Frederic Geurts & Reinhard Doubrawa exhibit at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde in Antwerp
Sofie Van de Velde Gallery presents an exhibition with work by Belgian artist Frederic Geurts & German artist Reinhard Doubrawa. Both enter into dialogue with each other, and with the space. Both Geurts and Doubrawa are very sensitive to the context and aim to make every presentation an event, with the visitor being part of it, rather than just being a spectator. The title of the exhibition, ZWISCHENEBENEN, stands for the interspace between the work of the two artists, the undecided / uncertain course, but also the gap between the top and bottom and the horizon between them.
The eye-catcher of the exhibition is a monumental installation by Frederic Geurts in the gallery’s garden: a wooden structure wearing a white line at eye level. For the first time, Geurts makes a work that can only be viewed from one viewpoint - the terrace of the gallery. Consequently, the fraud of the trumpet l'oeil remains hidden from the spectator. Geurts has been building his oeuvre since 1988, the core of which lies in the works’ dialogue with its context. He is mostly known for his monumental yet fragile structures which play into the surrounding environments. For Geurts, the choice to involve the environment is a logical continuation of his quest to place art in the world. By making the context decisive, he also raises the autonomous position of art and sharpens the social relevance of it.
Reinhard Doubrawa explains the world, by dismembering it and turning selected portions into lead players. He asks in what form do we provide “our meaning”, how does this meaning influence the form and vice-versa, and how ridiculous or unclear is this relation in reality? Techniques available for this concept are many and varied. Photography is a ubiquitous procedure, although we cannot escape the suspicion that Doubrawa is primarily interested in the cropped details, so perhaps it is a technique of release. The concept artist takes photographs, but he is not a photographer. It is not images that are wanted, but signs, which stand, if they stand for anything, for something absurd, in other words something everyday. Who’s looking, after all? Cutting out from the whole is a means of visualization.
ZWISCHENEBENEN
Frederic Geurts & Reinhard Doubrawa
01.06 - 19.08.2017
Gallery Sofie Van de Velde
Lange Leemstraat 262
2018 Berchem
Open: Thursday-Saturday, 14:00-18:00
http://www.sofievandevelde.be
