calendario eventi  :: 

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27/5/2011

Three exhibitions

De Pont Museum, Tilburg

Brabant Now 2011
Het Wild Gillende Schildersgilde and friends

For the second time now De Pont has organized a triennial exhibition titled Brabant Now. Eleven, mainly younger artists who have some connection with Brabant—having been born here, having studied here or residing here—are each given a 'wool-storage room' in which to present their work. In 2008 the selection was made by Alex de Vries, former director of the art academy in Den Bosch. This year De Pont has invited Het Wild Gillende Schildersgilde consisting of Aaron van Erp, Wycher Noord and Frank Peeters, to curate the exhibition. These three painters are responsible for the selection of the artists and have moreover provided the exhibition with a theme. All of the participating artists will create new work and use their favorite pop song as the point of departure.

"Aren't musicians lucky to have such progressive art!" Wassily Kandinsky wrote to the composer Arnold Schönberg back in 1911. By way of color, form and line Kandinsky wanted to move the viewer as directly as music did so with sound. The early abstract paintings of Kandinsky bear little resemblance to the narrative works of Aaron van Erp, Wycher Noord and Frank Peeters. But like Kandinsky a century ago, these artists share a similar fascination with the impact of contemporary music.

Pop concerts draw thousands of people. Television programs on pop music are watched by millions of viewers. In pop songs many discover what moves them and expresses their own emotional concerns. Why does visual art have much more difficulty in appealing to a broad audience on a personal level? Could pop songs offer a way to experience contemporary art? Though these questions basically remain unanswered, they provide a rich basis for an exhibition aimed at giving us a musical perspective on visual art.

The artists whom Aaron van Erp, Wycher Noord and Frank Peeters have invited as fellow participants in this exhibition are largely of their own generation, born around 1975. Many of them have known each other since their art-school days at the Sint Joost in Breda or the art academy in Den Bosch.

Aside from paintings by Van Erp, Noord and Peeters, the exhibition includes work by painters Ibo Pompe and Stijn Peeters, as well as a wall painting by George Korsmit. Added to this is a large sculpture by Maartje Korstanje and an installation created by Peggy Franck and Lobke Burgers. Erik Sep conjures forth a parallel world in architectonic sculptures, made partly with found materials. Stan Wannet makes use of advanced technology in order to set in motion a human figure situated in a room-like environment.

The musical preferences are as diverse as the artists themselves. These often display clear parallels with the work shown. Maartje Korstanje has chosen Tom Waits's Big Black Mariah, Erik Sep the energetic pounding sounds of Liberty City by Mark Stewart & the Maffia; and Wycher Noord used Johnny Cash's melancholy Hurt as his point of departure.

What happens when artists take inspiration from their favorite pop song? How do they convey the connotations of the music in a visual image? Ultimately, their concern is the work of art. This will come to have its own power of expression, independent of the music which prompted it. At the same time, the theme does call for music at De Pont. That will be provided with the aid of an audioguide. While looking at each work, visitors can listen to the pop song chosen and experience the chemistry between two forms of art.

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Anish Kapoor
Vertigo 2008
recent acquisition, first presentation

After Vertigo, a large sculpture by Anish Kapoor (Bombay, 1954) from 2008, was purchased by De Pont in 2010, it was shown in a major retrospective at The Royal Academy in London, which then travelled to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Very recently the sculpture was part of Kapoor's first major exhibition his native India.

Now Vertigo will be on display at De Pont for the first time. In order to celebrate this event, the work will be presented along with a sizeable floor sculpture by Walter De Maria (Albany, California, 1935) from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Both sculptures are made of polished stainless steel. Vertigo consists of a single curved element measuring over two meters in height and nearly five meters in width. Walter De Maria's A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World, from 1984, is made up of seventy-five individual rods. Each rod is one meter in length; together they lie in a strict arrangement. Starting with a row of three rods, triangular in cross section, the sculpture ends with a row of twelve dodecagonal (twelve-sided) rods. The length of the rods determines the entire scale of the work. The rows are consistently placed at a distance of one meter from each other, the same distance with which the successive rows increase on one side.

The way in which light gleams on the polished metal makes the rods seem weightless. In Kapoor's Vertigo, too, reflection comprises an essential element.

The conception of sculpture on which these works are based constitutes another important link. Both sculptures function as concrete objects in the space. Walter De Maria belongs to the generation of artists who rejected, during the 1960s and 70s, the notion that an artwork should be the embodiment of an artist's independent vision. Kapoor has continued to develop this idea, using his art to bring about the active involvement of the viewer. Only by entering into a (physical) relationship with the artwork can we ever fully experience it. The same holds true for Walter De Maria's floor sculpture, which can only be grasped once we walk around it. The change in vantage point gives rise to new perspectives. Its arrangement is one of mathematical precision. Even so, the rows of rods take an unexpected turn.

