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18/3/2011

Mandla Reuter / Published by:

De Vleeshal, Middelburg

Mandla Reuter. A Plot
Curated by Lorenzo Benedetti

From 20 March through to 26 June 2011 the Foundation for Visual Arts Middelburg (Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg) will present German artist Mandla Reuter’s exhibition A Plot at De Vleeshal, on the Markt. The exhibition will open on 19 March, 5 p.m.

The English word “plot” means not only a conspiracy and a story, but also a piece of land – an ambiguity that is played upon in Mandla Reuter’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Soil has been brought into the exhibition area at De Vleeshal – soil from a piece of land that the artist purchased in Los Angeles, a city famed as home to Hollywood, where reality and fiction blend to form a category on its own. This synthesis of reality and fiction is the theme the German artist sets out to define. Reuter has repeatedly used Hollywood’s film industry to identify the boundary between what is real and what is plausible – a dialogue that seeks to create within contemporary art a kind of border where it is possible to shift from one context to another. The decontextualisation of space, the dislocation of elements from a different reality, enables the artist to create a situation in which spaces can be superimposed.

This is not Mandla Reuter’s first exhibition in De Vleeshal. In 2010 he brought 5,000 litres of water from Rome’s Trevi Fountain into the exhibition area for the group exhibition Psychosculptures. And now, once again, his work is linked to a reality from a different space. This time the Trevi Fountain is presented via a different fictional element in collective culture: the replica of the fountain in Las Vegas. The reproduction contains elements that play on the reconstruction of reality via its fictional version.

The artist makes us think about the concept of originality, about what is real and what is false – about the extent to which something retains its essential features even if the original has been changed. The real soil from Los Angeles is brought into contact with the illusionistic worlds of the entertainment industry. The artist seems to want to turn the illusion into reality. And thus visitors to the exhibition in Middelburg find themselves walking on a piece of land from Los Angeles, looking at a Trevi Fountain which in reality is the Las Vegas replica, elements that challenge the originality of the exhibition area.

Born in Nqutu, South Africa, Mandla Reuter divides his life and work between Basel and Berlin. He has taken part in Exhibition, Exhibition at Turin’s Castello di Rivoli and in Sculptures Die Too at La Kunsthalle in Mulhouse. In 2009 he presented two major projects: Souvenir at Berlin’s Schinkel Pavillon, and Now sun now cloud at the Kunsthalle in Lingen, Germany. He has taken part in the 2008 Santa Fe Biennial and the 2008 Gwangju Biennale in Korea, and has exhibited at the collective Word Event at the Kunsthalle in Basel.

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Published by:

Preceding Reuter’s presentation at De Vleeshal, the exhibition Published by Åbäke, Exhibited by De Vleeshal, Loaned by Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, Sold by De Drvkkery, Resold by De Boekenbeurs will open at De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal, Zusterstraat 7, 4 p.m. At 3 p.m. there will be a Talk in The Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, Kousteensedijk 7.

After Roma Publications and Castillo Corrales, the third exhibition in the “Published by” series is organised by the London-based collective Åbäke. Under the title Published by De Vleeshal, Åbäke creates a dialogue between various locations of books in the town of Middelburg. Apart from De Vleeshal itself, the exhibition sites are the Province of Zeeland library, the bookshop De Drvkkery and the second-hand bookshop De Boekenbeurs. Åbäke investigates the social dynamics of books – the places where they can be borrowed, purchased, repurchased or looked at, as well as the stories contained in them and the links they create between people. The aim is to discover the collective dimension of books, at the threshold between the private and public spheres. In The Sign of the Vandal, for instance, Åbäke borrows books from the library and arranges for their authors to autograph them. Thus personalised by their authors, the books are then returned to the library shelv es. Books are a means of exchanging ideas, creating new perspectives and new spaces, constructing means of communication and moments of reflection. They are not just objects, but vehicles for creating new spaces.

The purpose of the Published by exhibition series is to reveal the potential of publications in relation to curatorial, artistic and graphic practice. The exhibition area, the place and the dynamics of books are brought together to highlight the continuity between exhibitions and books. This series of curatorial projects shows just how narrow the boundary between exhibitions and publications is becoming.

Åbäke is a collective of four graphic designers – Patrick Lacey from the UK, Kajsa Ståhl from Sweden, Benjamin Reichen and Maki Suzuki from France – who decided to work together in the summer of 2000. Their physical work includes posters, CD and record designs, furniture, and installations in art galleries and public spaces. Much of their work concentrates on the social aspect of design and the strength that collaboration can bring to a project. Events often involve (in no particular order) film, dancing, eating and cooking and teaching. They are also singers, painters, photographers, members of bands, furniture designers, curators, fashion designers, DJs and teachers.

www.abake.fr
www.kitsune.fr
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www.dentdeleone.co.nz

Image: Mandla Reuter

Opening 19 March 2011, 5 p.m.

De Vleeshal
Markt, Zusterstraat 7, 4331 KG Middelburg NL
Tuesday to Sunday, 1 pm - 5 pm

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