A spear, a spike, a point, a nail, a drip, a drop, the end of the tale.
Sara Ramo, Avalanche Concreta, 2010, Installation, door and boxes, Dimensions variable
Group show with works by: Laura Belem, Débora Bolsoni, Cristiano Lenhardt, Sara Ramo and Matheus Rocha Pitta. Curated by Jeanine Hofland gallery and Tiago de Abreu Pinto, hosted by Ellen de Bruijne Projects
A first-person narrator finds the Aleph, “one of the points in space that contains all points”, in the corner of a basement on Garay Street and gets to see all the places in the world at the same time. This tale, The Aleph, by Borges, shows how the universal transcends as an abstraction in the concreteness of the particular.
The relation between universal and particular is to be found in forms of practical knowledge such as literary interpretation. It involves a situated kind of knowledge in which universal and particular inform one another. The works by Laura Belém, Débora Bolsoni, Cristiano Lenhardt, Matheus Rocha Pitta and Sara Ramo seem to share the same fabric as The Aleph since their matter surpasses their individual contexts without surrendering their specificness by exploring local aspects through a complex layering of references grounded by their cultural context.
When the narrator is in the core of his story and is about to explain the limitless Aleph, he feels obligated to denounce the limitation of language. Language, even if meant to be universal and set to be understood by everyone, can’t embrace all our being. How can we translate something immense, such as nature, into something particular and unique that could be our language? “Does this Aleph exist in the heart of a rock?” asks the Borgean narrator at the end of the tale.
With many thanks to Ellen de Bruijne Projects for their geat enthusiasm shown towards this project and for hosting the exhibition. We further would like to thank: Fortes Vilaça, Jaqueline Martins, Luisa Strina, Sprovieri, Athena Contemporânea and Celma Albuquerque.
Exhibition | A spear, a spike, a point, a nail, a drip, a drop, the end of the tale.
03/09 – 05/11/2016
Opening: 03/09 17-19hrs
Dolores: Erkka Nissinen | What is Community?
Erkka Nissinen, What is Community?, 2016, 13 min, Animated film / Ink Drawings
Ellen de Bruijne projects is proud to present the new video installation by Erkka Nissinen: “What is Community?”. This absurd, but critical movie reflects on the contemporary tendency of reality TV, where truth and fiction are no longer visible and where entertainment is moving further to “the borders of society”. Nissinen is using this time ink-drawings in a stop motion technique to tell his story, accompanied by his hillarious and dry comments as voice over.
Though absurd to the point of nonsense and often obscene, Nissinen’s work is far from being meaningless. Rather, it discloses a critical take on the difficulties of social interaction, on philosophy, and on the language of media -such as children’s television, educational programs, or porn, often all mashed up into one. Nissinen’s body of work contains video’s, performances, music scores, sound tracks and installations.
Erkka Nissinen (Jyväskylä, Finland, 1975) lives and works in Amsterdam, Helsinki, Hong Kong and New York. He studied at The Slade School of Fine Art in London and gained an MFA degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland. In 2007-2008, he was resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.He had exhibitions at de Hallen, Haarlem (2015), Art Parcours/Art Basel (2015), Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2012/2009), M+ in Hong Kong (2012), Helsinki City Art Museum’s Kluuvi Gallery (2011) and, 1646 in The Hague (2009). During the 2011 Rotterdam Art Fair Nissinen won the acclaimed Illy Prize for his video Rigid Regime. In 2013 he won the AVEK award for media arts, Helsinki.
In 2017, Erkka Nissinen is representing Finland at the Venice Biennial, together with fellow artist Nathanial Mellors
Exhibition | Erkka Nissinen – What is Community?
03/09 – 05/11/2016
Opening: 03/09 17-19hrs