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April 2019

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DÉBRIS

(Time Contingencies)

Location: Drongenhofkapel Drongenhof 15, 9000 Gent

5-22 April 2019

DÉBRIS (TIME CONTINGENCIES)

The exhibition inquires on different ways of approaching to the concept of time. This is a concept that revolves on other notions, such as death, ruin, change, memory, amongst others. A photograph with fungus, an old found object, an old document and a fragment of an old building are examples of matter that transforms its essence to become materials to work with as through the lens of the artist, they retain traces of the passage of time, giving her/him the opportunity to play with such concept. In this exhibition, artists from Colombia, Belgium and the U.K. show several ways on the notion itself and how matter can be related to it.

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Many of the works are about architecture: questioning what is a ruin, what it means to build and how architecture changes over time. Other works revolve around old objects and their matter itself. What makes an object to be considered old? What changes in the matter makes us believe that time is passing?  Finally, somehow the works relate to the consciousness of one’s  own temporarity, which implies consciousness of time.

The Drongenhof chapel is a late Gothic chapel with a single hallway and an impressive wooden spire, of which the ribs rest on corbstones with blazons.  The building has pointed arch windows typical for the period. On the facade one can find glazed bricks that date back to 1607. Various bricklayers can be seen in the side walls. The floor is made of sand. 

In the only window of the church there is a stained-glass piece made by the artist Wim Delvoye.
This location was of great importance for the exhibition, all the works and the place were in dialogue and connected. 

Address:

Drongenhof 15, 9000 Ghent

Size: 221m2 (25 m x 8,85 m)

Ghent: The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie. In the Late Middle Ages it became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe. This is the reason that nowadays, you find lots of medieval buildings in the city center, including many churches, cathedrals (the St. Bavo Cathedral displays the famous "Ghent Alterpiece": 'The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb' by the Van Eyck brothers), fortresses (one with a fire breathing golden dragon on top)  and castles.

Débris (time contingencies)

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
T.S. Eliot. The Waste Land. 1922.

Débris exists out of broken or torn pieces of something larger that at some point in time was complete (more or less). One can think of the ruins of old buildings, sculptures or even whole cities. A century ago, T.S. Eliot already saw in the remnants of great civilisations the possibility to make visible the fear and doubt of his time. In summoning fragments of old greatness, now turned into dust, he expresses the bitter taste of time passing as well as the beauty in it.

Today, still, the artist finds in the débris of things a way to give form to inner doubts and fears. The effect of time on the material, a random process, provides a background where the artist can work with and build her or his own story on.

What remains

Débris (time contingencies) tells the story of materials enduring the effect of time. What remains carries the memory of things and people it has outlived. It exists out of things that are left behind. It’s no different for whoever keeps the object and gives meaning to it. We are filled with memories, and it is never easy to remember what is lost.

Architecture takes a central role in the exhibition. It is the artform that surrounds us, defines us and survives us. It is witness to an endless stream of human life and tells its stories. These are the buildings we live in and that are made from the most resistant materials and structures we can think of and yet they are just as fragile as we are, given enough time passes.

The exterior of a building has very clear signs of wearing down. One only needs to look around to see the diverse changes the materials go through. Every place ages in a unique way because no place exists under the exact same conditions. This can be said of humans as well, albeit less visible on the outside.


 

Débris is an obvious image of the passing of time. One can see (or investigate) what is broken, what remains and what is lost. The artist finds in the débris of things a way and a material of representing the less obvious. 

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What changes

 

Nothing, I feel sure, lasts long under same appearance.Ovid, Metamorphoses, 8 B.C.

 

The exhibit revolves around the idea of the passage of time affecting materials and objects but also around the human action that takes place in this process. This action includes finding, collecting, forming and changing materials. Human, artistic involvement in the life of the object gives meaning to it. When the individual decides to work with the material, he/she gives it a life, a story.Nothing stays and nothing really leaves either. Ovid already had this wisdom centuries ago. In his lifework “metamorphoses”, by telling the ancient stories, he gives form to the changing nature of things. He focuses on transformation as an intrinsic part of human life. Nature is in constant change and so is everything that stems from it.

Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003.

The artist, having the creative opportunity to do so, transforms as well. By collecting something, working with a material or even making something from scratch the artist decides what and how something is “metamorphized” into “art”.

It is the decision, the idea and the person (the character) that changes the object or material. This is not only a formal, exterior change but an interior transformation as well. The object changes in meaning, in purpose and in how the spectator sees and perceives it.

Flesh and stones

Every life is, more or less, a ruin among whose debris we have to discover what the person ought to have been.
José Ortega y Gasset, El Quehacer del Hombre, 1933.

Ovid tells the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha. They survive a flood and remain as the only two humans left in existence. Distraught by sadness they call upon the gods and are told to walk on the stones of the (mother) earth. By doing this, the stones slowly turn into humanlike figures and finally into people of flesh and blood. People are strong and can endure a lot, Ovid says, not unlike the material we once came from.

Text by JOLIEN VERDOODT,