Two exhibitions
dal 8/7/2011 al 3/9/2011
Segnalato da
8/7/2011
Two exhibitions
De Vleeshal, Middelburg
In the exhibition 'One Voice Makes Two Perspectives', Kelly Schacht establishes a relationship between the exhibition space and the viewer. She relates the social space of the market square on which the Vleeshal is located to the history of the monumental space. The Exhibithion 'On Time, In Place' is a dialoque between Johan Nieuwenhuize and Esther Kokmeijer. The work they present at 'De Kabinetten' is a gathering of specific places at specific times.
Curated by Lorenzo Benedetti
From 10 July through to 4 september 2011 the Foundation for Visual Arts Middelburg (Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg) will present the exhibition One Voice Makes Two Perspectives by Belgium artist Kelly Schacht at De Vleeshal.
In the exhibition One Voice Makes Two Perspectives, Kelly Schacht (1983) establishes a relationship between the exhibition space and the viewer. She interprets space as a stage on which the viewer plays an active role. She also relates the social space of the market square on which the Vleeshal is located to the history of the monumental space of the building by incorporating historical sculptures that used to look out over the square from the façade and are now permanently installed in the Vleeshal. These sculptures are positioned statically in the exhibition space, posed as wordless but enduring witnesses to all the Vleeshal’s activities.
Kelly Schacht goes in search of a well-defined moment in time through the reconstruction of emotional situations and memories. The act of exhibition, and the space (understood as matter) in which the exhibition takes place, are explored in ways that create new climates and new situations. In this dialogue between space and matter, Schacht alludes to the conflict between illusion and reality, between imagination and facts or events. For her, mounting an exhibition means both evoking a diverse range of experiences and perspectives and exposing the diverse ways in which one can place (and dis-place) oneself in a role. Space is a dynamic factor, because the perception of space is linked to the experiences of the individuals who enter it. The fact that a space is used for an exhibition only temporarily leads Schacht to work with the moment at which space becomes image, precisely as a reminder and attestation of this moment.
In her oeuvre, which consists of installation projects, she examines how isolated fragments of reality in a minimalistic setting can take on the greatest possible meaning. The role of the viewer is always crucial, as it is in the Vleeshal, because it activates the relationship between the space and the art.
Kelly Schacht lives and works in Ghent, where she completed her studies at the KASK. She recently won the 2011 Young Belgian Painters Award for her work Un Tour d’Horizon.
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Esther Kokmeijer & Johan Nieuwenhuize: On Time, In Place
Curated by Lorenzo Benedetti
From 10 July through to 4 september 2011 the Foundation for Visual Arts Middelburg (Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg) will present the exhibition On Time, In Place by Dutch artists Esther Kokmeijer: Moment of Accuracy & Johan Nieuwenhuize: Collected Memory at De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal.
The Exhibithion On Time, In Place is a dialoque between Johan Nieuwenhuize and Esther Kokmeijer. The work they present at ‘De Kabinetten’ is a gathering of specific places at specific times.
Johan Nieuwenhuize: Collected Memory
Important events shape our identity by the means of mass media. While using internet and social media, watching tv or reading newspapers, we get the idea of experiencing these events without even being present at the site of the event.
Fascinated by this phenomena Johan Nieuwenhuize made a collection of events shaping his identity indirectly. The fall of the Berlin wall, the New York attacks (2001), the murder of Pim Fortuyn are part of this collection. He travelled to the locations of these events years later, to make a picture of the sky on the exact date and time of the event. These pictures are merely fields of colour, abstract representations of place and time. Together they form Johan Nieuwenhuize’s Collected Memory.
“The events and objects which influence my memory and identity form the basis of my work. I am trying to hold on to these things by taking pictures and by making these images into installations.”
“I believe the seemingly unimportant subjects in my photographs show us not what is, but what can be.”
Esther Kokmeijer: Moment of Accuracy
A day without sunrise and a night without sunset
A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice every year when the Sun’s apparent position in the sky reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes. The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day (24-hour sunlit day, often referred to as the “midnight sun”) and polar night (24-hour sunless night).The position of the Arctic Circle is not fixed, but directly depends on the Earth’s axial tilt.
In the exhibithion On Time, In Place, Esther Kokmeijer will reflect on her presence during the winter and summer solstice at the Arctic Circle on Grimsey, a small island north of Iceland.
The world at large and the connections and movements within it are the main focus of Kokmeijer her work. This stems from an urge to understand, discover, order, reshape and represent all of the world’s complexities. Geographical links often form the basis. The invisible, but continuous presence of borders, coordinates and meridians fascinates her.
“In my projects I search for possibilities to lay bare the intrinsic value of places and its people and of phenomena that appear to be deemed unimportant or forgotten. Something useless or absurd can prove to have great meaning.” Esther Kokmeijer
Image: Kelly Schacht
Opens Saturday 9 July, 4 p.m.
De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal
Zusterstraat 7, 4331 KG Middelburg NL
hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 1 pm - 5 pm