Koenraad Dedobbeleer
A Quarrel In A Faraway Country Between People Of Whom We Know Nothing
01 Nov 2014 - 25 Jan 2015
Koenraad Dedobbeleer, A Quarrel In A Faraway Country Between People Of Whom We Know Nothing, exhibition view at GAK Bremen, 2014. Photo: Tobias Hügel
What is the essence of sculpture? What differentiates sculptural works from things like design, everyday objects, or architecture? How does one create a connection between these fields or the history of art without a work losing its independent character? Is there such a thing as an original artistic idea, or is everything somehow a variation or reproduction of something seen before or from what exists? These are some of the questions that Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer (born 1975, lives in Brussels) explores.
His work uncovers the surprising in the familiar. In his objects, installations, photographs and media projects, Dedobbeleer develops new perspectives on our collective knowledge, in the process calling for a new approach to its treatment. His works usually take their cue from situations or objects that he encounters in everyday life – particularly architectural aspects or objects used to shape our personal living space. Another important part of his approach are the artistic tradition of the avant-garde to which he often refers conceptually in his distortion of the familiar. He does this through minimal shifts in shape, size or materials, surprising combinations and bizarre, commanding titles. Similarly, he delights in surveying the structures of the art world, in playing with absurdity and irritations, invoking the atmosphere of Dadaism or Belgian ‘heroes’ such as Marcel Broodthaers. With a wink, his works and installations turn the everyday upside down, give the inconspicuous an unexpected platform, and position themselves in a web of references to protagonists, works, and anecdotes of the history of art.
Using an entrance situation found in Antwerp as the starting point for A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING at GAK Bremen, Dedobbeleer creates a varied walk through the exhibition space on behalf of different modifications of the door – in the form of upright standing or wall orientated display modules, and an accessible landscape of pedestals, all flanked by a number of the artist’s sculptural works. The pedestals and the display modules, on the other hand, assemble found objects: Replicas of design classics and art works, books, and pictures draw together various, anecdotal aspects relevant to Dedobbeleer’s sculptural work. As a consequence A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING creates a journey into Dedobbeleer’s cosmos: into his work as a sculptor and at the same time into the references which feed his artistic thinking and bond with the visitor’s knowledge.
A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING doesn’t distinguish between own work or that of another, or between work and document. It will rather propose the composite image of an “allegory on sculpture:” a conversation, both palpable and abstract, about the history and possibilities of the medium. Which specifications constitute sculpture, what is the threshold between material intervention, functionality and aesthetic value? Always present in Dedobbeleer’s approach, A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING brings these questions into the fore and creates an allegorical dialogue – an exchange between objects, documents and viewers, models and space, modes of perception and thinking, making and un-making.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the Thursday Appointment’s with guided tours, lectures and film screenings.
An artists’s book will be published.
A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING is developed in cooperation with Extra City, Antwerp.
His work uncovers the surprising in the familiar. In his objects, installations, photographs and media projects, Dedobbeleer develops new perspectives on our collective knowledge, in the process calling for a new approach to its treatment. His works usually take their cue from situations or objects that he encounters in everyday life – particularly architectural aspects or objects used to shape our personal living space. Another important part of his approach are the artistic tradition of the avant-garde to which he often refers conceptually in his distortion of the familiar. He does this through minimal shifts in shape, size or materials, surprising combinations and bizarre, commanding titles. Similarly, he delights in surveying the structures of the art world, in playing with absurdity and irritations, invoking the atmosphere of Dadaism or Belgian ‘heroes’ such as Marcel Broodthaers. With a wink, his works and installations turn the everyday upside down, give the inconspicuous an unexpected platform, and position themselves in a web of references to protagonists, works, and anecdotes of the history of art.
Using an entrance situation found in Antwerp as the starting point for A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING at GAK Bremen, Dedobbeleer creates a varied walk through the exhibition space on behalf of different modifications of the door – in the form of upright standing or wall orientated display modules, and an accessible landscape of pedestals, all flanked by a number of the artist’s sculptural works. The pedestals and the display modules, on the other hand, assemble found objects: Replicas of design classics and art works, books, and pictures draw together various, anecdotal aspects relevant to Dedobbeleer’s sculptural work. As a consequence A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING creates a journey into Dedobbeleer’s cosmos: into his work as a sculptor and at the same time into the references which feed his artistic thinking and bond with the visitor’s knowledge.
A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING doesn’t distinguish between own work or that of another, or between work and document. It will rather propose the composite image of an “allegory on sculpture:” a conversation, both palpable and abstract, about the history and possibilities of the medium. Which specifications constitute sculpture, what is the threshold between material intervention, functionality and aesthetic value? Always present in Dedobbeleer’s approach, A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING brings these questions into the fore and creates an allegorical dialogue – an exchange between objects, documents and viewers, models and space, modes of perception and thinking, making and un-making.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the Thursday Appointment’s with guided tours, lectures and film screenings.
An artists’s book will be published.
A QUARREL IN A FARAWAY COUNTRY BETWEEN PEOPLE OF WHOM WE KNOW NOTHING is developed in cooperation with Extra City, Antwerp.