WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » Installation

Tobias Rehberger | Sex and Friends

W&V — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:30:10 +0000

The work of Tobias his recent exhibition at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Belgium has now moved on and is on show at the Pilar Corrias Gallery in London. The show carries the title: Sex and Friends

Tobias his conceptual art installation set up at Pilar Corrias Gallery explores again the conflict between functionalism and aesthetics and again questions and plays with the notion of art and its various strategies. The main key element of this specific installation is transformation. This key element is not only linked to the change of the space itself but also to the transformation during a specific time frame and especially the transformation of the viewer, his/her behaviour and thoughts.

The series of sculptures in this installation seem abstract and find their “ghost-image” counterpart in the amorphous shadows they project on the walls. The art works transmit words and patterns onto the surfaces around them. The sculptures and their shadows are dynamic in a reversed way. They encourage the viewer to move and look at them from various perspectives. By doing that they shift and transform themselves. During brief moments of the day the shadows come together and form a “hidden” message. The visual message itself becomes less important as the event is basically already known and announced to the viewer who visits the gallery space, however what is important in this conceptual installation is that the upfront announced “hidden” feature/message does right away influence and transform the viewers behaviour and thoughts.

Sex and Friends is running until February 17, 2012 at Pilar Corrias Gallery, London.
You can read more about Tobias Rehberger and his work in this, this and this article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog.

Photos by: Tobias Rehberger | Pilar Corrias Gallery

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Tokujin Yoshioka | Snow

W&V — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:17:29 +0000

Tokujin Yoshioka is a Japanese designer and artist who has worked under Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake and established his ow studio, Tokujin Yoshioka Design in 2000.
He created the installation called The Snow as part of the exhibition Sensing Nature at the Tokyo Mori Art museum last year. This spatial design made from artificial materials gives the viewer the sensation of experiencing light, snow, storms and other phenomena. Tokujin Yoshioka explores the potential future of design and how it will incorporate natural principles, effects and by integrating natural science technologies. His installation is similar to looking at or walking through a snowstorm. It is an expanded version of the original ‘snow’ which was exhibited in 1997.

Photos and video: Tokujin Yoshioka | Tokujin Yoshioka inc. website |

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Skate 1.0 | Conceptual art installation

W&V — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:30:43 +0000

Skate 1.0 is a conceptual sound and light installation by Electroland. Space, movement, context and virtual locations are the key words for this interesting installation. Skate 1.0 puts the viewer into an abstract virtual skateboard park. Skater sounds travel above, below, around and through the viewers and serve as a kind of portal for them. The sounds are a recognisable and approachable door for the audience, a door through which they can travel into the abstract conceptual layers of this work. The light links to both sides. It registers the virtual movement of the skaters and at the same time pushes the viewer beyond.

Videos and Photos by: Electroland | Electroland website

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Tsang Kin-wah | The Seven Seals

W&V — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:02:02 +0000

“The Seven Seals” is a work by Chinese contemporary artist Tsang Kin-Wah. It is a fascinating ongoing series of seven conceptual digital video art installations using texts and computer technology to show Tsang’s thoughts on various issues of the day. “The Seven Seals” draws its reference from various sources such as: existentialism, metaphysics and politics. With this work Tsang Kin-wah attempt to articulate the complex situation of the world and the dilemmas that people are facing while approaching “the end of the world”.

Animated phrases and short sentences appear, move and float, sometimes, like a murmur and sometimes like an admonition that reveals the nature of human beings and the changes of our emotions. Without a clear beginning or end, each installation in the “The Seven Seals” creates different cycles of text on continuous loops that appear to repeat without end; echoing the concept of “eternal recurrence” whereby all the issues and dilemmas of daily existence are seen perpetually recurring for an infinite number of fleeting instances, even though we recognize and are aware of them for a longer time.

Photos and videos from the The Fifth Seal installation which is part of the Seven Seals project.

