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GUARDIANS

Julia Scher, Gretel
Courtesy the artist

Auriea Harvey, Joan Heemskerk, JODI,
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Julia Scher

GUARDIANS

Opening Wednesday 24 April 2024, 5–8pm
24 April – 1 June 2024
Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2–6pm

Wouters Gallery
Bd d’Anvers 49, 1000 Brussels

Rectangle is thrilled to present GUARDIANS,
a joint project of Wouters Gallery | Rectangle, Brussels.

AURIEA HARVEY
JOAN HEEMSKERK
JODI
LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON
JULIA SCHER

Documentations

 

 
 
 

Biography

Auriea Harvey
Auriea Harvey (1971) USA.
 

Auriea Harvey is a digital artist and sculptor living and working in Rome. Her practice encompasses virtual and physical artworks created with a blend of digital and handmade production. Drawing from her extensive experience in net art and video games, she brings a synthesis of mythology, autobiography, art historical reference and imagination – made visible through form, interaction and immersion. Auriea is engaged across time, media, and material to define what sculptural production means in the present moment. Her work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, KADIST Collection, Rf.C Collection, and Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology. She has exhibited widely with international success including exhibitions at the Tinguely Museum, Basel; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the New Museum, New York; and ZKM, Karlsruhe.

https://auriea.art/

 
 
Joan Heemskerk

Joan Heemskerk is a Dutch contemporary artist. Her artistic practice is centred around the internet, with a current focus on exploring the potentials of web4, spanning from cryptography systems to the realm of quantum non-binary computing. Her diverse body of work includes photography, video, software, games, websites, NFT, performances and installations.
_ She is also a member of the art collective JODI >>>

https://joanheemskerk.com


JODI

JODI, or (jodi.org) – pioneered net.art in 1995. JODI were among the first artists to investigate and subvert conventions of the Internet, computer programs, and video and computer games. Radically disrupting the very language of these systems, including visual aesthetics, interface elements, commands, errors and code. JODI stages extreme digital interventions that destabilise the relationship between computer technology and its users by subverting our expectations about the functionalities and conventions of the systems that we depend upon every day.

JODI’s work is featured in most art historical volumes about digital and media art, is exhibited worldwide in ; Documenta-X; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; ZKM; ICC; CCA; Guggenheim; IMAL; Centre Pompidou; Eyebeam; FACT; MoMi; Harvard Art Museums; Rhizome; MoMa, among others.

http://jodi.org

Lynn Hershman Leeson

Lynn Hershman Leeson

Over the last five decades, artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has been internationally acclaimed for her art and films. Hershman Leeson is widely recognized for her innovative work investigating issues including: the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression.

Lynn Hershman Leeson is a recipient of many awards including a Siggraph Lifetime Achievement Award, Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. And in 2022, she was awarded a special mention from the Jury for her participation in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. In 2023, Pratt Institute of Art in NY awarded her with an Honorary Doctorate. Creative Capital awarded her with their Distinguished Artist Award in 2023. SFMOMA acquired the museum’s first NFT from Hershman Leeson in 2023.

Her six feature films—Strange Culture, Teknolust, Conceiving Ada, !Women Art Revolution: A Secret History, Tania Libre, and The Electronic Diaries—are in worldwide distribution. Artwork by Lynn Hershman Leeson is featured in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

She is represented by Bridget Donahue, New York, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, Wouters Gallery, Brussels, and ShanghART, China.

https://www.lynnhershman.com/

Julia Scher

Julia Scher (1954) USA.

Inspired by the French philosopher Michel Foucault and the sociologist Gary T. Marx, Julia Scher’s work focuses on the subjects surveillance and cyber-sphere. Aiming at the exposure of dangers and ideologies of monitoring systems, Scher creates temporary and transitory web/installation/performance works that explore issues of power, control and seduction. In the last 20 years, her research has explored social control dynamics in public space. The art projects have taken the form of interactive installations, reformulated surveillance, site tours, interventions, performances, photography, writing, net.art, linear video, and sound. Since 1988, Scher has produced a series of installations called Security by Julia. These have taken different forms but often involve a person wearing a security uniform and an invitation to the viewer to actively participate in surveillance culture.[6] Other variations of the installations have included soothing voices and baby blankets.

