For the exhibition Heroes, P21 presents the works of South Korean artist Taewon Ahn alongside Gianni Manhattan presenting the works of French artist Ibrahim Meïté Sikely. What results is an exploration of the interplay of the contemporary uncanny within the practices of Taewon Ahn and Ibrahim Meïté Sikely.

In the context of a visual dialectic, Ahn's practice traverses the liminal spaces of the digital realm, transmuting ephemeral memes into tangible artworks. The Hiro series becomes a locus of inquiry, a contemplation on the saturation and transience of digital images, drawing attention to their ephemeral nature, where the act of distortion becomes a metaphor for the malleability and impermanence of digital representations.

Sikely’s canvases echo and incorporate art-historical iconography, comics, manga and video games. The poetic cadence of his works, with their vibrant compositions suggest a complex negotiation of identity within the contemporary digital landscape. By appropriating imagery from manga and anime into traditional oil on canvas, Ibrahim blurs the boundaries between the digital and the analog, challenging established hierarchies of representation, navigating the intersections of struggle, justice, trauma and healing.

The central thesis of Heroes lies in the appropriation of digital imagery by both artists. Ahn’s meticulous contortions of his pet cat, Hiro, evoke the surrealist tradition through the contemporary lens and Sikely’s characters, while devoid of capes, subtly allude to superhero archetypes. In both instances the digital manipulation or translation becomes a form of revelation, bringing to the surface the hidden potential within the digital image. Ahn’s feline muse, Hiro, now adorned with wings, provides a bridge to Sikely’s domain of characters, gesturing towards the symbiosis of realism and fantasy. In both practices, vulnerability becomes a unifying force, blurring the lines between the abject and the empathetic.