Leviathan: Dreams of a future past

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.