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Award-winning word art
In his award-winning works, the German-Iranian conceptual artist Babak Saed deals with language as an art form; his theme is communication. He takes up familiar, everyday terms and formulations and questions their apparent unambiguity through subtle alienation. Saed became known above all for his word sequences and lettering placed in public spaces. He also produces video and audio works and transforms his messages into illuminated objects and wall works.
Individual decoding of messages
Saed deliberately dispenses with punctuation and space in order to sharpen perception and question what is seen. The use of capital letters in a WORD-ON-WORD language demands special attention from the viewer: the message should be understood without being immediately deciphered. Saed wants his messages to be “deciphered” and thus read individually. Every play on words can be understood as a personal statement, as a critical examination. The artist wanted to exclude uninvolved reading as much as possible.
“You stand in front of your own language as a native speaker, so to speak, and read this language in the same way that a foreigner learns it anew,” explains Babak Saed. The meaning of his site-specific installations is created in the mind of the reader and viewer during the linguistic decoding process: through individual associations and their mental continuation.
Exhibitions and art fairs
2024:
– then – now: art of the 60s in dialog with contemporary works, Städtische Gallery Villingen-Schwenningen, Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
– red blue blue, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– Artists of the gallery, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger and Galerie Scheffel, Karlsruhe, Germany
– LOVE LOVE LOVE sculpture, Stern-Wywiol Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2023:
– rotROT, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– #OrangeTheWorld, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– In small format, Scheffel Gallery, Bad Homburg, Germany
– 10 years – Anniversary exhibition, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger and Gallery Scheffel, Karslruhe, Germany
– Zero 23, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
2022:
– BLICKFELDER, Museum Goch, Goch, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 22, Gallery Geiger, Constance, Germany
– #OrangeTheDay, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– SECHS, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– DUBISTES, Stern-Wywiol Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
– Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger and Gallery Scheffel, Karlsruhe, Germany
– SEIN, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– FORM – SPACE – MOVEMENT, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, German
2021:
– Cologne Fine Arts & Design, Gallery Kellermann, Cologne, Germany
– Orange Days – Zonta says no, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– IRGEND-WIE, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– Works by gallery artists, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Winter exhibition, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
2020:
– Written Imagery, New Gallery Dachau, Dachau, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 20, Gallery Geiger, Constance, Germany
– Summer exhibition, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– AM WEGE, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– Artists of the Gallery, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Scheffel, Karlsruhe, Germany
2019:
– Affordable Art Fair, Stern-Wywiol Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
– Sculpture today II, Stern-Wywiol Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
– ANDERSWO-WOANDERS, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– AWord-Form-Light, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Art Karlsruhe, Gallery Scheffel, Karlsruhe, Germany
– Accrochage, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
2018:
– Summer Light Artists, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– In small format, Scheffel Gallery, Bad Homburg, Germany
– Babak Saed, Gallery Scheffel, Bad Homburg, Germany
– art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Karlsruhe, Germany
2017:
– In small format, Gallery Scheffel, Bad Homburg, Germany
– Multiple + Unikate, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– ISSO, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 17, Gallery Geiger, Constance, Germany
– Works from the collection, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– art Karlsruhe, Gallery Geiger and Gallery Linde Hollinger, Karslruhe, Germany
2016:
– WECHSELZEITEN, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– ArtFair Fair Cologne, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Cologne, Germany
– The Art of the Series, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 16, Gallery Geiger, Constance, Germany
– art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– ISTKUNST, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
2015:
– Grande et Jeune, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Domestic Space 4 – Paper Edition, Gallery Zweigstelle, Berlin, Germany
– Viennafair, Gallery Robert Drees, Vienna, Austria
– ArtFair Fair Cologne, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Cologne, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 15, Gallery Geiger, Constance, Germany
– Acchrochage, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– art Karlsruhe, Gallery Linde Hollinger and Galerie Am Lindenplatz, Karslruhe, Germany
– FREITAGDERDREIZEHNTE, Gallery Robert Drees, Hanover, Germany
– young and smart, Gallery Am Lindenplatz, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
2014:
– AHA, Gallery Kunstraum 21, Bonn, Germany
– WEISS INSPIRIERT, Gallery Linde Hollinger, Ladenburg, Germany
– Young Collector’s Choice 14, Gallery Geiger, Konstanz, Germany
– art Karlsruhe, Gallery Robert Drees, Karslruhe, Germany
– color-concrete-constructive, Gallery Am Lindenplatz, Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Art on the building
– Otto-Kühne-School, Bonn, Germany
– Lutherkirche, Bonn, Germany
– Deutsche Welle, Bonn, Germany
– Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, St. Augustin, Germany
– Münster University and State Library, Münster, Germany
– Zweirad-Einkaufs-Genossenschaft (ZEG), Cologne, Germany
– Johanniter Hospital, Bonn, Germany
– City Museum, Siegburg, Germany
– Sparkasse UnnaKamen, Unna, Germany
– Catholic Social Institute, Siegburg, Germany
– Police Headquarters, Reutlingen, Germany
– Church of St. Michael, Siegburg, Germany
Awards and honors
2002:
– Winner of the digital new art award, DigitalART Gallery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2000:
– Art Prize of the City of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
1998:
– Budapest Scholarship Holder, Bonn, Germany
Babak Saed, born in 1965 in Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, has lived in Germany since the age of twelve. He studied economics at the University of Bonn and began his artistic career as a painter. In 1998, he founded an office for video and installation in public spaces. At the same time, he created his first text works with a WORD-ON-WORD language, which quickly became his artistic trademark.
In 2000, he received the Art Prize of the City of Bonn and, in 2002, the digital new art award. In 2004, he released Kunst am Bau for Deutsche Welle in Bonn, followed by numerous major Kunst am Bau projects throughout Germany. In 2007, he created “After Babel”, a temporary text installation in 40 languages for the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. During this time, he also created his first acrylic glass works. In 2014, the Stadtmuseum Siegburg dedicated a major solo exhibition to him. Babak Saed lives and works in Bonn.
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