7 March – 27 April 2024 | Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg

Earlier curatorial work by Lisa De Boeck

Smoke Signals was a solo exhibition by Jean Boghossian at Nosbaum Reding in Luxembourg, co-curated by Lisa De Boeck, then Artistic and General Director of Studio Jean Boghossian, and Alex Reding.

The exhibition explored communication through natural elements, taking the ancient practice of smoke signals as a central metaphor for the complexities of transmitting meaning across distance, time and context. Historically used across cultures as a tool for warning, coordination and survival, smoke becomes in Boghossian’s work both a material and a language.

The curatorial framework connected this shared human history of signalling with Boghossian’s personal trajectory, from his origins in Aleppo, through the Lebanese civil war, to his settlement in Belgium. These lived experiences parallel humanity’s enduring attempts to bridge separation and uncertainty through acts of communication, often fragile and open to misinterpretation.

Smoke Signals also situated Boghossian’s long-standing engagement with smoke within a broader art-historical lineage, while addressing contemporary concerns around connection, miscommunication and the ephemerality of messages in a saturated, accelerated world. The exhibition unfolded as a dialogue between past and present, where material, memory and signal converge, inviting reflection on how meaning is shaped, altered or lost through transmission