So….finally…I’ve crossed the final hurdle in the long but amazing lead up to the 3rd Contemporary Art Triennial, Coup de Ville 2016.
I arrived in Sint-Niklaas last Wednesday to apply the finishing touches to my work before the VIP launch, which was scheduled for Thursday.
I removed the protective plastic covering my delicate paper-based work since its installation in July, and ensured the video projection was playing without any hitch.
The Landhuis now contained the work of the other two artists – Sanjeev Maharjan of Nepal and Dirk Zoete of Belgium. We were No. 3 on the map, which marked the way through the Coup de Ville course – a great location on the main sqaure and within 2 mins walk of WARP Contemporary Art Platform headquarters.
Sanjeev Maharjan‘s work for Coup de Ville sought to highlight the loss of traditional modes of farming within Nepal and by extension the loss of its associated and accompanying rituals and cultural traditions, through an ambitous installation seen here.
Dirk Zoete is fascinated with the language of theatre, the puppet, the mask, the baton, the skeleton, and what these might imply or serve as conduit in his work for ideas of concealment and transformation. Appearance and being , fact and fable do not automatically cancel each other out in Dirk Zoete’s work and in this way he creates theatrical truth, a kind of mock reality, constantly being described and rewritten.
To see the work now in situ, and within the context of the other artists exhibiting within the Landhuis, one can understand the sensitivity in approach to the curatorial decisions of Stef Van Bellingen. And this sensitivity is prevalent across the whole exhibition and its various sites. One draws parallels between the participating artists on multiple levels, drawing you closer in understanding to the themes, which are at the core of Coup de Ville.
I have chosen a selection from the participating 35 artists here, to give a sense of the scope of media and themes within the work.
Jonas Vansteenkiste‘s (Belgium) work deals with our perceptions of home/house. The Bourgeois ideal of a sublimely happy home acts as the ultimate temptation, but is at the same time (perhaps even literally) a trap. For Coup de Ville, Jonas presented a video in the out-building of a private home. The video presents to the viewer an image of a puppet, Mr. House who speaks in a low, menacing tone, as if being situated on the dark side, like a ‘groomer’ on the internet. It reads like a continuation of “Housetrap”, a scale model of a house balancing sideways on a stick – ready to capture anyone or anything that might venture underneath.
Situated in the attic or loft of the out-building, above Jonas’s work, is the work of Erik Nerinckx. The immersive sound installation “Koeren” (cooing) created for Coup de Ville gives an eery presence to the absent doves. Erik utilises hand-crafted and found objects reminiscent of bird cages or aviaries, several loudspeakers propped up on stands, as well as the raw technology itself – the entrails (electrical cords) of which are strewn across the floor. The work invites the viewer to linger for a while in a world of almost nothing, and to be at peace with the passage of time through the interplay of materials, sound and light.
Chantal Yzermans is fascinated by the human body, which in our society is open to constant historical, socio-political and cultuural change, both as subject and object. The performance ‘Partner/You’ is the result of her artistic research into loneliness and privacy on the worldwide web.
Above is just a flavour of some of the artists within Coup de Ville, which oficially opened to the public with a wonderful reception on Friday 9th September. The full list of artists are:
Michaël Aerts (BE) – Katja Aufleger (DE) – Leyla Aydoslu (TR / DE) – Amadeo Azar (AR) – Younes Baba-Ali (MA) – Tim Baute (BE) – Clare Benson (US) – Ignace Cami (BE) – Anton Cotteleer (BE) – Sylvie De Meerleer (BE) – Paul De Vylder (BE) – Ella de Búrca (IE) – Karin Ferrari (AU) – Buntu Fihla (ZA) – Joris Ghekiere (BE) – Wannes Goetschalckx (BE) – Wieteke Heldens (NL) – Žiga Kariž (SI) – Fatou Kandé Senghor (SN) – Catriona Leahy (IE) – Dana Levy (IL) – Sanjeev Maharjan (NP) – Erik Nerinckx (BE) – Mairead O’ hEocha (IE) – Joris Perdieus (BE) – Stefan Peters (BE) – Bart Prinsen (BE) – Rashanna Rashied-Walker (US) – Maria Tsagkari (GR) – Katerina Undo (GR) – Jonas Vansteenkiste (BE) – Niko Van Stichel (BE) – Simón Vega (SV) – Wim Wauman (BE) – Chantal Yzermans (BE) – Dirk Zoete (BE)
The VIP launch took place the night before on Thursday 8th of September and was followed by tours to the various locations. This gave me the often rare opportunity to present my work to the viewing public.
The entire route for Coup de Ville 2016.
Finally, the catalogue is complete and available to purchase from: http://www.borgerhoff-lamberigts.be/boeken/p/detail/2016-coup-de-ville
A beautifully made book, which depicts the artists and their work with honesty and sincerity. Kristof Reulens, Director of the Emile Van Doeren Museum in Genk Belgium, was the author of my text and I can honestly say he wrote a beautiful text.
An excerpt…:
“The often invisible effects of time and social evolution on apparently stable, sustainable structures percolate constantly into Catriona Leahy’s oeuvre. The ambivalence between (physical) stability and (semantic) changeability is translated using fragile materials and graphic techniques into intriguing works of art, in which the capricious nature of history and memory becomes fixed.”…
“…in the video projection, “Sedementation”, we see an illustration of the City Hall on the Grote Markt, printed on paper. The loose sheet slowly absorbs water until it is saturated. The ink runs, the image blurs. A shadowy form of what might have been remains. It is thus that Leahy reveals the fluctuating changes in the world’s physical and mental identity in each of her works.”
I am very grateful to A-N Artists Information Network for their support thoughout my preparation for Coup de Ville, to Stef Van Bellingen curator of Coup de Ville and his team who were pivotal in making it a huge success and indeed to my partner Manus who, without his help I might very well be a shadow of my former self.
Do check out Coup De Ville if you are in Belgium – It is certainly worth the trip and Sint-Niklaas will welcome you with open arms!
http://warp-art.be/coupdeville-2016/?lang=en
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