COMPONENT 0397 - A Gust of Wind Shows a Glimpse

Printed flag / recto verso / metal pole / unique / 2019.

"Artworks are hung at an average height of 152 cm, measured from the centre of the works to the floor" as declaimed in the exhibition CONDITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES (DMW Art Space / 2017). Self-adhesive silver colored reflective labels were stuck on three walls at a height of 152 cm. The print on the flag is a close up of the sheet with self-adhesive labels.

In Good Conditions, Kris Van Dessel and Tom Van Malderen build upon their previous collaboration Conditions and Opportunities at DMW Art Space in 2017. Together with curator Tram Scawped, the artists continue their quest into the protocols of exhibiting and the mechanism of the contemporary art economy in general. Their previous collaboration at DMW investigated the conditions and opportunities of the ‘art space’ by means of a series of minimal in situ interventions, ranging from subtle modifications of lighting and heating elements to enquiries into the appropriate shade of white for the walls of a white cube. Following up on this expo, 'Good Conditions' explores the application and potential of autonomous artworks as components of a dense art-fair-look-alike constellation. As part of this enquiry, all prices of the works on display are fixed in accordance with the inscrutable laws of the art economy and arranged in an easy-reference component list with accompanying article numbers.

No fixed set of relationships will bind our components. It will be in the hand of our impulses and our decisions in situ. It is an open composition, a presentation, a staging, an event….which in its own way questions the protocols of exhibiting.

From Mark Rakatansky: Even more that the English word 'compose', the German word that Benjamin uses - komponiert - expresses the tectonic attribute of components (Komponente), and thus the act of placing them together in a series, which requires a building up, a weaving together. 'Bits and pieces' in the words of Lawrence Weiner's aphorism, 'put together to present a semblance of the whole' . Which is what every cultural artefact (whether a piece of music, and essay, a building, a novel, a film) is - indeed, it's what all narrative, all identity, all ideology, all and every culture is (and any anthropologist could tell us). (Tram Scawped, Summer, 2019)

related exhibition: GOOD CONDITIONS