Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Especially for De Vleeshal Felix Schramm has built an immense installation which almost appears to have been ripped off another building and then implanted in the existing architecture – as if it were a prosthesis.
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exhibition archive
Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Martine Stig’s portraits are always made in series, thus shifting attention away from the individual towards the tension between individuality and group identity. The juxtaposition of multiple images brings to light relationships between the individuals’ poses and behaviour, their resistance and vulnerability and their environments. Each series encourages us think about different aspects of the function of photography in people’s lives.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
SUPERFLEX is an artists’ collective from Copenhagen, comprising Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen (1969), Jakob Fenger (1968) and Rasmus Nielsen (1969). Their work is characterised by strong social commitment, political awareness, irony and a healthy dollop of humour. Much of their work provides a razor-sharp commentary of contemporary society.
The exhibition is a co-production by the Zeeuws Museum and De Vleeshal and has been curated by Christie Arends (head of exhibitions and collections at the Zeeuws Museum).
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
De Vleeshal provides a likely home to show FUNK STADEN – which was shown last year as a video triptych at documenta XII in Kassel – for the first time ever as a captivating octagonal installation that challenges the viewers to rethink their convictions of and their distance to the other.
For FUNK STADEN, Dias Riedweg collaborated with Funk dancers from favelas in Rio de Janeiro to establish through this work a connection between the scene of Funk Carioca (Portuguese for “Funk from Rio de Janeiro”) and the book True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America (1557) by Hans Staden (1527-1578).
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Jeffrey Vallance (1955, Torrance, California, USA) conducts research into extraordinary phenomena, paranormal activity and the frequently bizarre relationship between religion, politics and popular culture. In his drawings, performances, texts and reliquaries he makes no distinction between art and life itself. He playfully and effortlessly blends (non-)Western and religious mythologies with his own life and important events in world history. Reliquary Chapel is Jeffrey Vallance’s first solo presentation in the Netherlands.
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Concurrently with the presentation of Ryoji Ikeda’s data.tron in De Vleeshal, De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal will feature work by three like-minded artists: Thomas Köner, Jürgen Reble en Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag. As does Ikeda, these artists offer their audience a complete, intense immersion in sound, imagery and time. Their work is characterized by a highly minimalist approach, resulting in a variety of – hypnotic, hallucinatory or contemplative – experiences. The exhibition is curated by artist and director of the Amsterdam Sonic Acts Festival Lucas van der Velden.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Ryoji Ikeda (Giifu, Japan, 1966) lives and works in New York and Paris. He is one of Japan’s leading composers of electronic music. As a sound artist, he lays emphasis on the meticulous details of ultrasonic sounds, frequencies and the essence of sound itself. Ryoji Ikeda’s work explores the physical characteristics of sound. His extensive research reveals itself in the cooperation with visual artists, choreographers and architects.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Under the title A shady place under the trees, Nanda Runge (Naarden, 1970) presents her latest paintings in De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal. In these works she confines herself to painting architectural volumes, varying from tents to gigantic office buildings. Each time Runge only shows the main lines: the play of light and shade, and the specific elements that make a building recognisable.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
For his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands Argentinean artist and architect Tomas Saraceno (1973) has created a gigantic scale model of his futuristic air borne society Airport City. The scale model, constructed especially for De Vleeshal, consists of some 100 balloons (1,7 meters in diameter), linked together in a complex of nets to form an immense cloud-like formation. Saraceno’s floating metropolis, constantly transforming itself in symbiosis with the ever-changing skies, poses an alternative to our gravitationally bound concepts of ‘habitation’ and ‘community’.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Maartje Korstanje (’s-Heer Hendrikskinderen, 1982) grew up in the province of Zeeland and lives and works in Amsterdam. She was a student at the Sandberg Institute and was shortlisted for the Prix de Rome 2007.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Hisham Bharoocha was born in Niigata, Japan, in 1976 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Tokyo, Toronto, San Diego, and Los Angeles. He was trained as a painter and photographer at the Rhode Island School of Design.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Julia Münstermann is showing a series of desolate cityscapes by night in De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal. The paintings concentrate not so much on the depicted streets and buildings, but more on the artificial light of neon signs and brightly lit shop windows and interiors. Its reflections in glass façades create disorienting layers, blurring the border between figuration and abstraction.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
For the exhibition De Vleeshal: Counter Composition artist Germaine Kruip has created a floating ceiling in the Gothic space of De Vleeshal. The ceiling measures 17 × 6,5 meters and is constructed out of regularly spaced strips. Between it and the actual ceiling hangs a bright, slowly rotating lamp. As it shines down through the strips it brings about a wonderful play of shadow and light, and we are presented with an accelerated imitation of sunlight falling into the space during the course of a day.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Dylan Graham
Dylan Graham (Otautahi, 1972) grew up in New Zeeland and is fascinated by the consequences of colonialism and the ever current issues arising from immigration and forced migration. Although drawings form the core of his work, Graham has, for the past few years, focused on traditional decoupage and large installations.
