Anish Kapoor | Monumenta 2011 | Leviathan

Posted on 14/06/2011 by W&V

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 |

Marcel Broodthaers | The Marcel Broodthaers cabinet

Posted on 20/05/2011 by W&V

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 |

Tobias Rehberger | Nothing Happens For A Reason

Posted on 13/05/2011 by W&V

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

Verbeke Gallery Avantgarde Art Exhibition | Martin uit den Bogaard

Posted on 09/05/2011 by W&V

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

Felice Varini | Point of view

Posted on 05/05/2011 by W&V

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”.”