Leviathan: Dreams of a future past
The RYDER Projects, Madrid
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Installation view, Leviathan: Dreams of a future past, The RYDER Projects, Madrid, 2020. Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Installation view, Leviathan: Dreams of a future past, The RYDER Projects, Madrid, 2020. Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Installation view, Leviathan: Dreams of a future past, The RYDER Projects, Madrid, 2020. Photography © Pablo Brecha.
We live in a globalised reality woven by thousands of stories taking place simultaneously. The world we inhabit is a crammed one, full of unexpected links impossible to assimilate or even understand. This entangled space is where Shezad Dawood carries out his multidisciplinary and collaborative practice. His work navigates an unstable present in which migratory patterns can alter marine currents and climate change connects with our humanitarian crisis. His project Leviathan constructs an epic fiction in constant evolution. In each step, the artist seeks alliances with scientists, philosophers, and activists to shape a project that understands art as a vector for communication and exchange.
Click here for more information about Leviathan Cycle.
Leviathan: Dreams of a future past was Shezad Dawood’s first solo exhibition in Spain, displaying a significative part of his ambitious project Leviathan, which was inaugurated in Venice in May 2017 to coincide with the 57th Art Biennale. The plurality of voices involved in the process is manifested as well in the multiplicity of media on show: from video to sculpture, and from painting to the talks program that accompanies each part of the process. The key narrating voice is given by Dawood’s ambitious ten-part film series Leviathan Cycle, which tells the story of a near future in which the earth is only inhabited by the survivors of a solar cataclysm. On display were Episode 1: Ben and Episode 5: Ismael. Dawood’s solo presentation recognises the current present as a malleable entity formed by multiple interactions, using the ocean as the joining force where these fictions flow.
This exhibition was a collaboration between HE.RO Gallery and The RYDER Projects.

Where do we go now?, 2017.
Resin and polychromatic paint, 100 x 140 x 80 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Where do we go now?, 2017.
Resin and polychromatic paint, 100 x 140 x 80 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Fragment of a carton of cigarettes, 2017.
Mixed media on Fortuny textile, 193 x 154 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Folded banknote found inside the left front pocket of jeans, cellophane containing earth and sim card, 2017.
Mixed media on Fortuny textile, 194 x 149 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

USB sticks, 2017.
Mixed media on Fortuny textile, 195 x 148 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Vaccination record, 2017.
Mixed media on Fortuny textile, 190 x 146 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Gwynt y Mor, 2018.
Acrylic and vintage textile on canvas, 198 x 286 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.

Gwynt y Mor, 2018.
Acrylic and vintage textile on canvas, 198 x 286 cm.
Photography © Pablo Brecha.