mercredi 4 juillet 2007

EOF it was in march 2005






GRID is a story unravelling through several stopping places, in a to-and-fro movement between the Netherlands and Indonesia, with France as a stopover. It is an exhibition in process, every step of which takes place in a different context, thus changing the initial project. The path it takes is echoing history Dutch colonialism, migrations and trade, linguistic and cultural exchanges, etc. The exhibition is named after Mondrian’s Grid, which had a deep impact on modern art by escaping the limitations of painting (and the frame) and spreading beyond borders through the art movement De Stijl. This grid, the symbol of an ideal, universal structure, pioneered a new rational and minimalist aesthetic, covering an infinite number of variations. With time, it also became the flagship of Dutch modernity. Whether it is an ironic veiled message to the public or a very strong symbol, it nevertheless deals with cultural identity and forces artists to examine their visual tools as well as the relationship between aesthetics and history. In 2002, Tiong Ang, Fendry Ekel, Mella Jaarsma and Remy Jungerman, four artists born or currently living in the Netherlands, met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to work on a two-month project. GRID #1, created by the artists, consisted of testing the geographical and conceptual limits of their art and to deal openly with the colonial past of the Netherlands. However, as they started facing the ideas, shapes, metaphors and barriers of Indonesia, their individual links to this country brought back memories or pointed to their absence. Tiong Ang and Fendry Ekel were indeed born in Indonesia, Remy Jungerman was familiar with the Indonesian community when living in Surinam, and Mella Jaarsma decided to settle down in Indonesia in the early 80’s. Through the duality of their position, the artists questioningly look at this country, both familiar and alien. In 2003, the first exhibition of their work took place at the Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, and was followed by a presentation at the Erasmus Huis in Jakarta. The setting they created was cut in half by a badminton net, which could be the symbol of either a frontier marking territories, or of a type of communication based on a playful and dynamic interaction. No referees, but a shuttlecock that goes from one artist to the other, spreading ideas between the artists, bound together by their will to abolish the taboos surrounding the relationship between art and colonisation, subjectivity and the part played by collective consciousness and its representations.

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