zondag 24 november 2019

running in Limbo




Having not been so very convinced during the summer, decided to keep it close for the start of the season… a beautiful show of Bernd Lohaus’s work at the Schütte Foundation near Neus… though not a simple space Bernd’s work went well in this environment - the brutish cement patinated coincided with the seasoned timbers, oil-rope and bronze… the lack of a plint just the kind of thing the sculptures could use for the backdrop transition from floor to wall…  the distancing was good - on had the feeling that B. himself inspired the setting up of the work, which at least for me, was a refreshing view, nostalgic in ways, but also surprising - older works holding their own with the recent ones… 

































and even the small blockworks (on woodblock floor, which at first seemed not so successful but eventually fit well…) a few drawings… more was not needed in this sumptuous space, the light filtering in different ways on different days… (went back for the catalogue presentation in completely different weather and it worked well also) Catalogue sumptuous, outside works well placed - bronzes on terrass over landscape, ‘Gelebt/Geliebt’ on the pathway leading to the pavilion… also a pleasant reunion of sorts…




Next up a backflash of Wout Vercammen’s work at H8x12 out in the countryside - also a great initiative of Frank ‘il ventuno’ and a sympathetic combination of archive and works not seen in quite a while (in fact the ‘stress’ work was unknown to me until then… quite a bit of the zen-like period which is nice to be reminded of, and the drawings, something one sometimes forgets when confronted with the bang-boom graphics of the square meter pieces… A very nice homage, and later on finally had the chance to visit his grave, delighted to see in the meantime he has a gleaming black-yellow-and-red tombstone sepulchre… amaai…


















Did quite a bit of bopping around this time, from the ‘inattendues’ in Tournai, where I came across a nice early work by Monica Droste, to the higher floors of the Mas, where Captain Bijl and consort salute the scores of visitors from their precarious perch, right down to the serial presentations by one Wayne St… at Haeken & Ooghen where we saw some recent Klagsbrun works along with another past-participle Jef Lambrecht graphic which we had sort of forgotten… Pinky Bowtie did a wonderful small archive presentation of Roland Rom and Rudi Renson’s “RTVS” with great record release by Ultra Eczema, part of the Tyfus consortium, (see earlier blog in dutch) 














October & we launched into the big leauge with the major Broodthaers show “Soleil Politique” at yers-true (muhka)museum… quite a effort on behalf of the whole team and family, to produce a major overview that includes a lot of never-seen material, smaller jewels and new juxtapositions - proof that there is in fact reason to continue investigating… after having seen the recent international retrospective (at Düsseldorf) I was also curious as to what could ba augmented, but was admirably surprised… well worth it, more than once… LLSpaleis kicked off with an interesting group show concerning the ‘Dulle Griet’ just back from renovations - a wild goose chase around various venues, which was sort of crazy fun admittedly… Mysterious views of an unknown object was the subject Christine Clinckx chose for her study at Eva Steynen, along with a selection of the Kruithof collection - something I am very curious about and want to investigate further… Large Marie Cloquet photo/collageworks at Annie Gentils also impressed, while the “ …des Abeilles “ at Grand Hornu seemed somewhat of a let-down after the great archive show by Fiona Tan… 






Rather intrigued by Goele De Bruyn’s contribution to a three woman show at the Garage in Mechelen, not sure if the empty showcases and embroidered bomb were part of the fire(ing)wall(s) presented in petit-point - but certainly enough to get my curiosity raised… as did Leo Coper’s series of anonymous selfies in front of a plethora of museums all over the world… flanked by two identical (true/false) bustes of the famous unknown, reminding me of Voordeckers’ installation way back in ’88 - some things are timeless, as also the white flag dragged in the video downstairs - cross referencing my mind to Cladder’s White flag project withering away from the Solitude castle (need to do something about that - waving a tiny piece of kerchief on the occasion of the 18th near Louvain, again on the way to H8x12 - this time a nice show by Christine and Dominique Rappez, mathematical playfulness combined with philosphical serieux and interchanging levels of overly, painting as print so to speak, something I myself had tried a hand at back in the litho-days…




ending with a fluxfest in the academy, quite a palette of interesting interpretations of classics, of which I saw only a few: concert for lots of hands and times rightoutstreached as well as a sort of watermusic drip piece… 

















November then saw us returning to the Raketenstation near Neuss, this time taking some time for some other aspects, especially the architectural, and the armistice visits and such… there was Extra City with Hermans & Menxel, and a group floor around Family (fem) Fictions and there was Lille, (Fr) where Grégoire Mott gathered some friends around for a historio-theatrical installation, using works from historical museums, his own ditty-like poetic interventions and works by friends and kindred spirits to make for a slightly askew exhibition of sorts one cannot quite pur in a category… personally I have the tendency to consider live archive, and yes, archival live art is part of it, but still does not cover the whole (or the hole, as might be…) Luc Fierens at Bleck was somewhat poorly visited, but then I just returned fro Dortrecht where the combo Pictura/Lodge 222 just kicked off a series of performance weekends which looks very promising indeed… 

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