APM#11: Ger van Elk, Gabriel Kuri, Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter
Magazine launch: Sunday, May-15, 8 pm
Hotel 101
Hverfisgata 10
101 Reykjavik
Iceland
A Prior Magazine
Koolmijnenkaai 30-34
1080 Brussels
Belgium
T 32 476 23 54 94
els [at] aprior.org
www.aprior.org
The launch of the 11th issue of A Prior Magazine happens within the context of the opening events of The Reykjavik Artsfestival (14 mei-5 juni).
A Prior Magazine #11focuses on the oeuvre of Dutch artist Ger van Elk (°1941). The monographic presentation and reflection on his work is contextualised by two projects of younger artists (Gabriel Kuri and Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter) to present a broader perspective on a single oeuvre as well as to highlight current practice. Furthermore A Prior Magazine focuses on the theme of presentation in Visions, part three of the publication.
Van Elk can be seen as an established artist, yet he continuously reviews his own work, personal, trivial experiences as well as art history. This is exactly why his older work is so interesting to view today and why his new series of flatscreens yet again gives us an insight into the workings of the history of art in contemporary artistic developments. In the sculptures, painted-on photographs, installations, slide projections and film works he has produced since the 1960s, he makes unexpected connections precisely between the trivial and the elevated, the serious and the absurd, history and personal observation something we can also observe in his oeuvre as a whole. These oppositions, or rather contradictions, within reality (life, art, the world) are what fascinates him and what he translates in a highly personal manner. Jacinto Lageira and Carel Blotkamp analyse his oeuvre from different art historical perspectives, whereas Phillip van den Bossche questions Van Elk on his recent works and the importance of cross-referencing.
The Mexican artist Gabriël Kuri realised an artists project for this issue and showed a great interest in the work of Van Elk, observing similar interests to his own, and even recognising certain strategies.The talk between the two artists is making a bridge to both contemporary practice as well as to Kuris project. In the collaborative work of Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter the notion of the surreal and absurd intertwines with both arthistory and the autobiographical. APM publishes the first mayor text about their oeuvre, written by philosopher Dieter Roelstraete.
The reality of what we can see, is what we can manipulate (La réalité de ce que nous voyons, est ce que nous pouvons manipuler (George Herbert Mead). This quote put forward by Jacinto Lageira in a previous series of essays on Ger van Elk, roughly underlines all contributions in this issue of A Prior Magazine. A Prior Magazine offers a personalised and unique view on that what we each see individually, yet again.
A Prior Magazine is made and published in Brussels, Belgium
Subscriptions and information on: www.aprior.org
