EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS.- The Van Abbemuseum presents Journal #8 - Manon de Boer and Brussels, through May 16, 2005. With work by Sven Augustijnen, Els Opsomer, Deimantas Narkevičius, Franciska Lambrechts, Robert Suermondt, Herman Asselberghs, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Imogen Stidworthy and Peter Downsbrough.
The last exhibition in the journal series is in keeping thematically with the collection display NEDERLAND NIET NEDERLAND. Artist Manon de Boer (NL, 1966) and museum curator Phillip van den Bossche have jointly compiled a video and film programme based on the city of Brussels.* The exhibition however does not give any geographical insight or topographical overview of the city. Instead the premise of journal # 8 is based in the first instance on posing a number of questions about identity and community. Artists, theatre people, writers and dancers come and go in Brussels. It is a cultural centre where people meet each other and speak several languages all at the same time. Does the Belgian capital offer an exceptional biotope, or does the identity of the city ultimately play no great role? Is the concept of ‘community’ perhaps an inspirational alternative for that of ‘nationality’? The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue looks at possible definitions and explorations of this theme from a subjective viewpoint.
The chosen artists all live in Brussels – have lived there for a while or have a personal relationship with Manon de Boer. She herself has worked there since 1994. The videos and films in journal # 8 form a series of circular movements with various intersections, personal stories, loose connections between Brussels, Paris and São Paulo. They are about images and emotions between words and sentences, transparency, the continual search for new forms and the candid look, interpretation and formulating of ideas by a ‘foreigner’.
The narrating, out-loud doubting and thinking voice between language and image and the grey areas between ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ form a red thread running through the selected works by Sven Augustijnen (B, 1970), Els Opsomer (B, 1968), Deimantas Narkevičius (LT, 1964), Franciska Lambrechts (B, 1967), Robert Suermondt (CH, 1961), Herman Asselberghs (B, 1962), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (F, 1967), Imogen Stidworthy (GB, 1963) and Peter Downsbrough (US, 1940).
