Saâdane Afif
Saâdane Afif, born in Vendôme, France, in 1970, lives and works in Berlin. At the centre of his artistic practice is the transformation of a work through different media and the perspectives of others. Since 2004, Afif has invited artists, writers and other collaborators to write texts in response to his works, which in turn can become the starting point for new works. Texts are transformed into compositions, performances or objects, allowing his works to continually evolve and refer back to one another. In this process, Afif translates visual art into language, music and performance, exploring how a work of art can be transformed through translation while at the same time being carried forward.
For The Fairytale Recordings, Saâdane Afif collaborated with Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg in 2019. At the centre of the work are eight specially created porcelain vases, each associated with a text from Afif’s artistic repertoire. Each vase is closed with a lid bearing a small porcelain figure of the opera singer Katharina Schrade in an individual pose. During a performance, Schrade recited and sang the texts set to music by Ari Benjamin Meyers, speaking the final verses directly into each open vase before it was sealed. In this way, voice, breath and language are symbolically preserved in porcelain, transforming the vases into sculptures, imaginary sound recordings and vessels containing a moment from the past. Since 2026, the eight vases have been part of the collection of the Lenbachhaus in Munich.