Among her many institutional exhibitions are: Signals: How Video Transformed the World, MoMA, New York (2023); Maximum Security Society, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2023); Maximum Security Society, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich (2022); Wonderland, Maison Populaire, Montreuil (2022); Planet Greyhound, Kunsthalle Gießen (2022); Julia Scher, MAMCO, Geneva (2021); Collection of Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2020); Im Volksgarten, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus (2020); Time is Thirsty, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); Maskulinitäten, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf (2019); Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2018); Julia Scher – Delta, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2018); The Condition of Being Art: Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co., The Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson (2018); Art and Entertainment, MAMCO, Geneva (2018); Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2018); In Relation to a Spectator, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2017); Enemy of the stars: Ronald Jones in dialogue with David Hammons,Louise Lawler, Helmar Lerski, and Julia Scher, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017); VIDEONALE.16, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (2017); Film as Place, SFMOMA, San Francisco (2016); Global Control and Censorship, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe (2015); 1984–1999. La Décennie, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2014); NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and no Star, New Museum, New York (2013); Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2011), SFMOMA, San Francisco (2011) and Tate Modern, London (2010); Predictive Engineering2, SFMOMA, San Francisco (1998); Forecast, Maurine and Robert Rothschild Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge (1996); The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (1995); Don’t Worry, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (1994); Aperto ’93, 45th Venice Biennale (1993); Informationsdienst, Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart (1992); The Speaker Project, ICA, London (1992); Buffalo Under Surveillance, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo (1992); Security Site Visits, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1990); The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1989); Occupational Placement (O.P.), The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (1989); Julia Scher: Public Travel Area (P.T.A.), MoMA PS1, New York (1988).

Her work is held in multiple collections: MoMA, New York; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Kunstsammlungen, Wiesbaden; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf/Berlin; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois; Le Consortium, Dijon; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MAMCO, Geneva; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Museen Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York; Neue Galerie Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and SFMOMA, San Francisco.

http://www.juliascher.com/

Categories
Past Shows

REc+ >>>

Joan Heemskerk

REc+
           >>>

at Rectangle, Brussels

Finissage Saturday 2 September, 2–6pm
13 July – 2 September 2023
Open Friday and Saturday, 2–6pm

Waldburger Wouters Gallery
Bd d’Anvers 49, 1000 Brussels

Rectangle is pleased to present REc+ >>>, a solo exhibition by Joan Heemskerk.

In our digital age, beyond the surface of the latest Zoom calls, Netflix shows, or digital art, lies a world of intricate data and their never-ending journey. These delicate bits, the raw material of our computerised existence, undergo processing, encryption, and transmission, becoming the substrate for the artist’s exploration. Joan Heemskerk’s practice is often described as “infrastructure poetry,” as she uncovers the beauty and complexity within the very framework that shapes our digital landscape. Through a series of existing and new works, this exhibition delves deep into the interconnected realms of networks, data, and cryptography.

Joan Heemskerk, R4aW, 2023, (Requiem for a Wallet), html, interactive, various dimensions
Joan Heemskerk, Untitled, 2023, base 2-8-16 conversion into color cubes (Hello, world!)
Joan Heemskerk, Chameleon, 2021, Generative video, 256 editions
Joan Heemskerk, exhibition view, REc+ >>>
Joan Heemskerk, 0 ∞, ibmq_armonk : 4f428318-7b29-4df9-9fa9-094b15a8cb04, 2023, engraved brass, 20 x 20 cm
Joan Heemskerk, CABLE–, 2023, Animation/.SVG, on chain, various dimensions
Joan Heemskerk, SAT-HEX, 2022, html, interactive, various dimensions
Joan Heemskerk, PROTOTYPE, 2022, html, various dimensions
Joan Heemskerk, Recovery, 2023, html, various dimensions
Joan Heemskerk, Hello, world!, All SAT, 2023

Works

JOAN HEEMSKERK
Recovery
2023
html
various dimensions
111 editions

Documentation

Exhibition Catalog
 

Text : Joan Heemskerk
Edited by Rectangle

view (pdf)

Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars | The New York Times 
 

By Adam Satariano, Scott Reinhard, Cade Metz, Sheera Frenkel and Malika Khurana
July 28, 2023

Link

Biography

Joan Heemskerk

Joan Heemskerk is a Dutch contemporary artist. Her artistic practice is centred around the internet, with a current focus on exploring the potentials of web4, spanning from cryptography systems to the realm of quantum non-binary computing. Her diverse body of work includes photography, video, software, games, websites, NFT, performances and installations.
_ She is also a member of the art collective JODI >>>

JODI, or (jodi.org) – pioneered net.art in 1995. JODI were among the first artists to investigate and subvert conventions of the Internet, computer programs, and video and computer games. Radically disrupting the very language of these systems, including visual aesthetics, interface elements, commands, errors and code. JODI stages extreme digital interventions that destabilise the relationship between computer technology and its users by subverting our expectations about the functionalities and conventions of the systems that we depend upon every day.

JODI’s work is featured in most art historical volumes about digital and media art, is exhibited worldwide in ; Documenta-X; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; ZKM; ICC; CCA; Guggenheim; IMAL; Centre Pompidou; Eyebeam; FACT; MoMi; Harvard Art Museums; Rhizome; MoMa, among others.

https://joanheemskerk.com

http://jodi.org

Categories
Past Shows

REVENANTS

Kelly Richardson, Origin Stories (detail)
Courtesy the artist

Kelly Richardson, Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva

REVENANTS

at Rectangle, Brussels

Opening Friday 20 January, 5–8pm
Gallery Walk Downtown 21 January, 2pm
21 January – 20 February 2023
Open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2–6pm

Waldburger Wouters Gallery
Bd d’Anvers 49, 1000 Brussels

Rectangle is pleased to present REVENANTS, a collaboration with
Kelly Richardson, Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva.

Scale is everything. What may look like a solid upon closer inspection turns out to be a void. Lights in the night sky that to us appear as stars may instead be expansive galactic clouds housing multiple galaxies.

Charles and Ray Eames’ iconic production ‘The Powers of Ten’ (1977) takes us from our tangible human scale – a lazy Sunday picnic scene in a park – to the incomprehensible vastness of space and beyond back, all the way to the sub-atomic realm. At the 24th power of ten, after flying past galaxy clusters, we reach the limit of the known universe in 1977 – 100 million light years away. We’re left with a black screen, and the voice-over cheerfully announces: “This emptiness is normal”.

Kelly Richardson, Origin Stories, 2023
Courtesy the artist

This is by no means a hollow statement, because after zooming back in through all powers, and diving into our cellular structures, this emptiness is eerily reflected on the microscopic level of the 10th power of minus ten, at 0.01 angstrom.

A similar disorienting sense of relativity can be applied to time: we may notice our Earth’s crust’s movements sometimes as hiccups in the form of volcano eruptions or earth quakes. Despite their potential significant regional impact, they only suggest minor movements on a planetary scale. We tend to think of the planet as fairly stable grounds, but experienced in deep time, Earth behaves more like a boiling, chunky stew. Glaciers flow like syrup, islands pop up and vanish, coastlines fold out of sight, mountain ranges rise sharply and erode into friendly hills, and whole seas evaporate while other basins are being filled. It’s all very exhilarating.

Our current, surprisingly cuddly, upper layer of life wouldn’t have been possible if not for the violent bombardments of meteors our younger planet had to endure. From destruction, an incredibly complicated and elegant biosphere emerged. It’s the conundrum at the roots of myths and at the hearts of circular belief systems.

We’re usually only reminded of our planet’s inner workings when disruptive pyroclastic clouds cancel our flights. Nicolas Sassoon’s ‘Prophets’, sculptures series is literally based on lava rocks, and offers us a view on their own origins. It’s as if these antenna’ed creatures are here, in possibly the least geological space in existence – a contemporary art gallery – to gently remind us of the unimaginable turmoil that is in a constant grind beneath our feet.

