Performance Hymne National © Photo: Julien Collieux Curator's Survival Kit Julien Collieux, Ellen Augustynen, Marc Provins, Zazah G. Van Den Broeck "Curator's Survival Kit" is a title choose by the fact that this is an exhibition where the Dagmar De Pooter Gallery has a courageous attitude using the space, not as a standard white cube gallery, but using the space as curatorial practice to involve the audience and the fundamental role of the artists in the European model as freedom and exposure on ideas. The aim of the Gallery is to facilitate and stimulate the debate concerning the conception and realisation of contemporary art exhibitions: (A curatorial laboratory). Julien Collieux (*1976 France, lives & works in Berlin) - To listen and watch to Julien Collieux's music make me remind of prehistoric women and men. They also had music notes, but a little different from ours. It would have been impossible - with oral tradition - to transmit exactly the same notes many thousand years long. At this time, it was very hard to find the right C, D or E before a concert; the temperature change and the humidity in the caves put constantly the instrument out of tune. But no one was disturbed because all the instruments became out of tune simultaneously. (fragment) "Norbert Schulz in catalogue "de Marseille" La chaufferie, Strasbourg 2000 and catalogue "virage Sud" galerie Julio Gonzalez, Arceuil 2000. Ellen Augustynen (*1958 Belgium, lives & works in Antwerp) - "Ellen Augustynen works with video, photography and installation, but always presents her work as a ready-made, drawn from reality. The starting point of Ellen Augustynen's work is a rather nihilistic one, the result being that she finds no satisfaction in form, technique or content. While "playing the artist", almost brutally making poetic statements, Ellen Augustynen explores the limits of the presentable, confronting the public with the duality of banality and meaning." Marc Provins (*1967 Great Britain, lives & works in Manchester) - "This work is concerned with "in-between". The images are in-between photography and video, real and unreal. The people in the images inhabit an in-between space, transported on urban underground train lines, transient systems joining destinations. They stand framed by a door, a threshold between two places. A narrative is suggested to the viewer in a blurred, frozen frame, who are they? What are they doing? Where are they going? These are traces from a curious world without natural light, the photographer's usual source of inspiration." These pictures are from a larger body of work that will be shown in full when of Dagmar De Pooter presents Marc Provins' solo exhibition in October this year. Zazah G. Van Den Broeck (*1968 Belgium, lives & works in Antwerp) - "Farewell Song: Starting from a sense of awe and with respect for "mystery" I picture something: an idea, a feeling... and present this to the spectator, who can discover him or herself in it. This series "Farewell Song" is part of my recent work that tells about feelings, memories, leave taking, life and death. Essential subjects for us human being, ultimately faced with the questions: why are we here and where are we going? In my work I aim for maximum intensity and sensitivity. For me, color is a language, both visual and symbolic. Hence the use of pastel. Pastel is pure pigment and therefore pure color. I combine pastel with other materials, such as gouache and watercolor. So an even more sensitive result can be achieved. Searching for simplicity sometimes results in almost monochromatic works. At other times there are clearer shapes and lines in the works. I don't want to limit myself to a certain direction or style, and prefer to surprise." Exhibition: 13 May - 25 June 2005 Gallery hours: Wed-Sat 2 - 6 pm Dagmar De Pooter Gallery Graaf Van Hoornestraat 6 B-2000 Antwerpen Telephone +32 (0) 485 174 032 Email info@dagmardepootergallery.com www.dagmardepootergallery.com |