TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
3 - 7 February in Dek 22
Contemporary art exhibition organized by Project Foundation Amsterdam in the framework of the side activities of the Art Rotterdam art fair.
In a context that has been deeply saturated visually and rather exhausted conceptually, the restarting of all those dialectical engines that induce new tensions, produce new relations, and allow for surprising associations could be a useful, if not even a healthy exercise.
It is not only that the need for the unpredictable is as strong as the need for love, but in a society like ours, which is more and more obsessed by control, one might be able to shake the existing orders and introduce new ones with improved qualities by merely stimulating unexpected frictions.
Considering the evolution of knowledge, which encompasses all the levels of reality, the unexpected appears to be a fundamental issue: it creates the conditions for breaking away from the old modes of comprehension and practices of knowledge, and it creates a space of contradiction that can positively trigger different effects. From a philosophical perspective, the unexpected is a generator of innovation, and an eternal promise to discover unimagined aspects of our multidimensional reality.
This is why the title chosen for this exhibition – Tales of the Unexpected – is not arbitrary, or a simple metaphor. It represents a deliberate curatorial strategy, oriented to examine how the mechanisms of artistic innovation operate, and how the unexpected is visually translated and represented.
The question “what forms of expression can the unexpected assume in art?” almost naturally implicates a second question: “how can the unexpected expression be defined, and how can the unexpected as such be shown?” Instead of answering these questions, we should acknowledge that any category of surprise cannot in fact be quantified and explained, as that would automatically lead to tautology, loose intensity, and the elimination of all the effects that should always stay surprising. Besides the illumination moment that makes one realize something that was previously hidden or unthinkable, it is also an effect of opening doors to new possibilities, unexpected links, and the surprise itself, not to mention its effect on one's thinking; all of these are potentially subversive, since they lead to a substantial change in perception.
The works presented in this exhibition should be perceived on the whole as riddles without immediate answers, or as contemporary conundrums that express precisely the paradoxical features of the complex and undecipherable world we live in.
In “Tales of the Unexpected” both new works made especially for this exhibition as well as recent works from private Dutch collections will be presented. Several video works will be screened for the first time in the Netherlands.
Curated by Maria Rus Bojan (*1967, art critic and curator, director of Project Foundation Amsterdam) & Radek Vana (*1966, freelance curator, former artistic director of De Veemvloer, Amsterdam) With Rosella Biscotti, Navid Nuur, Alexandra Leykauf, Wilfriedo Prieto, Ahmet Ogut, Jeroen Jongeleen, Daniel de Roo, Laurence Aegerter, Claire Harvey, Sanja Medic, Calin Dan, Kathrin Schelegel & Hagen Betzwieser, Carine Weve and others. Project Foundation | Dek22 | Willem Buytevechstraat 22 and 45 | Rotterdam | www.projectfoundation.nl: Thurs 3 & Fri 4 Feb: 12.00 - 18.00 hrs. Sa 6 & Sun 7 Feb: 11.00 - 19.00 hrs.
Contemporary art exhibition organized by Project Foundation Amsterdam in the framework of the side activities of the Art Rotterdam art fair.
In a context that has been deeply saturated visually and rather exhausted conceptually, the restarting of all those dialectical engines that induce new tensions, produce new relations, and allow for surprising associations could be a useful, if not even a healthy exercise.
It is not only that the need for the unpredictable is as strong as the need for love, but in a society like ours, which is more and more obsessed by control, one might be able to shake the existing orders and introduce new ones with improved qualities by merely stimulating unexpected frictions.
Considering the evolution of knowledge, which encompasses all the levels of reality, the unexpected appears to be a fundamental issue: it creates the conditions for breaking away from the old modes of comprehension and practices of knowledge, and it creates a space of contradiction that can positively trigger different effects. From a philosophical perspective, the unexpected is a generator of innovation, and an eternal promise to discover unimagined aspects of our multidimensional reality.
This is why the title chosen for this exhibition – Tales of the Unexpected – is not arbitrary, or a simple metaphor. It represents a deliberate curatorial strategy, oriented to examine how the mechanisms of artistic innovation operate, and how the unexpected is visually translated and represented.
The question “what forms of expression can the unexpected assume in art?” almost naturally implicates a second question: “how can the unexpected expression be defined, and how can the unexpected as such be shown?” Instead of answering these questions, we should acknowledge that any category of surprise cannot in fact be quantified and explained, as that would automatically lead to tautology, loose intensity, and the elimination of all the effects that should always stay surprising. Besides the illumination moment that makes one realize something that was previously hidden or unthinkable, it is also an effect of opening doors to new possibilities, unexpected links, and the surprise itself, not to mention its effect on one's thinking; all of these are potentially subversive, since they lead to a substantial change in perception.
The works presented in this exhibition should be perceived on the whole as riddles without immediate answers, or as contemporary conundrums that express precisely the paradoxical features of the complex and undecipherable world we live in.
In “Tales of the Unexpected” both new works made especially for this exhibition as well as recent works from private Dutch collections will be presented. Several video works will be screened for the first time in the Netherlands.
Curated by Maria Rus Bojan (*1967, art critic and curator, director of Project Foundation Amsterdam) & Radek Vana (*1966, freelance curator, former artistic director of De Veemvloer, Amsterdam) With Rosella Biscotti, Navid Nuur, Alexandra Leykauf, Wilfriedo Prieto, Ahmet Ogut, Jeroen Jongeleen, Daniel de Roo, Laurence Aegerter, Claire Harvey, Sanja Medic, Calin Dan, Kathrin Schelegel & Hagen Betzwieser, Carine Weve and others. Project Foundation | Dek22 | Willem Buytevechstraat 22 and 45 | Rotterdam | www.projectfoundation.nl: Thurs 3 & Fri 4 Feb: 12.00 - 18.00 hrs. Sa 6 & Sun 7 Feb: 11.00 - 19.00 hrs.