Kelly Richardson, on the other hand, transports us out of our troubled atmosphere all the way to the 11th power of ten, and provides us with a breathtaking view on the asteroid belt in our solar system. We find ourselves in a region between Mars – a planet Richardson previously visited in the monumental installation, ‘Mariner 9’ – and Jupiter. The countless slowly rotating bodies appear as crisp as if we’re looking out of the windows of a space ship; all potential new Chixculub impactors – named after the meteor that helped to end the reign of the dinosaurs which resulted in the rise of mammals, including us. The cool light bouncing off of the indifferent chunks of space debris is a distant counterpart of the glowing embers dancing in some of Richardson’s other virtual camera frames.

When we return to the human power of one, we’re left with the realisation that while our species’ behaviour is responsible for the current global extinction event, it’s equally capable of producing uniquely imaginative visions. Art alone can’t save the world but the creation of art may very well be considered as the yin to our destructive yang.

This emptiness is normal.
Text by Alexandra Crouwers.

Nicolas Sassoon, Prophets, 2023
Courtesy the artist
Nicolas Sassoon, The Prophet (Tanaga 1), 2023, rock, lcd screen, variable dimension
Courtesy the artist
Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva, CORES (right)
Nicolas Sassoon, The Prophets (Tanaga 02), 2023 (left)
Courtesy the artist
Nicolas Sassoon & Rick Silva, CORES (left)
Nicolas Sassoon, The Prophets (Tanaga 03), 2023 (right)
Courtesy the artist
Nicolas Sassoon, The Prophets (Tanaga 03), 2023
Courtesy the artist
Kelly Richardson, Pillars of Dawn
Courtesy the artist

Documentations

The Powers of Ten (1977) 
 

The Powers of Ten films are two short American documentary films written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames

 
 
 
Halcyon Fog
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Artist’s talk with Kelly Richardson
Kamloops Art Gallery
Curated by Charo Neville
 
 

CORES
2020

Eight Fragments on Eight Stones
Essay by Elise Hunchuck and Jussi Parikka

more info

THE PROPHETS
2019

Text by Nora O Murchú, Artistic director of transmediale

more info

Biography

Kelly Richardson
Kelly Richardson (1972) Canada.
 

Taking cues from 19th-century landscape painting, 20th-century cinema, and 21st-century planetary research, Kelly Richardson (b. 1972, Canada) crafts video installations and digital prints that offer imaginative glimpses of the future that prompt a careful consideration of the present.

Her work has been widely acclaimed in North America, Asia and Europe. Recent one person exhibitions include NGCA (England), Dundee Contemporary Arts (Scotland), Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Austria), SMoCA (USA), CAG Vancouver (Canada), VOID Derry (Ireland), and a major survey at the Albright-Knox (USA).

She was selected for the Beijing, Busan, Canadian, Gwangju and Montréal biennales, and major moving image exhibitions including the The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Her video installations have been included in the Toronto International Film Festival as part of Future Projections, Sundance Film Festival in New Frontier and she was honoured as the featured artist at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards.

Richardson’s work has been acquired into significant museum collections across the UK, USA and Canada, from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, SMoCA and Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Arts Council Collection (England) and the Towner.

Her video installations have been featured in numerous media including Artforum, The Guardian, BFI Sight and Sound, New Scientist, Time Out London, Aesthetica, British Journal for Photography, CBC, BBC, ITV, Sky News and New York Times.

Kelly Richardson was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada in 1972. From 2003-2017 she resided in north east England where she was a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Newcastle University. She currently lives and works as a visitor on the traditional territory of the WSANEC peoples of the Coast Salish Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. She is Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria.

 
 
 
Nicolas Sassoon
Nicolas Sassoon (1981) France, Canada.
 

Nicolas Sassoon is a Franco-Canadian artist using early computer graphics to create a wide array of pixelated forms & figures, moiré patterns & architectural structures. His work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by constraining himself to experiment with pixelated patterns and figures as his sole visual language. This focus on early computer graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its limitations and its poetics. A basis of Sassoon’s research centres on digital animations created using a moiré patterning technique; consisting in the overlap of two images to generate optical illusions. This body of work often features abstract animations informed by atmospheric and natural forces. The animations appear on screen as endless hypnotic surfaces, similar to all-over paintings or wallpapers in their composition. The optical properties of these works generate tensions and oscillations in the perception of depth and flatness within the space of the screen. Sassoon’s work also manifests in physical space as sculptures, prints, and monumental projections scaled to the architecture in context, generating experiences adjusted to the human body. At large, Sassoon’s practice relates to many histories of abstraction in painting, optical art, moving image and computer graphics.