Pier Stockholm
The 1980`s television series Manimal featured a police officer who transformed into an animal when faced with danger. Manimal beat the bad guys and saved the girl. Now Manimal is the title of a project by Pier Stockholm (Lima, 1977), a young Peruvian artist who lives and works in Lima (Peru) en Sao Paolo (Brazil).
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
In De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal, Annemiek de Beer will be exhibiting her tranquil depictions of nature: flowers, trees, plants and ponds.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
This spring, De Vleeshal in Middelburg will be presenting Scottish artist Toby Paterson`s first major solo exhibition in the Netherlands.
Toby Paterson is fascinated by modernistic architecture; his work analyses (segments of) buildings with a distinctive modernistic style. At De Vleeshal, Paterson has set out a course which consists of a modular system of freestanding open partitions constructed out of light, white beams. These constructions serve to showcase paintings, drawings and scale models, and to support large panels painted in vibrant colours. Paterson`s colours and imagery, derived from modernism, form a striking contrast to the distinctive Gothic architecture of De Vleeshal. For De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal Paterson has created a mural which can be read as an abstract, three-dimensional floor plan of a building.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
The work of M. R. van der Graaff (Rotterdam, 1967; living and working in Middelburg, the Netherlands) reveals a great fascination for language. He marvels at the fact that abstract and
in themselves meaningless signs like points, lines and letters gain significance when placed together in a certain way – that they have the ability to refer to the world we experience. He puts this ability to the test in dif-ferent ways and through a variety of disciplines.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
De Vleeshal in Middelburg, the Netherlands, presented an exceptional dance project entitled Entree.
Entree gave visitors the opportunity to experience the impressive Gothic space of De Vleeshal as a dancer. Choreo-grapher Krisztina de Châtel had made a choreography especially for the public, in which everyone was invited to perform. The movements were simple, so participants did not need to be experienced dancers, limber or physically fit.
For the duration of Entree there were always people performing the choreography. Onlookers could join in and received help in learning the movements.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Nature goes her own way, despite furious attempts by mankind to mould her and keep her in place. The Brazilian artist Chiara Banfi (born Sao Paulo in 1979) is fascinated by the process of how nature keeps breaking free from that man-made mould, and is inspired by nature’s superhuman scale and power. Banfi’s murals depict organic life forms, reminiscent of tropical creepers, which take over the space they inhabit. The result is a fresh perspective on architecture and a dreamy, almost magically realistic experience of the exhibition space.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
The Netherlands is searching for something. The shared idea of a united future disappeared a long time ago. The influence of globalisation, other cultures and religions and a series of attacks have created a longing for symbols that express what keeps the nation together. The discussion so far has been mainly confined to political and religious circles. It is therefore high time for the cultural field to speak out too. By their very nature, the arts have a particular talent for giving voice to regret and longing, but are they also able to fill the void? Does the present time call for an overcoming of the resistance to symbols? Can art develop symbols that give expression to shared values? And which values are they? Is art today capable of formulating a new vision of the future?
Both the exhibition and the publication bearing the title New Symbols for the Netherlands focus on these questions in relation to the social role and significance of art. Figures from inside and outside the art world air their thought-provoking views on the current moral confusion and the expressive potential of art.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
This summer De Vleeshal is staging a presentation of works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA). This presentation marks the beginning of a long-term loan of the De Vleeshal collection to the M HKA. The centerpiece of the exhibition at De Vleeshal is Uffizi Porte by Michelangelo Pistoletto and the Seville based artists` collective c a l c.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal had on show a new series of print collages by Bianca Runge (1967, lives and works in Veere).
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Considered to be among the foremost pioneers of contemporary electronic music, PAN SONIC creates an impressive, broad spectrum of atmospheres. The Finnish duo`s oft times minimal compositions – developed using mainly analogue (and usually handmade) sound generators – range from dazzling, crystal-clear ambient works to relentless and at times almost unendurable sonic onslaughts.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
Especially for De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal the artists’ collective Antistrot has created a wall painting, directly onto the walls of De Kabinetten. As is all of Antistrot’s work, this painting is the outcome of collaborative sessions in which each artist responds immediately to the contribution of other Antistrot members.
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Photo(s): Leo van Kampen
De Vleeshal’ s first 2005 exhibition was a presentation of artists Alexandra Ranner`s & Cameron Rudd`s subtle and multifaceted response to our modern world. Their realistic images are, so to speak, reflections on our everyday reality: reflections mirroring both desire and vacuity, and thus characteristic of our times.
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