Videos and Photos by: Tsang Kin-wah | Tsang Kin-wah website | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo

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Esther Stocker | Geometric abstraction and perception

W&V — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:29:20 +0000

Esther Stocker’s work mainly consists of paintings, photo’s and installations in an abstract and geometrical perspective, the various genres being closely related to each other.She works with a visually complex repertory of geometric sign and grid systems which explore the general conditions of perception and, in a broader sense, the effects of digital image technologies.
Esther Stocker’s reflexion is focused on the question: “How is a perfect system imperfect in reality?” Her geometric structures are based upon eternally self-repeating modules that create a seemingly ordered visual rhythm, to which the artist adds aberrations in order to generate an adjacent but new rhythm. This introduction of deviation in the optical balance, similar to 16th century’s mannerist architectural approach, creates surprise and emotion through the purposeful disruption of order and plane dimension.

Esther Stocker presents her work in her first solo show in France from the September 10 to October 15, 2011 at the Alberta Pane Gallery, Paris. This exhibition carries the title: Dirty Geometry.

Photos by: Esther Stocker, Sacha Georg, Michael Goldgruber, Jan Mahr | Esther Stocker website |

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Anish Kapoor | Monumenta 2011 | Leviathan

W&V — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:30:50 +0000

Each year Monumenta invites an internationally renowned artist to turn their vision to the vast Nave of Paris’ Grand Palais and to create a new artwork especially for this space. The first challenge was met by German artist Anselm Kiefer followed by American artist Richard Serra in 2008 and French artist Christian Boltanski in 2010. For its fourth incarnation, the French Ministry for Culture and Communication has invited Anish Kapoor to produce a new work for the Nave’s monumental space.

The artist describes the work he is creating for Monumenta as follows: “A single object, a single form, a single colour.” “My ambition”, he adds, “is to create a space within a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors are invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience.”

The work is not merely speaking visually, but it leads the visitor on a journey of total sensorial and mental discovery. It questions what we think we know about art, our body, our most intimate experiences and our origins.

leviathan by Anish Kapoor will be on display untill 23rd June 2011 at the Grand Palais, Paris, France.

Photos top 1 to 5 by: Designboom | Photos bottom 6 to 7 by: Anish Kapoor, Didier Plowy and Monumenta |

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Marcel Broodthaers | The Marcel Broodthaers cabinet

W&V — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:30:16 +0000

MARCEL | The Marcel Broodthaers cabinet is a proposal to present the oeuvre of artist Marcel Broodthaers in the S.M.A.K. museum. The increasing significance of Broodthaers’ work as part of the collection gradually led to the idea of giving this oeuvre a permanent place in the museum. A place where the Broodthaers collection would not only be displayed, but also documented and set in a specific framework. Not as a monument or mausoleum in which the work is enclosed, but more like an intimate setting where encounters can take place and where Broodthaers’ work can be studied. To achieve this, in 2006 the museum held a competition in which three architects were asked to come up with a design for the project. The proposal ultimately selected was by architecten de vylder vinck taillieu. Their design devotes plenty of attention to Broodthaers’ work, but it combines it with the ease and practicality of a study centre. In terms of its form, the design clearly refers to the display cabinet, which Broodthaers used a great deal. This gallery is located on the boundary between the museum and the Floralia Hall behind it. This is also where the exhibition entitled MARCEL/Het Broodthaerskabinet will be held.
The exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent Belgium will run until the 5Th of June 2011.

Photos by: S.M.A.K. – Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst | Marcel Broodthaers |

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Tobias Rehberger | Nothing Happens For A Reason

W&V — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:30:20 +0000

German conceptual artist Tobias Rehberger has created, in collaboration with Artek design furniture, a comprehensive art installation called Nothing happens for a reason at the Logomo cafe, Turku, Finland.

Tobias Rehberger and Artek collaborated also in 2009 during the Venice Biennale where Tobias Rehberger was awarded with a Golden Lion for Best Artist for the permanent installation he created for Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Read more about this in an earlier posted article on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos Blog.