Nicolas Sassoon currently lives between Montreal, Canada and Biarritz, France. He is a founder of the collaborative projects SIGNALS and WALLPAPERS. His work has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the Centre d’Art Bastille (FR), House of Electronic Arts Basel (SW), Kunsthalle Langenthal (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), Chronus art Center (CN), the Berlin Fashion Week (DE) and the New-York Fashion Week (US).

https://nicolassassoon.com/

 

 

 
Rick Silva
Rick Silva (1977) Eugene, Oregon
 

Rick Silva is a Brazilian-American artist who makes experimental 3-D animations that explore virtuality, futurology, and speculative ecologies. His works have been screened and exhibited internationally. Recent exhibitions include Hors Pistes at The Centre Pompidou, and State of the Art at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. His work has been featured in publications such as WIRED magazine and Rhizome’s book Net Art Anthology. Silva lives in Eugene, Oregon, where he is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Oregon.

https://ricksilva.net/

 
Categories
Past Shows

Wendy Cabrera Rubio

Wendy Cabrera Rubio

Escenario para un genómica Nacional

at Rectangle, Brussels

Opening Friday 22 October, 5–8pm
23 October – 15 December 2021
Open by appointment

Rectangle is pleased to present Escenario para una genomica nacional | Sangre y genética en la post revolución mexicana, a collaboration with Wendy Cabrera Rubio, the first part of a series of pieces in which the artist generates a journey through the myth of mestizo identity in Mexico from the post-revolutionary era to the medical institutions that today continue to generate an echo on the ideals of the mestizo body.

Within this series Cabrera Rubio emphasizes the forms of cultural assimilation that the Mexican government has implemented by means of scientific and sanitary justifications, through the first public health and hygienic education campaigns, supported by the use of strategies such as cinema, radio or petul theater. As well as by the consolidation of organizations such as the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), which continues to generate categories on genomic differences in the various indigenous communities of the country, validating the idea of mestizaje as the basis for health progress, but also as a fundamental part of the continuous ideological quests for contemporary modernization that continue to permeate Mexico.

Rectangle se complace en presentar Escenario para una genomica nacional | Sangre y genética en la post revolución mexicana, una colaboración con Wendy Cabrera Rubio, la primera parte de una serie de piezas en donde la artista genera un recorrido por el mito de la identidad mestiza en México desde la época posrevolucionaria hasta las instituciones médicas que hoy en día siguen generando un eco sobre los ideales del cuerpo mestizo.

Dentro de esta serie Cabrera Rubio hace hincapié en las formas de asimilación cultural que el gobierno mexicano ha implementado mediante justificaciones científicas y sanitarias, a través de las primeras campañas de salud pública y educación higiénica, apoyándose del uso de estrategias como el cine, la radio o el teatro petul. Así como también mediante la consolidación de organismos como el Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), el cual sigue generando categorías sobre las diferencias genómicas en las distintas comunidades indígenas del país, validando la idea del mestizaje como sustento del progreso sanitario, pero también como parte fundamental de las continuas búsquedas ideológicas de modernización contemporánea que siguen atravesando a México.

Acknowledgments

Luis Vásquez
Director de fotografía

Omar Mendoza
Asistente de dirección

Manuel Delgado Plazola
Dirección de escena

Michelle Montiel
Titiritera (sangre y adn)

Yafté Arias
Titiritero (José Vasconcelos y mapa genomico de los mexicanos)

Ileana Moreno
Dirección de video

Percival Argüero Mendoza
Sonido directo

María Juana Patricia Rubio Rosas
Norma Rodriguez Rosas
Wendy Cabrera Rubio
Escenografía y títeres

Carlos Carbajal
Tramoyista

Carlos Martínez y Wendy Cabrera Rubio
Guión

Agradecimientos
Avantgardo, José Castañeda, Marek Wolfryd, Javier Fresneda, Natalia de la Rosa. Carlos Carbajal

Documentations

Biography

Wendy Cabrera Rubio, Sangre y genética humana en la posrevolución mexicana 2021 Xilografía con sangre de la artista 0+ 55.2 % de ascendencia genómica amerindia, 41.8 % de ascendencia genómica europea y 3.5 % de ascendencia genómica africana. Marco de madera de cedro. 60 x 50 cm
Wendy Cabrera Rubio (1993) Mexico.
 