Despite the parallels, the two sculptures differ immensely in character. Walter De Maria's floor sculpture takes possession of the space and keeps the viewer at a distance. Vertigo absorbs the space and confronts the visitor with an environment that has lost its stability.

In comparison to the contemplative aura of A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World, Kapoor' s Vertigo is more dramatic. In terms of atmosphere, though, these works do have one aspect in common: they show that a simple form can bring about an experience that is far from unambiguous, one that moreover goes beyond the merely visual.

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Peter Buggenhout
Invertebrate
part of Lustwarande '11 - Raw
http://www.lw11.nl/

Just as in 2004 and 2008, De Pont is holding a presentation within the context of Lustwarande '11. This international sculpture exhibition will take place for the fourth time this summer in Tilburg's park De Oude Warande. Its overall theme this year is the concept 'Raw'.

The sculptures of Peter Buggenhout (Dendermonde, 1963) are certainly raw and unpolished. At the same time they have a vulnerable and transitory appearance. The works have been made with 'vile' materials, things that no have a function or meaning and which people prefer to be rid of: construction material, packaging material, discarded molds, sheets of plastic, frayed cloth but also horsehair, blood, cow stomachs and household dust.

In the brick corridor at De Pont, a few of Buggenhout's sculptures have been placed on glass tables that have rigid metal supports. The intensity of the works contrasts with the coolness of the presentation. On display in the main exhibition space is an awe-inspiring constellation of shredded and now unrecognizable materials, hidden beneath a thick layer of household dust. Taking a distance from this is impossible. The installation unfolds in many perspectives and details, but a grasp of the form eludes us.

Buggenhout refers to these 'dust sculptures' as The Blind Leading the Blind. The title comes from a famous painting by Pieter Brueghel, depicting a group of blind men trying to follow each other, without knowing where they are or intend to go.

"The unpredictability of reality is my main fascination," Buggenhout says. That intangible factor strikes him not only where dramatic events such as natural disasters or wars are concerned; also in everyday life, reality follows its incomprehensible course, despite the illusion that we have our existence under control. In the run-down harbor district where Buggenhout lives, the mere decline and occasionally surrealistic-looking solutions meant to counter it provide visible evidence of that.

Rather than deliberate and planned interventions, it is the dynamics of growth and decay, of construction and destruction that gives reality its ever-unfinished and inexplicable form. Buggenhout has made that factor the formative principle of his art. His sculptures look as though they have not been made, but have taken shape under the influence of conflicting forces. He himself compares this generative process in his sculptures to the way in which a fungus spreads, taking possession of it's surroundings and eating into this as it continues to spread.

The artwork is finished when the various materials have found a tight balance with each other.

Aside from the form, the nature of the surface also contributes significantly to the specific character of his sculptures. In the 'dust sculptures' forms are covered with a thick layer of dust. Light skims across the soft matte texture and reveals the undulations of an uneven surface. Oddly enough, the weave of grey fluff and threads, places the sculptures at a crossroads in time. Concealed beneath the settled dust are forms that tell of a turbulent past. At the same time, the fragile formations of dust emphasize the fleeting quality of the moment and already hold the beginnings of a subsequent metamorphosis.

In the 'blood sculptures' the unpredictable and uncontrollable aspect has assumed the character of a physical act. The surface texture of the sculpture involves a tangle of clotted blood, strands of hair, strips of paper, plastic and wire mesh: traces of an exotic ritual. Buggenhout has given the title Gorgo (Gorgon) to this group of works, thereby referring to the classical myth about Medusa, the Gorgon who turned all who looked at her into stone. Only Perseus managed to come near her. By directing his eyes at the reflection of her terrifying face in his gleaming shield, he could avoid her direct gaze and succeed in conquering her. In the shield of Perseus lies a mythical origin of art.

Peter Buggenhout began his artistic life as a painter. His concern for the texture of his sculptures show that he has remained one in a certain sense. His decision, ten years ago, to stop painting and focus on sculpture was based on his desire to liberate himself from any form of representation. His sculpture aims to represent nothing other than itself. The works depict nothing. They are something: fragments of matter, formed throughout open-ended processes. Buggenhout confronts the viewer with a raw reality, one that evokes both repulsion and fascination.

Image: Anish Kapoor, Vertigo, 2008 Stainless steel; 85 3/4 x 189 x 40 inches (217.8 x 480.1 x 101.6 cm)

De Pont museum of contemporary art
Wilhelminapark 1 - Tilburg, Holland
Opening hours:
Tuesday through Sunday 11 am - 5 pm
Closed on Monday, except on public holidays
Admission:
Adults € 6,00
Groups of at least 15 people € 4,00
Students, 65+ € 3,00
Museum Card no charge
Children under 18 no charge
ICOM, AICA, Vereniging Rembrandt no charge
Guided tours in English:
Adults € 65,00 Students € 40,00

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