Rehberger is interested in the conflict between functionalism and aesthetics, and likes to question and play with the notion of art and its various strategies.Using several media and different approaches, Rehberger’s conceptual work break traditional boundaries with exceptional combinations of painting, sculpture, architecture and design.
For the conceptual art installation at the Logomo café, Rehberger shows a white space which lines drawn throughout the area, regardless of any physical obstructions.

Tobias Rehberger about the work: “I like the idea of creating a visual art project which is about ‘not seeing something’.The painting method of battle ships in the first and second World War, the so called dazzle painting, in a way for me perfectly represents this paradox. The sculpture I created for Turku is based on the same concept as the one in Venice.It applies a completely different pattern to the space, but despite its very different look, it should have the same dazzling effect,” says Rehberger. “The Venice Biennale installation is a wonderful example of how art, architecture and design all come together in an outstanding international project.

The installation “Nothing Happens For A Reason” will remain open until December 18, 2011.

Photos by: Tobias Rehberger and Artek | Logomo The Centre of Culture

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Verbeke Gallery Avantgarde Art Exhibition | Martin uit den Bogaard

W&V — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:00:18 +0000

The Verbeke Foundation opened recently, next to their fascinating large exhibition space at Kemzeke, also a gallery in Antwerp Belgium .
On the 12th of may 2011 a solo exhibition of avantagarde artist Martin uit den Bogaard will open at this Verbeke Gallery.
Martin uit den Bogaard is an artist who has been working for years with organic material in the shape of plants and animal tissue. He follows the decomposition process that takes place inside of glass “coffins” with photos, film and other electronic devices. One example of his astonishing work is the “Singing” series. In this series he measures the ENVI-voltage which is still in a cadaver and translates that fluctuations through a computer in picture and sound. The voice that you hear is higher or lower as the milti-voltage changes.

Solo Exhibition Martin uit den Boogaard:
Opening 12.05.2011, 18:00 o’clock
Performance 12.05.2011, 20:00 o’clock
Verbeke Gallery Antwerp.

Read also earlier posted articles about the Verbeke Foundation on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos Blog: Diary 250910 | Verbeke Foundation and Diary 061210 | Vernissage Verbeke Foundation November 2010.

Photos by Martin uit den Bogaard Collection Verbeke Foundation | Verbeke Foundation website | Verbeke Gallery website

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Felice Varini | Point of view

W&V — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:30:55 +0000

Felice Varini was born in 1952 in Locarno, Switzerland. and currently lives in Paris. He creates fascinating optical art.
His field of action is architectural and urban space and everything that constitutes such spaces. These spaces are and remain the original media for his painting. He works “on site”, each time in a different space and his work develops itself in relation to the spaces he encounters. The paintings are characterized by geometric shapes and by a single vantage point from which the viewer can see the complete painting, while various ‘broken’ fragmented shapes are seen from various other view points.

Felice Varini about his work:

“I generally roam through the space noting its architecture, materials, history and function. From these spatial data and in reference to the last piece I produced, I designate a specific vantage point for viewing from which my intervention takes shape.

The vantage point is carefully chosen: it is generally situated at my eye level and located preferably along an inevitable route, for instance an aperture between one room and another, a landing… I do not, however, make a rule out of this, for all spaces do not systematically possess an evident line. It is often an arbitrary choice. The vantage point will function as a reading point, that is to say, as a potential starting point to approaching painting and space.

The painted form achieves its coherence when the viewer stands at the vantage point.When he* moves out of it, the work meets with space generating infinite vantage points on the form. It is not therefore through this original vantage point that I see the work achieved; it takes place in the set of vantage points the viewer can have on it.

If I establish a particular relation to architectural features that influence the installation shape, my work still preserves its independence whatever architectural spaces I encounter. I start from an actual situation to construct my painting. Reality is never altered, erased or modified, it interests and seduces me in all its complexity. I work “here and now”.”

Photos by: Felice Varini | Video by: Christophe Loizillon | Felice Varini website

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