Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
A Romantic Exhibition by
Jan De Cock
10 March–24 June 2012
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
Lichtentaler Allee 8a
76530 Baden-Baden
Stadtmuseum Baden-Baden
Lichtentaler Allee 10
76530 Baden-Baden
www.kunsthalle-baden-baden.de
On Friday, March 9, at 6 PM the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and the Stadtmuseum in Baden-Baden open a joint exhibition of entirely new works by Jan De Cock. The Belgian artist, who was born in 1976, has transformed the two exhibition halls with his installations into a landscape of splintered sculptural units. Time and again, fragments reappear in the exhibition, such as architectural ornaments or the traces of a plaster cast, to form new and astonishing constellations that are reminiscent of a complex, interlocking system.
The works shown in the exhibition were made using industrially produced materials. A series of sculptures, referred to as “Romantische Skulpturen”, consists of grand steel profile frames measuring nearly three by three meters, upon which precisely crafted layers of coated wood and other materials have been attached. The works bring to mind expansive objects from former series by the artist, that now seem to have been shoved against the wall. In other words, entire rooms have been transformed into reliefs. Located in front of these reliefs, other sculptures reproduce fragments of architectural elements. Individual staircases appear, or a tilted pedestal that still seems to be attached to a section of the floor from the artist’s studio. By compressing complete rooms into reliefs, the artist has diminished the distance between the studio and the gallery, compressing both into one space.
Saturation, Spectacle, Value, Imitation, Fanatism, Overcoming—these are the respective titles of six artist books, that were published previously to the exhibition and will be on display in Baden-Baden. In the series of “Cahiers”, as the artist calls them, these symptomatic terms will be linked to moments in the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Her enigmatic biography functions as the recurring theme that connects the dots in the exhibition. As a grand icon of a bygone era, she constitutes an imaginary projection plane for the Romantic yearnings and desires of the 21st century. Jan De Cock even describes the whole exhibition as a romantic undertaking, and thereby intentionally provokes a contrast between the mental images evoked by the title and the “Cahiers” and the complex surfaces of his sculptural compositions.
After solo exhibitions in some of the most important art institutions internationally, like the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 2005, the Tate Modern, London, 2005, the MoMA, New York, 2008, and the BOZAR, Brüssel, 2009, we are very pleased to present Jan De Cock with such a comprehensive exhibition here in Baden-Baden.
On the occasion of the exhibition a catalogue will be published with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. Edited by Johan Holten, texts by Liene Aerts, Luc Derycke and Johan Holten, with numerous installation views, Cologne, 192 p., ISBN 978-3-86335-171-7. It is the first German / English publication of Jan De Cock’s works.
DIRECTOR: Johan Holten. CO-CURATOR: Johannes Honeck. PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Regine Ehleiter. PRESS CONTACT: Dr. Dirk Teuber, +49 (0) 7221 30076404; Eva Hepper, +49 (0) 178 5546704; presse@kunsthalle-baden-baden.de, www.kunsthalle-baden-baden.de (texts and images download under PRESS).
Kindly supported by the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, the City of Baden-Baden and the Brenner’s Park-Hotel & Spa.
