie Sheets,”Dynamic Duos” , ARTNEWS, February 2011

Sabine Flach and Sigrid Weigel, ed, "WissensKunste: The Knowledge of the Arts and the Art of Knowledge,”
VDG Editions, Weimar, Germany, p. 196-217, 2011 Dr. Chu-Lan Liu, ARTS MAGAZINE, #437, Taipei, Taiwan, p. 290-297, October 2011

Sylvia Wolf, THE DIGITAL EYE, Prestel Verlag, Munich/New York, 2010 DO OR DIE, Wallraf-Richartz Museum/Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2010 Vince Aletti, THE NEW YORKER, May 26, 2008

Eleanor Heartney, ART AND TODAY, Phaidon, New York, 2008

Mary Warner Marien, FLEMING’S ARTS & IDEAS, 10th edition, Wadsworth/Thomson, New York, 2007

Malin Barth, NO Magazine, Oslo, Norway, March 2007

Interviewed in DAYLIGHT AND ARCHITECTURE, Denmark, Spring 2007

Sandra Kemp, FUTURE FACE, (catalog) National Science and Technology Museum, Taiwan, 2007

Roswell Angier, “Train Your Gaze: An Introduction to Portrait Photography,” Ava Publications, Lausanne, 2007 Ricardo Bloch, PHILOSOPHIE MAGAZINE, Paris, November, 2006

Brian Dillon, TATE ETC., Tate Modern, London, Issue #8, Autumn 2006

Zhen Li, VISION MAGAZINE, Beijing, September 2006

Bernadette Wegenstein, “Getting Under the Skin,” MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006

Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, “Aziz + Cucher,” Ex. Catalog, Artereal Gallery, Sydney, 2006 Jonathan Lipkin, “Photography Reborn,” Abrams Studio Publications, 2005

Suzanne Anker, "The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age,” Cold Spring Harbor Press, NY, 2004 Coco Fusco, "ONLY SKIN DEEP,” International Center of Photography, NY, 2003

Didier Ottinger, "Chimeres,” (cat.) Actes Sud, and Les Affaires Culturelles, Monaco, 2003 "Undomesticated Interiors,” (cat.) Smith College, Northampton, MA, 2003

"Matador Magazine,” pub. La Fabrica, (Artists' Portfolio), Volume G, Madrid, 2003

Edward Lucie-Smith, "Art Tomorrow,”Vilo Publishing, London, 2003

Charles Traub and Jonathan Lipkin, "In the Realm of the Circuit: Computers, Art and Culture,” Prentice Hall, 2003 Nicole Karafyllis, "Biofakte,” p. 50-52, Mentis Pub., Paderborn, Germany, 2003

"fotograf,” Journal of new Photography, No. 2, Prague, Czech Republic, summer 2003

EXIT 11, "Ordinary Things," Madrid, Fall 2003



awards
2009
C-Collection Development Grant/Berlin Residency June-December
Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Arts. Hartford Art School, University of Hartford

2007
Faculty Development Fund, Parsons The New School for Design, New York

2006
Artist’s Residency, Sydney College of Art, Sydney

2003 New York Foundation for the Arts, Digital Media Grant

2002 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artists Grant

1996 Ruttenberg Award, Friends of Photography, San Francisco

1993 John D. and Susan P. Diekman Fellowship, Djerassi Residency Program 1992 Art Matters, Inc., New York City

1991 NEA, Western States Regional Fellowship Award (WESTAF)