3/6/2009
Yan Duyvendak
Plug In, Basel
Encore
Yan Duyvendak is among the most important performance artists in Switzerland. After his education at the Ecole superieur d’Art Visuel in Geneva 1997 he performed in venues like Kunsthalle Basel and Zürich and was invited to perform more and more internationally. He continuously recieved highly competitive awards, residencies and production support.
Duyvendak’s work circles around the role of media in our society at large, the way we are confronted with them and their effects on society. On stage Duyvendak’s life performance merges with TV-images, film sequences or computer games. Duyvendak builds a tension between the monitor with the mediated image and his physical presence. At first, he amazes his audience: his movements and language are perfectly synchronized with the broadcasted image, which he cannot see. Duyvendak physically executes an emotional identification with the beautiful and the powerful as well as the evil and uncanny of the world of media – an identifiation we experience ourselves again and again. The attention of the audience is torn between the perfectly styled, ‚clean’ media image and the direct physicality of the performer. The contrast between the flesh and the televised image materialzes in this suspense. The passionate identification thus fails trying to reach its idol.
Duyvendak’s themes are most relevant for a society which is thoroughly steeped in media and media images. His work is all the more suitable for [plug.in] as an institution focussing on artistic projects expanding the classical exhibition format as well as contemporary media discours.
As performance artist, Duyvendak's place is at the brim of contemporary visual art. Exhibition as a format of distribution is not quite adequate for this time based medium. His audience often knows some of his works, but it is hardely possible to have an overview over the artists extensive body of works. Duyvendak has realized and staged more than a dozen performances as well as video works and drawings. In over ten years his work has continuously developped and grown more and more acute. The retrospective exhibition at [plug.in] provides an overview on Duyvendak's work, with videos, documents and performance events.
Opening with performances: Thursday, June 4th, 6pm
More performances at [plug.in]: Thursday, June 11th, 4pm and Sunday, August 23rd, 6.30pm
Performance at Kaserne Basel: Monday, June 8th, 9pm, see here.
[plug.in] as a Special Guest at LISTE - the Young Art Fair: June 9th-14th
Special opening hours during Art Basel/LISTE (June 8-14): 10am-6pm
Links:
http://www.duyvendak.com
Image: My Name is Neo (for fifteen minutes), 2007
[plug.in]
St. Alban-Rheinweg 64 - 4052 Basel
Opening hours:
Wed-Sat 2-6pm
Sun 2-6pm during exhibitions
Thur 8-10pm during special events