Completed her undergraduate studies at ENPEG “La Esmeralda” and later entered the SOMA Educational Program. Her work has been presented collectively at el Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Museo de la Ciudad, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, el Colegio Nacional, among others. And individually at, Kurimanzutto, Peana, Biquini Wax EPS, Jumex museum, La Embajada and Nordenhake gallery. It is part of the Young Creators Program FONCA 2021-2022 in the Alternative Media category.

With the gracious support of

Categories
Past Shows

Elen Braga

Elen Braga, Le Tombeau du Géant, Rectangle, Brussels

Elen Braga

Le Tombeau du Géant

Friday 27 August 2021
at Waldburger Wouters, Brussels

Finissage Saturday 15 October, 2–6pm
27 August – 16  October 2021

Rectangle is pleased to present Le Tombeau du Géant, a collaboration with Elen Braga at Waldburger Wouters.

“For the inauguration of the billboard ‘Le Tombeau du Géant’ hosted by Rectangle, I present a work inspired by the historic site of that name, located in the town of Bouillon in Belgium. Tombeau du Géant (Giant’s Tomb) comes from the legend of the giant Gallic hero who refused to be taken prisoner by the Romans and preferred to throw himself off the “Rocher des Gattes” rock instead of dying in the arena of the Colosseum. The next day, the people of Botassart found his body and buried him on top of a hill surrounded by a river. As a result, today the site has become a well-known and photographed touristic attraction, suggesting the transformation of myth into entertainment.

Besides the billboard, I present a series of 4 works that propose an ironic narrative of the soft fall of monuments, and of the fantasy surrounding it.”


Elen Braga is a multimedia artist. Interested in issues related to the self, she researches themes such as strength, ambition and resilience. Her practice often involves self-imposed tasks, as well as intense labor-requiring endeavors. She delves into mythological narratives, revisiting them to examine the ways in which they survive in contemporary behavior and beliefs.

Exhibition view Le Tombeau du Géant by Elen Braga, Rectangle, Brussels
Elen Braga, Le Tombeau du Géant, 2021, Hand-tufted tapestry, 77,5 x 58 cm
Elen Braga, Looking at the hula hoop, 2021, Hand-tufted tapestry, 25 x 31 cm
Elen Braga, Soft fall, 2021, Hand-tufted tapestry, 25 x 31 cm
Elen Braga, Four birds for one piece of fabric, 2021, Hand-tufted tapestry, 25 x 31 cm
Elen Braga, Holding the paradise, 2021, Hand-tufted tapestry, 60 x 59 cm

Documentations

Website: elenbraga.com

Biography

Elen Braga
Born in Maranhão, Brazil, 1984
Lives and works in Brussels

Categories
Past Shows

Hearts and Minds

An-My Lê, Untitled, Ho Chi Minh City, 1995, Courtesy of Janice Guy
An-My Lê, Untitled, Ho Chi Minh City, 1995
Courtesy of Janice Guy

Group Show

Hearts and Minds

Opening Thursday 15 April 2021, 4–8pm
L.E.S. Gallery Evening

15 April – 27 June, 2021
at carriage trade, New York

Chantal Akerman
Harold Ancart
Jef Geys
Dan Graham
Bodys Isek Kingelez
Robert Lebeck
An-My Lê
Otobong Nkanga
Marina Pinsky
Claudia Peña Salinas
Adam Simon
Momoyo Torimitsu
Hil Yeh

Rectangle is thrilled to present Hearts and Minds,
a joint project of carriage trade / Rectangle, Brussels.

