The title of the exhibition is "Until the Wolf is There", named after a children's song of the same name. The song goes "Let's play in the forest until the wolf is there, is the wolf there?" And then the wolf answers what activity he performs to start his day. While the wolf prepares himself, the children play. The wolf gets up, brushes his teeth, bathes and dresses, until he is ready to hunt. Then the wolf answers the children that he is already there and that he will eat them. He then continues to hunt them and the children start to run.
UNTIL THE WOLF IS THERE shows a duality: a bizarreity. The works look beautiful, but delve on more complex underlying themes that are the result of social or personal problems. Both the positive (the forest, the jungle, the infant, the family, the celebration of life) and the negative (the wolf, the predator, fear, lack of resources, conflict) take part in this play.
"Not all that shines is gold",
Popular saying.
Some of the topics dealt with are: deprivation, migration, war and depletion of natural resources, but also mental states: depression, anxiety, loneliness, vulnerability and difficulties to feel, amongst others. However, the exhibition shows as well how in complex contexts there are individuals or prosesses able to counteract or stand. Despite feelings that could catalogue someone as weak, fragile or sad amongst others, a person can be beautiful in its fragility, very strong by living with it and very lovely -to have empathy- towards others. Despite the violence, subjects can show admirable strength in the shape of love and community. Despite continuous acts against nature, it can show also its strength and the possibility to overcome.
Finally, it must be said that the beauty of the works give them a fairytale notion -that might feel also as awkward beauty- and this fits well with the location of the castle.
-PARCE
Landgoed De Campagne is a Ghent nature reserve and park. It includes various biotopes such as a pond, grasslands, forest areas and canals and it therefore has a very diverse fauna and flora. The villa used to belong to a bigger castle, inhabited by the Hamelinck family in the 18th century. They later left the place because a family member, Louis Hamelinck was murdered there. After that it has been property of the Jesuit order. In 1972 it became property of the City of Ghent. The garden was opened to the public and the castle was designated as a cultural center. In my opinion, this is a good location in relation to the theme of the exhibition.
Address: Gijzelstraat 12, 9031 Ghent
Size: 277m2 (divided over two exhibition rooms)
ARTISTS
PROGRAM
PROGRAM
Gentse Feesten Special: Cocktail/BBQ-night in the forest:
20 July, 5-8 p.m.
Carolina Rodríguez
(COL)
"Dónde están los niños" (Where are the children?) is a retrospective exhibition of the artist, who for more than 15 years has been reflecting on the position of children in our society and how in some cases the media transforms our way of seeing and relating to them. Carolina uses colored pencils and other materials that bring us closer to the world of children, however the sight she produces is critical and provokes in the viewer reflection about childhood in the contemporary world.
Peter Land (DK)
PETER LAND is one of the leading contemporary artists of Denmark. He makes performances, paintings, drawings, videos, sculptures with the same trademark, his tragicomedical flair.
Man's ambitions and failures in his difficulty finding balance and meaning are the recurring source for absurd situations and compositions. At the same time obscure and funny, hopeless and light, Land never shuns the extreme, and we are confronted with our own "all too humanity", reminding us of how much we are concerned with our identity and how it may be determined by the failure instead of becoming our 'self'.
The subconscious and self are explored by blurring the boundaries between memories and expression, through children's games and nightmares, despair and the idyllic ... The surreal and the grotesque ignite an existential alienation and we remain restless but amused.
Land's work has been shown at numerous exhibitions in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, including solo shows at Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark; the New Museum, New York, NY; and the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. Land represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2005.
References:
-Galleri Nicolai Wallner, "Peter Land - Showbizz (2015)"
-E. Emmert et. al, "Peter Land: Absolute Perfection" Berlin: Hatje Cantz 2013.
Marina Lauwers (BE)
Fairy tales are the basis of Marina's work. These stories deal with very current topics such as poverty, migration, war, cruelty, love and a search for happiness and a better life. Her works are also references to mental states: depression, anxiety, loneliness, for example, arising from social problems (such as forced migration, violence) and personal problems (vulnerability, difficulties to feel).
Marina: "Time stands still, the wolf looks. The house keeps on balancing but does not fall. We wait ... until the wolf attacks and Little Red Riding Hood runs away or the house falls off the cliff."