{"id":275682,"date":"2026-05-01T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/nairy-baghramian-nameless\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:05:17","slug":"nairy-baghramian-nameless","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/nairy-baghramian-nameless\/","title":{"rendered":"Nairy Baghramian<\/br>nameless<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Nairy Baghramian\u2019s nameless <\/em>unfolded as a symphony of textures, colours, and materials. Baghramian builds her compositions, as if they were symphonies, around moments of softness and stillness, as well as tension and density. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
She articulates space\u200a\u2014\u200aboth full and empty\u200a\u2014\u200athrough physical, bold, and hard installations that contrast with the airy and eerie play of light as it is caught and refracted by glass and aluminum. She ably arranges these reflective fields, placing decisive colours in strategic places, creating a visual choreography faintly reminiscent of stained-glass interiors. There are shadows of us, of the walls, of the works; they expand the visible field, opening passages toward other, parallel spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The motif of reflection ran throughout the show. Baghramian\u2019s sculptures operated as mirroring platforms that exposed and hosted further works. They were sculptures within sculptures: sometimes vertical, wall-like forms; sometimes vitrines or proto-pedestals. These \u201cshowcases\u201d were never empty but existed only insofar as smaller works inhabited them. Her dialogue with architecture was evident: many pieces carried the air of maquettes, models of something larger, imagined or remembered. At the same time, the act of presenting became a subject in itself. Each sculpture functioned as a commentary on exhibition-making\u200a\u2014\u200aa meta-presentation, a meta-exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Nairy Baghramian
<\/strong>nameless<\/em>, exhibition views, WIELS, Brussels, 2025.
Photo: Eline Willaert, courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery; Hauser & Wirth; & Kurimanzutto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Boxes, vitrines, and freestanding partitions resonated with the cubic and angular volumes of the former brewery and with its long industrial-style windows. The dialogue between form and architecture was constant and reciprocal. One wondered how these same compositions would unfold in a more classical or organic setting. For Baghramian, display is never neutral. In Side Leaps_Spatial Compositions<\/em> (2019), she explored how a work should be seen. In several instances\u200a\u2014\u200aan open vitrine pressed against a wall, or an architectural model with two walls only\u200a\u2014\u200athe notion of care and curation (cura<\/em> = care) was quietly unsettled. Protective glass, positioned off-centre or partially absent, no longer protected; it exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Texture remained the exhibition\u2019s guiding axis and its most immediate language. Within Side Leaps_Spatial Compositions<\/em>, Baghramian juxtaposed foam-soft elements with razor-sharp glass edges, transparent panes with opaque metal planes. On another floor, she placed neon tubes (nameless<\/em>, 2025) alongside resin pillows (oreiller<\/em>, 2025) and wax paintings (selves<\/em>, 2025). The eye was drawn to these oppositions, to the collision of rounded, organic forms\u200a\u2014\u200avoluminous or flat\u200a\u2014\u200awith angular, rigid structures. Glass that could shatter lay unshielded; metal that might repel instead invited reflection. Fragility and strength coexisted. The installation tested our comfort within these tensions and brought us to the threshold of unease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What held the exhibition together was not a narrative or a conceptual thesis but a rhythm of curiosity and discovery and a physical, sensual, even visceral reaction. Each object contained its own internal contradiction, which accumulated into an atmosphere both serene and charged. Baghramian\u2019s work resists intellectual deciphering; it unfolds instead through embodied perception. The exhibition became a landscape of thresholds\u200a\u2014\u200abetween transparency and opacity, construction and decay, safety and fragility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Nairy
Nairy Baghramian
<\/strong>nameless<\/em>, exhibition views, WIELS, Brussels, 2025.
Photo: Eline Willaert, courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery; Hauser & Wirth; & Kurimanzutto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WIELS,<\/strong> Brussels<\/br><\/br>October 25, 2025\u200a\u2013March 1, 2026<\/br>","protected":false},"author":6506,"featured_media":275674,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[8014],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[8006],"artistes":[8038],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-275682","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-117-crip","auteurs-gabriela-anco-en","artistes-nairy-baghramian-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/275682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=275682"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=275682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}