01/03/14 – 19/04/14

Thomas Rentmeister / Marianne Vierø

Thomas Rentmeister – A Product of Rest and Unrest*

Ellen de Bruijne Projects is pleased to present the fourth solo exhibition of Thomas Rentmeister in the gallery, in which the artist made a selection of new and recent works.
According to Christoph Schreier, Thomas Rentmeister has a strong connection to minimalism, but in a sense also to pop art or nouveau realisme. Considering the stacks in clean geometrical forms, he is referring to minimalism. However the products of which he is forming the stacks are familiar to us, they might even smell familiar. In that sense he is also referring to pop art or nouveau realisme, which created the specific descriptions of his work as “Minimalpop” or “impure” or “dirty” minimalism.

In the new work packets of chocolate biscuits are forming a geometrical triangle. A row of paper handkerchiefs are chosen for their colour and size: they perfectly fit on the metal wall piece. A duvet is spread out like a big blank piece of paper. The brown furniture pillow and rake form a contrast with the white duvet. These colours (unconsciously) are reminiscent of his earlier work with the nutella spread and Penaten baby crème. Every item Thomas Rentmeister uses in his installations are (temporarily) placed out of order and put into a new order. They are pulled out of their daily function.

By choosing and using familiar objects, Rentmeister also appeals to the visitor’s memory of the objects. Almost everyone has eaten a Prince chocolate biscuit, or uses paper handkerchiefs, or sleeps under a duvet. By taking them out of context, the visitor is invited to use his imagination in an attempt to solve the tension between his own memories, the newly proposed metaphors and meanings of the objects.

Thomas Rentmeister will also be presented by the gallery at Art Cologne booth E014, in a duo show with Klaas Kloosterboer, from the 10th until the 13th of April 2014.
The new acquired work by Thomas Rentmeister will be on view in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen from March 2014 on.

* org. Hannes Böhringer in cat. Thomas Rentmeister. Objects. Food. Rooms. Kunstmuseum Bonn/Perth Institite of Contemporary Arts, Dumont Buchverlag Köln, 2011, p. 111

Image: Thomas Rentmeister, Untitled, 2013, cast iron, duvet cover, 17 x 355 x 210 cm, photo Bernd Borchardt

Marianne Vierø – Great Transformation

For Great Transformation Marianne Vierø has created a 1:1 representation of the deteriorating remains of Naum Gabo’s Construction in Space: Two Cones. One of the first examples of plastic in sculpture the 1927 artwork belonged to A.E.Gallatin and his Museum of Living Art before formally becoming part of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) in the 1950s. Only a few years later the sculpture began showing signs of decay. In 1960 the bonnet of the vitrine that enclosed the sculpture was removed and, due to properties of the unstable plastics, the artwork infamously collapsed. By 1968, after much conservation effort and study, the PMA declared the piece unfit for exhibition. While a Plexiglas study-copy was constructed for internal purposes the original was permanently stored away.

No longer representing its own ideal form, not to mention the artist’s intent, it seems the sculpture, at that moment, stopped existing as a Gabo hovering instead in a state of limbo. However, this uncertainty does not necessarily compromise the potential of the remaining object as an artwork. By falling apart and in that way challenging the limits of its given form the piece alluded to movements of the late 1960s that all helped fracture established norms – from counter-culture to the introduction of Deconstruction. Inspired by the quasi-correlation of events surrounding the disintegration of the Gabo and the introduction of Derrida’s destabilizing notion, one might even think of the sculpture as an unintended model of deconstruction. As such the deterioration of the piece positions it in almost uncanny alignment with developments on the cultural horizon. In its open-ended, indeterminate state, it continues to defy common boundaries of categorization and remains an acute work of art. Adrift from its original set of coordinates it has become an object of an ever-changing present.

Acknowledging the materiality of an artwork as a driving force in creating meaning, Vierø negotiates the potentials of the decay by meticulously representing the piece it in its current deteriorating state. With the aid of various 3D-technologies Vierø’s representation has been digitally modeled and 3D-printed using recently developed plastics. In that way the representation is in itself prone to change – inadvertently, the untested printing materials will warp, bend and crack until eventually they reenact a past event.

Creating a backdrop to the three-dimensional representation a selection of works on paper commemorates the marble plate that used to serve as a base for Gabo’s sculpture. The base was separated from the sculpture before the work entered the collection of the PMA and was apparently used as a cheeseboard in the Gabo household. A written account describes the marble as colored and veined, but the only image showing it is a b/w photograph. To salute the appropriation of the base from art into domestic life, each print combines monotype printing with stone lithography to suggest a possible color scheme for the marble.

