The story of this exhibition begins with a stool designed by Diane Steverlynck, assembled not with nails, screws or glue, but solely by means of a tightly wound thread. This simple construction becomes the starting point for a return to essentials: a journey in which complex forms emerge from elementary gestures — a line, a length of rope, a tension, a knot. There are no fixed things, no names, but a series of “verbs”: actions and gestures through which Diane Steverlynck and her invited “workmates”, Maud Vande Veire, Anne Masson and Eric Chevalier, return to shared foundations of art, textiles and design.
In this sense, the exhibition is structured around two fundamental principles: the line and the provisional. While the line constitutes the formal starting point — the most elementary form from which objects can emerge — the provisional describes a way of making and thinking: using what is available, diverting things from their original function, assembling, suspending, knotting and holding, without immediately seeking a definitive solution. Like these rudimentary constructions which, although temporary, already trace their essential contours.
Here, the line and the provisional thus become the two principles through which the exhibition explores the possibility of bringing a form into being without ever considering it definitively settled. This openness also implies another way of relating to the object: appropriation. The artists and designers do not seek to establish precise boundaries between their disciplines, but to explore and cross them. They move beyond the idea of the solitary, finished object, allowing creations to adapt to their environment and the environment itself to become an integral part of the work. New functions emerge because each object offers something to appropriate, manipulate, adapt or complete.
Collaborative project with Maud Vande Veire, Anne Masson and Eric Chevalier
Available at www.valerietraan.be
Related exhibitions:
Valerie Traan galerie, Antwerpen, 2012