Berlinde De Bruyckere: The Wound
Berlinde De Bruyckere
"The Wound"

Curator: Selen Ansen

21 June-26 August 2012

At Arter and Çukurcuma Hammam


ARTER
Tuesday-Thursday: 11:00-19:00
Friday-Sunday: 12:00-20:00
Closed on Mondays.


Installation at Çukurcuma Hammam
Çukurcuma Caddesi No: 43, Beyoğlu

Tuesday-Thursday: 15:00-19:00
Friday-Sunday: 15:00-20:00
Closed on Mondays.


PERFORMANCE
Vincent Dunoyer, "Loan"
Duration: 17'
Arter, 1st floor
Everyday except Mondays and Tuesdays
15:00 and 18:30
"-009-, 2011–2012"
Wood, glass, iron, rope, wax and epoxy
325 x 235 x 398 cm
Installation view: Arter, 2012
Photo © Mirjam Devriendt
"Lost II, 2006–2007"
Horse skin, epoxy, metal and wood
98 x 151,5 x 164 cm
Installation view: Arter, 2012
Photo © Mirjam Devriendt
"Actaeon, 2011-2012"
Wax, wood, fabric, epoxy and iron
Installation view: Çukurcuma Hammam, Istanbul, 2012
Photo © Mirjam Devriendt
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and Galleria Continua
Vincent Dunoyer
"Loan", 2012
Photo © Mirjam Devriendt
Arter is hosting a solo exhibition by Flemish artist Berlinde De Bruyckere. Entitled "The Wound", the exhibition is curated by art historian and theorist Selen Ansen.

Berlinde De Bruyckere creates sculptures and drawings that refer to suffering and desire, by revealing the fragility of the body and the vulnerability of existence. From her conceptual and abstract sculptures to her figurative works, the diversity of her forms build a continuity through the frequent use of materials such as wax, wood, fabric, horse skin and hair. "The Wound" presents, alongside sculptures and drawings the artist realised since the 1990s, a number of new pieces, which she has produced especially for the exhibition in Istanbul.

The exhibition opens with one of the artist's most recent works, "-009-, 2011–2012". Installed on Arter's ground floor, the work consists of a vitrine holding inside a bunch of sculptures which resemble simultaneously body fragments and branches of trees in their colours and textures. When perceived as a whole together with the other works, these fleshy trees that are displayed in a vitrine imply the indistinguishable and equal coexistence humanity, animality and plant life.

De Bruyckere's new series of works that lend their title to the exhibition, "The Wound", is inspired by an old medical photography album (ca. 1890) the artist discovered at a library in Istanbul. The works in the exhibition contribute altogether to the embodiment of the pattern and the symbol of the "wound" through the dialogue the artist establishes between form and texture.

Çukurcuma Hammam

The two other new works De Bruyckere created for the exhibition are installed at the Çukurcuma Hammam, a 19th century hammam building, as part of the exhibition. This space has been included as an exhibition venue at the artist's request, who wished to engage her work in a dialogue with the local historical context and architectural heritage. This additional exhibition site also refers to the idea of cleansing the body, rubbing off the extra layer of skin, which in a sense implies moulting. The two new "works entitled "Actaeon, 2011–2012" and "We Are All Flesh (Istanbul), 2011–2012" are presented in this venue, establishing an organic conceptual connection between the artist's practice, the exhibition venues and the local spatial context.

Performances by Vincent Dunoyer

The exhibition also features, as an integral element, performances by the French dancer and choreographer Vincent Dunoyer. Interested in movement and the expressive language of the body, De Bruyckere had worked with dancers before as models for moulding. This time, she has invited the dancer to become part of her work through the presence of his living and moving body in the exhibition space. Dunoyer thus effectively "lends" his body to the artist and to the exhibition with the performance entitled "Loan" and his image through his performance video "Vanity". Through his performance on the table where the gestures are based on repetitions and seriality, the dancer turns the living body into a mechanical or automatic body. Becoming an object and a subject simultaneously, Dunoyer builds his own artistic gesture from this "loan" and creates an intense dialogue between the inertia of the sculpture and the movement of his own body. Vincent Dunoyer performs everyday except Mondays and Tuesdays, at 15:00 and 18:30, on Arter's first floor.