IDYL – as to answer that picture
29 May - 25 September 2005
Knut Asdam
Sven Augustijnen
Miroslaw Balka
Lee Bul
Niels Donckers
Mark Lewis
Corey McCorkle
Yutaka Sone
Boy & Erik Stappaerts
Middelheim Museum
Middelheimlaan 61, 2020 Antwerp.
Tel: 0032 3 828 13 50
This summer you are welcome to return to the Middelheim Museum, presenting a large group-exhibition for the first time since 1989. The museum resumes her tradition with IDYL – as to answer that picture.
On the museums request, Philippe Pirotte, director of Kunsthalle Bern and Objectif-exhibitions, brought together 9 artists: Boy & Erik Stappaerts (B), Yutaka Sone (Japan), Corey McCorkle (USA), Mark Lewis (CAN), Niels Donckers (B), Lee Bul (Korea), Miroslaw Balka (P), Sven Augustijnen (B) and Knut Asdam (N).
The author Longus (Lesbos, end 2nd-beginning 3rd century) writes the first idyl with the pastoral tale Daphnis & Chloe: a story about a tender love without further intrigues. He is supposed to have written this work as a response to a rock-drawing depicting a love story. He answers that picture.
But the exhibition was not only conceived for Middelheim by virtue of ties with the art-historical past. The park itself embodies the exhibitions theme: a place for the idyllic. In this, the word idyl refers to a temporary adjournment of reality, to a complete whole of ideal circumstances. Quite often it has to do with a figure in terms its relationship with a landscape. A park like Middelheim Museum, once conceived and laid-out as a victory over nature, is now thought of by urbanites as an idyllic spot where tranquility and fresh air offer a welcome respite from the citys pressurized reality. But what does art have to do with it? Why would the artist engage in a confrontation with natures creative power? It is precisely the city, which forms the natural habitat of an artwork. The park, where nature is in fact a kind of human artifact, is the place to seek out this tension. This is the reason why artists were chosen who actively pursue this selfsame investigation in their work.
Practical info:
You are cordially invited to visit the exhibition
from 29.05.05 to 25.09.05
at Middelheim Museum, Middelheimlaan 61, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, in May and August from 10 am to 8 pm, in June and July from 10 am to 9 pm, in September from 10 am to 7 am. Closed on Monday. Middelheim Museum – Tel: 0032 3 828 13 50 – Fax: 0032 3 825 28 35 – museum.antwerpen.be – more info: sara.weyns@stad.antwerpen.be
A catalogue of the exhibition is available at the museum. We will be happy to receive journalists and provide an extensive press-kit with a CD-ROM of illustrative material.