Civilization and barbarism are never far apart. As the spoils from subjugating distant countries fill closets, living rooms, and dinner tables, citizens of the empire are encouraged to witness the “improvements” offered by their way of life bestowed upon the many invisible hands responsible for producing it. Employing the tools of public relations to invert standard meanings into their opposites (slavery = freedom, war = peace) the minds of those at home are massaged while villages abroad undergo “pacification”. 

"So we must be ready to fight in Vietnam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there."
—Lyndon B. Johnson Remarks at a Dinner Meeting of the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., May 4, 1965

In the later stages of empire, as exploration paves the way for tourism, far away cultures are promoted as exotic and unpredictable, introducing “otherness” as an affirmation of the ever-expanding necessity to civilize and control. As empires engage in hot and cold wars to extract and defend resources for domestic populations, patriotism and consumerism unite in common pursuits. While new technologies offer increasingly convincing dream worlds that divert the public’s consciousness, the brutal origins of their creation remain mostly behind the scenes.

The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires.
—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899

Bodys Isek Kingelez, Sans Titre, 2001, Plastic Cardboard and Paper, 17.32 × 4.72 × 4.72” (44 × 12 × 12 cm), Courtesy of Ronald Guttman
Bodys Isek Kingelez, Sans Titre, 2001, Plastic Cardboard and Paper, 44 × 12 × 12 cm
Courtesy of Ronald Guttman. Photo Nicholas Knight

With consumerism suffering a pandemic-era blow and a diminishing faith in establishment politics haunting industrialized nations, the pursuit of hearts and minds, so critical to the narrative of empire, struggles to contain blowback from centuries of repressive measures. Filtered through social media feedback loops, governmental and corporate messaging engineered to sway popular opinion now feature distortions and fragmentation that sow confusion while veiling their source, fomenting widespread social unease and sporadic violence.

Living within a kind of informational breakdown, many are now questioning how we got here. Linking past to present through artwork and archival material that collectively address links between the diversions of consumerism and techniques of propaganda in the service of empire, Hearts and Minds, a joint project of carriage trade and Rectangle, Brussels, reflects on the inseparable rapport between public relations and social control both abroad and at home.

—Peter Scott

We’d like to thank all the artists and the following lenders for their loans of artwork for the exhibition:

Icarus Films (Chantal Akerman), Clearing Gallery, Brooklyn (Harold Ancart), Essex Street/Maxwell Graham (Jef Geys), Greene Naftali Gallery (Dan Graham), Ronald Guttman / Christine Martin, Frédéric de Goldschmidt / André Magnin (Bodys Isek Kingelez), Janice Guy (An-My Lê), Cordula Lebeck, Archiv Robert Lebeck (Robert Lebeck), Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam (Otobong Nkanga), C L E A R I N G, Brussels (Marina Pinsky), and AfricaMuseum (Royal Museum for Central Africa).

A special thanks to Lawrence B. Benenson, LMCC, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Mr. Jacques Louise Vidal, WBI (Wallonie-Bruxelles International) and FWB (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles) for their generous support. Thanks also to gallery assistants Jervey Inglesby, Laura Li, Molly Miller, Hannah Park, Kristal Uribe, as well as Daylon Orr, for all their efforts on the exhibition.

With the gracious support of

Categories
Past Shows

Mark Dion

Mark Dion

Arbeid Adelt

Saturday 21 November 2020
at Waldburger Wouters, Brussels

Open Saturday 13 February, 2–6pm
and by appointment

Rectangle is pleased to present Arbeid Adelt, a collaboration with Mark Dion at Waldburger Wouters Gallery, in which the artist returns to the topic of extinction and endangered species.

In 1989, for his European debut, Mark Dion showed the head of a rhinoceros in a group exhibition at Xavier Hufkens. His European institutional breakthrough followed in 1993 when he was the first artist to exhibit in the newly renovated rotonde of M KHA in Antwerp, showing, The Library for the Birds of Antwerp. The remnants of this work can still be seen at the aviary of the Antwerp Zoo.

Arbeid Adelt includes a series of prints and drawings, and an unlimited edition produced by Rectangle.

This collaboration happens in the frame work of the group exhibition Arbeid Adelt :
exhibition with Anastasia Bay, Claudio Coltorti, Mark Dion, Jot Fau,
Gerard Herman, Constant Permeke and Yann Nirvana Yoy.

