ART-PRESENTATION: Winter Harvest

Four young artists for whom music, subculture and performances are important sources of inspiration participate in the exhibition “Winter Harvest” at Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum in Deurle, Belgium.Originating in their personal fascination with certain cultural phenomena and everyday codes, the artists enter in dialogue with each other but also with the exhibition space.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens Archive

The conceptual practice of Ana Prvački balances between different disciplines and explores, in particular, the boundaries between the physical, material object and the ephemeral nature of performance and music. In the works exhibited during the exhibition, Ana Prvački examines the inherent relationship between art and eroticism. Several historical art sources are important to her, such as Roman effigies of the divine ”Fascinus”, Wagner’s opera “Tristan und Isolde”, the Japanese erotic prints “Shunga” and Wilhelm Reich’s theory of orgone energy. Her sensual iconic language and humorous undertone confront us with contemporary taboos and manners. The works simultaneously stimulate the viewer to imagine alternatives for our understanding of Western ‘decency’. Naama Tsabar takes the emotional loaded experience of the night life as a starting point for her tactile sculptures, installations and performances. She uses sound and materials from the music culture such as felt, plywood and black gaffer tape to evoke a twilight zone between personal and public memory. Her interest in the relationship between body, object and space is reminiscent of   the minimalism and post-minimalism from the years 1960-70. For the exhibition Naama Tsabar resumes “Gaffer Wall (Twilight)” (2006), the first work of a series of works the artist made with gaffer tape. This in situ installation uses the architecture of the Museum to create a performative environment.  The poetic-anarchist works of Andy Wauman draw their inspiration from his personal, inner world, which the artist relates to existing social structures. Influenced by the Eastern culture in Bali, the artist created a series of new works with a strong spiritual impact. Existential philosophies, rituals and visual symbols from among others Hinduism and Buddhism are at the origin of these intuitive creations. Equally important is the idea of Western escapism, the sense of freedom, the surf culture and the palm trees of the tropical island are recurrent motives throughout the exhibition.  On the one hand the works of Joris Van de Moortel embody the excessive atmosphere of music culture. On the other hand the mixed-media paintings, sculptures and figurative drawings are influenced by the experimental “musique concrète”. The sculptures and installations in the exhibition were created from leftovers of performances or from materials previously ‘introduced’ by Van de Moortel in other existing works. In these assemblies, functional elements such as neon lights, guitars, microphones and electrical wires are transformed into a meaningful visual entity. Such materials provide the artist with the necessary freedom and dynamism to conceive energetically charged works.

Info: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Museumlaan 14, Deurle, Duration: 5/2-9/4/17, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.museumdd.be