[Nettime-nl] SMART Project Space | Artists Present : Job Koelewijn & EdwinZwakman | Friday October 24, 20:00

["SMART Project Space" <info@smartprojectspace.net>]

SMART Project Space | 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, Amsterdam 

ARTISTS PRESENT.
A series in which artists present their work.
Location: SMART Cinema
Price: free addmission

Friday October 24th, 20.00 hrs. 

Job Koelewijn's is a risky process in which it is possible to get lost, a movement in precarious equilibrium between success and failure, because (notwithstanding the fact that a few similar materials show up in several of his works) there is no 'style' that supports it, there is no identifiable language at first glance. There are, however, reoccurrences and passages, connections and references among works, even between those separated by a few years time: like a rhizomic movement, which follows the alteration of different sentiments, places and states of mind, rather than the logic of a linear progression. Also from a formal point of view he seems, each time, to dare or challenge himself to seek out the material, the shape, the image or whatever it is that needs to be communicated. For this reason as well, Koelewijn's works contain something of the strident, the bizarre and even the slightly kitsch in the eyes of a faithful modernist. Bruce Nauman and vernacular reality, religious spirituality and baby talc, minimalism and traditional Dutch clothing, romantic poetry and mens deodorant, Divine Comedy and concentrated broth cubes: there are no materials, philosophic or poetic suggestions for which Koelewijn cannot create a dialogue to demonstrate an absolute faith in artistic expression. For Koelewijn, in fact, art has a sacred character; it is an act of regeneration and purification, a spiritual exercise, a challenge, renewed each time, to ourselves and to our own capacity to confront reality.

(Luca Cerizza from Job Koelewijn - History Future)

 

Edwin Zwakman initially appears to use photography in a conventional manner. However, insofar as the utterly hackneyed phrase 'the camera never lies' ever had any meaning, in Zwakman's case quite the opposite is true: his photographs are lies from the beginning to end.



In his work we see familiar images: landscapes and seascapes, high fences encompassing excavations which have been fortified with sheet piling, earth diggers pictured against the background of a new development, roundabouts viewed from high in the air, modern blocks of flats with large glass facades in which speeding trains or tall cranes are reflected, or tourist coaches in which a medieval cathedral is seen against the background of a department store. It all seems so normal and obvious. Yet a closer inspection of Zwakman's photographs produces a strong sense of unease, a feeling that something's wrong. But what exactly? Are there discrepancies in the time and scale? Is there something odd about the position of the camera? Are the light and colour rather peculiar? These questions are never really answered. And yet they persist.



Zwakman's photographs are enormous, sometimes 3 metres high or wide. This is, to a certain extent, an obvious decision when the subject of the image is a roundabout, but when one encounters on a laid table a breakfast plate with a radius of 60cm and a 60cm tall packet of hagelslag, one does not feel at ease, even if the proportions seem to be correct. The knowledge that these are photographs of a scale-model reality that has been constructed in the studio does little to destroy the enigma. (Forward text by Jan Debbaut in Edwin Zwakman - Facades)

 



For information please contact Genee Presta genee@smartprojectspace.net 


SMART Project Space | www.smartprojectspace.net
Exhibition Space & Cinema: 1e Const. Huygensstraat 20  
Opening times: Tues-Sat from 12.00-22.00, Sun from 14.00-22.00 hrs.
Mail to: P.O.Box 15004, NL-1001 MA Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 427.5951
Fax.: +31 20 427.5953
mail: info@smartprojectspace.net

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