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Peace and violence, Korean folklore and the peal of bells - but one artist stands out
The Guardian
|September 24, 2025
Intimations of war and the bill for a Brick Lane curry. Queer kisses, shamanic gurgling, miles of VHS tape and lasers in the jungle.
This year's Turner prize exhibition opens on Saturday at Cartwright Hall in Bradford.
A 16th-century Lutheran hymn and peals of church bells create an unresolvable conflict with the small photographs behind glass on a low shelf in Rene Matic's installation.
The voices of Nina Simone and the activist bell hooks are dragged from the ether.
Rihanna sings Lift Me Up a cappella as you go from snapshot to snapshot, looking for the story amid the club scenes and marches, the graffiti and a baby in a bath.
There's an elderly man in hospital, lipstick and cigarettes, and a page from a remembrance book: "Dad, Our Hero, VIP, Legend." All these scenes, I take it, are from Matić's life. It is the personal and political. The artist, 28, displays their affinities in an installation that feels rich and sparse, restrained and confessional.
This story is from the September 24, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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