COME CLOSER

With COME CLOSER, Middelheim Museum and DE SINGEL international arts centre jointly explore the space between sculpture and performance art. This collaboration gathers international artists showing works in a variety of forms: installations and performances. 

What do the artists share in this artistic project? They all make room for new relations between artist, artwork and audience. In COME CLOSER, an exciting exchange and connection replaces the traditional distance between the three. Sculptures in bronze and stone go through the same living processes as the bodies of performers. Spectators help to create the artwork. Artists replace the object on the pedestal with a living body. Sculptures are changeable, fluid even.   

The manner in which objects in museums are categorized, preserved, and presented is evolving. As well is the role of the spectator who is not solely involved at the end of the artistic process. COME CLOSER shows that artists today continue to push the boundaries of where the artwork begins and ends. They do not simply provide objects to be shown but remain involved themselves or invite other creators to complete their work. And they demand the same involvement from the audience, which does not simply play a passive role, but can actively participate in the creation process itself.   

Thus, this project says something not only about art today, but also about our everyday lives. Because even in the countless interactions we engage in daily, we take on different roles each time. As ourselves, we are constantly also something or someone else at the same time: whether online or offline, among colleagues, with our parents, or with friends. It is “performing” in constant exchange with our environment and subject to all kinds of factors. In doing so, we are constantly making choices, actively or passively. Do we show ourselves as individuals or do we act for the collective? Do we want a personal or a social experience? How much do we make visible and what do we keep hidden? All this happens largely unconsciously. Until someone offers us a different role or opens up a conversation about it.  

COME CLOSER is a playful invitation to step out of our role and try out a new one. 

Participating artists include: AMONSTERSASSEMBLY, Isabelle Andriessen, Chloë Bass, Zuzanna Czebatul, Dries Depoorter, Monika Grabuschnigg, Anthea Hamilton, Roger Hiorns, Florentina Holzinger, Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation), Kiluanji Kia Henda, Paul Kindersley, Hew Locke, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Amanda Piña, Sarah & Charles, SUPERFLEX, Dennis Tyfus, Stef Van Looveren, Liliane Vertessen, and more to be announced. 

Middelheim Museum
Middelheimlaan 61
2020 Antwerp
Belgium

DE SINGEL
Desguinlei 25
2018 Antwerp
Belgium