On view until feb 13, 2021

My relationship with Brussels and rhinoceroses goes back more then three decades. My work, Extinction Series: Black Rhino with Head was produced for a group exhibition at Xavier Hufkens Gallery in 1989. The work was part of a larger series dealing with animals under extreme extinction pressure; animals which probably would not still exist in the wild by the end of my lifetime. This work featured a series of wooden shipping crates, the sides of which became surfaces which displayed information about the natural and cultural history of the black rhino focusing on the historical, economic and ecological reasons animal had become the most critically endangered large mammal species. Each side of the crate employed different types of information: graphic charts, maps, text, photographs. The largest of the crate contained a large black rhino head on a bed of shipping excelsior. It was a quite shocking object to come into contact with.

Interestingly, the Black Rhino is still with us and it was the Northern White Rhinoceros that when extinct in 2018, when the last male died and the two surviving females were too old to breed. Still the Black Rhino remains critically endangered. 


This billboard returns my focus to the topic of extinction. Over the period of COVID lockdown I have produced a group of larger drawings which take as their inspiration graphic charts from the early 20th century. Many of these are the largest drawings I have attempted and in some way represent the resilience of artists under restriction and duress. Normally I work on location, in response to context. The lockdown has shown me that I don’t need site visits, large budgets and institutional support to make new work. All I need is some ink and paper. While drawing has always been central to my practice, the drawings have mostly been preparatory for sculptural works. These are the first group of drawings intended as purely drawing.

– Mark Dion

Mark Dion, Arbeid Adelt, Rectangle, 2020

"The lockdown has shown me that I don’t need site visits, large budgets and institutional support to make new work. All I need is some ink and paper."

– Mark Dion​

Mark Dion, Albeid Adelt, T-shirt, 2020 / 29 Euro
Mark Dion, Albeid Adelt, T-shirt, 2020 / 29 Euro
Mark Dion, Dinosaures Rule The Earth, T-shirt, 2020 / 29 euro
Mark Dion, Dinosaures Rule The Earth, T-shirt, 2020 / 29 euro
Mark Dion, Dinosaures Rule The Earth, 2020, red and blue pencil on paper, 52 x 39 cm, Edition of 30
Mark Dion, Dinosaures Rule The Earth, 2020, red and blue pencil on paper, 52 x 39 cm, Edition of 30
Mark Dion, Arbeid Adelt, 2020, ink on paper, 62 x 48 cm, Unique
Mark Dion, Arbeid Adelt, 2020, ink on paper, 62 x 48 cm, Unique

Documentations

First Look at Baby White Rhino
Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
1 November 2020.

more info

Extinction Series: Black Rhino with Head
1989
Wooden crates, stencilled lettering, colour photographs,
rhino head, wood chips, map of Africa
Dimensions variable

Group exhibition at Xavier Hufkens Gallery, 1989

Biography

Mark Dion
Mark Dion. Photo Jorge Colombo

Mark Dion
Born in 1961, United States.
Lives and works in Copake, New York.

Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between ‘objective’ (‘rational’) scientific methods and ‘subjective’ (‘irrational’) influences. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkammen of the 16th Century, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens. By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Mark Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society.

Biography (pdf)

Categories
Past Shows

John M Armleder

John M Armleder

Iso-cèle

28 September – 31 October 2020
at Hôtel Manos Premier, Brussels

Rectangle is pleased to announce a collaboration with the artist and co-founder of Ecart Group, John M Armleder. The show Iso-cèle is an initiative of Rectangle imagined in addition to the long awaited exhibition It Never Ends by John M Armleder at KANAL – Centre Pompidou (curated by Bernard Blistène and Yann Chateigné). 

Charivari
2015
Installation, Clear glasses
Variable dimensions

Iso-cèle
2020
pvc, 22 carats golden leaf
244 × 366 cm
(detail)

00
2020
Installation
Shovel, gold paint
125 × 25 × 15 cm

Les Volières, 2020, Installation, Mixed media, Variable dimensions

John M Armleder
Born in 1948, Switzerland.
Lives and works in New York and Geneva.