A final entry in the show is a vintage catalogue presenting the collection of the Museum of Living Art. Here Gabo is heralded for his experiments with new materials and Construction in Space: Two Cones is represented unaffected by the inherent vice that was to irreversibly transform it.

Marianne Vierø would like to thank the Advanced Media Studio at NYU and the Henry Moore Institute. Special thanks to Taylor Absher. The project is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the Danish Arts Council and the Danish Art Workshops.

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11/01/14 – 22/02/14

Performance exhibition including amongst others Momu & No Es, Sarah van Lamsweerde, Snejanka Mihaylova, Erkka Nissinen and Falke Pisano

FALKE PISANO AND BENOÎT MAIRE – THE WAVE 19/02/14 – 22/02/14

Falke Pisano and Benoît Maire begun collaborating in 2006. Concerned with the mechanics of film making, The Wave, a 16 mm film, (colour, 13.57 min, 2009) can be seen as part of an ongoing conversation between the artists – that considers the space between sculpture and the language of film. The Wave is constructed in three parts – the movement of a ‘wave’ alluding to three distinct voices, moving into and across each other, producing gaps and inconsistencies that disrupt language in a very open narrative.

The first chapter constructs and investigates a relationship between an object and a gaze, between an object and a subject. An object is described as round, but with edges, it is smooth and abstract. What happens to this object in relation to a subject, what is it without the gaze of a subject? Can we imagine an object without the subject? What is an object if it is not for me?

In the following scene we are on a sandy beach, it is windy and the sea is rough, big waves repeatedly and rhythmically make their way towards the shore. A branch has been stuck in the sand, crossed by another, creating an improvised assemblage that marks out a situation, producing a ‘place’. Within this context there is a table and a chair. On the table are a number of objects; different glasses, casts of hands in a variety of colors, a clock. A man and a woman interact with these things, as one moves them around the other observes – gently alluding to the instability of meaning. The scene is silent although the protagonists speak, as there is no sound, nor subtitles.

There is a clear shift again as the viewer is transposed to a park – from ‘nature’ to ‘culture’. The camera finds a public sculpture, a big concrete shaped shelter. People are sitting inside it. Like the assemblage of branches on the beach this sculpture – frames, communicates, sets up a location that directs people to behave in a certain way.

Snejanka Mihaylova – Inner Stage Poster

28 January – 22 February 2014
Inner Stage poster //In collaboration with If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution

Presentation: February 14th, 6pm at Ellen de Bruijne Projects with a performance by Gertjan Franciscus
Please note: audience capacity is limited to 50 people on a first-come first-served basis.

Friday February 14th at 6pm, If I Can’t Dance and Ellen de Bruijne Projects are delighted to present a performance by Gertjan Franciscus on the occasion of Snejanka Mihaylova’s Inner Stage poster display at the gallery located on Rozengracht 207A in Amsterdam. His performance will be preceded by an introduction by Mihaylova.

Gertjan Franciscus is the author of numerous performances in which he gives life to prophetic figures who are half divine and half animal, and inhabit the space of revelation traced from visionary texts conceived by him. The invitation to Gertjan Franciscus is linked to Mihaylova’s reflections on the potential economy of performance and the question of rethinking the boundaries of the religious.

Snejanka Mihaylova’s Inner Stage poster, created with Philip Baber and Jeff Weber, was launched two weeks ago at If I Can’t Dance’s Emma’s and is on display and for sale for EUR 30,- at gallery Ellen de Bruijne Projects from 28 January – 22 February as part of their Performance Exhibition programme. It can also be ordered through If I Can’t Dance’s website.

The poster presents the introductory chapter of Mihaylova’s forthcoming publication Inner Stage Poster in the form of a signature print of 100 copies. The development of her publication takes place over time and attempts to forge a closer bond between publishing and performance. As a piece of merchandise the poster assumes its own economy. Purchasing the poster allows further chapters of the book to be produced. The poster is on sale for EUR 30,-.
The poster is made in response to If I Can’t Dance’s invitation to its commissioned artists to produce a piece of merchandise and consider the role of materiality and economy within performance practice. It is produced in collaboration with graphic designer Phil Baber and artist Jeff Weber.

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Erkka Nissinen – Name me Me Man, red negative Evita Gender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A man takes an introspective look at his troubled past but he slides in too deep. A combination of narrative video piece and live performance. A series of non sensical, absurdist developments between characters all played by Erkka Nissinen. Some of these events happen live, in synchronization with a large video background projection.

Performance date:
Saturday 8 February: 4pm

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