A sense of things to come presents Robin Waart’s recent works, made on the occasion of this exhibition. The artist book Dedication(s), an envelope that is in fact a carpet, enlargements of Thank you cards and other pieces suggest possibilities of an impossible dialogue between an artist and the audience, their own work and the works of others. Waart also takes us back to the question what an exhibition space is: who is in conversation on this stage? Can a show be made and seen from the second person perspective? Under what circumstances can an exhibition become a letter?
Using furniture items in lieu of sculptures such as a triangular bookcase, benches designed for reading one specific book only, or an unusable white, tufted carpet that poses as an envelope without content, Waart proposes to experience the space of the exhibition as a ‘halfway home’ somewhere in between private and public realms.
The idea of ‘halfness’, paradoxically, is central to the exhibition, that marks something of half a life and half a career. This idea connects to the dual architectural layout of Bradwolff Projects’ space and the doubling or halving features of the works presented: a half book shelf, made to house exactly half of the edition of Dedication(s)’, a pair of customized reading benches, two consecutive screenshots taken from La maman et la putain (Jean Eustache, FR 1973). Even the sound piece is a ‘half’ – it is the soundtrack of the 1948 film Rope by Alfred Hitchcock, taken apart from its visual counterpart. In A sense of things to come, Waart invites us to a space where presence and loss fuse.
Robin Waart (NL/UK) uses repetition and collecting as a framework for projects with books, film stills, photography, polaroids, and book pages. Selected exhibitions: Skorpion, White Dwarf Projects, Vienna 2018 (solo); Publishing as an Artistic Toolbox: 1989-2017, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna 2017; Clean music, Kunstbunker, Nuremberg 2016; The missing shade of blue, Galerie Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam 2016 (duo); 10 bcr78/ff, Postkamer, Amsterdam, 2015 (duo); same/difference, standard/deluxe, Lausanne, 2013 (duo); Photography and Ruin, New York Public Library, New York 2012; “Content, Happiness, Literally”, Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam, 2012 (solo); Books on Books, Swiss Institute, New York 2010; It’s hard to stop beginning (solo), Johan Deumens Gallery, Haarlem 2010.
Public events at Bradwolff Projects
Saturday 24 November 16.00 – 17.00 hrs
‘An Open Book’ – Artist Talk and Reading
Robin Waart will be present to read from Dedication(s) and for a talk about the themes underlying the exhibition as it developed from an idea to the proposal or promise it wants to be. Concepts such as, on one hand, the intersection of old and new, past and future, and on the other hand, ‘marginal’ writing forms like footnotes, references, and addressing will be mentioned in the talk. The artist will also bring up the subject of uncharted, unmade or destroyed work: how pieces left out of the show might still be present within it in another, invisible form. Waart will reflect on the fact that the framework of any exhibition makes an artist do (?) the works, keep something for later, and think of ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ timing. During Amsterdam Art Weekend Extended opening hours: Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 November 13.00-17.00 hrs.
Saturday 15 December 16.00 – 19.00 hrs
Finissage and Talk The New Now by Johan Sonnenschein
Johan Sonnenschein (NL]) teaches Dutch Language and Literature at the University of Liège, where he is currently working on a history of the new in the poetry of The Netherlands. Sonnenschein will share some of the findings in his search of the new – in poetry, philosophy & theory. The case in focus will be the Dutch socialist poet Herman Gorter (1864-1927), who dedicated his life and works to the new, doing so in the heyday of the new: the late 19th early 20th century. His ‘neophile’ poetry raises this question: what about the new today, well into the 21st century? Is it still amongst us? To see the ‘new now’ more clearly, we will first need to find out where it comes from.
Public event at De Appel
Tuesday 13 November 20.00-22.00 hrs
The exhibition A sense of things to come at Bradwolff Projects will be prefigured by the launch of Dedication(s) at De Appel with a talk by Jan Verwoert and a conversation between Nell Donkers and Robin Waart. Window installation and Appel Archive intervention, 13 November – 15 December 2018.
