Antwerpen, 18th August 2009

Pressrelease ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITION / CERITH WYN EVANS / “ . . . “

Dear Madam/Dear Sir,

The first exhibition of the new season is also the fifth solo presentation by an artist as part of deSingel’s architectural programme. It is devoted to the Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans. Just as for the large-scale, site- specific exhibitions by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Aglaia Konrad, Joelle Tuerlinckx and Heimo Zobernig, at the request of deSingel Wyn Evans has taken his inspiration from the architecture of the site, both present and absent.

Wyn Evans’ work is striking above all for its refined and coded relations with space, light and language. This is hinted at in the cryptic title of his exhibition: “. . .”, or ‘so to speak’. In his custom-made work, Wyn Evans uses unexpected means – luminous columns, philosophical writings, projection, reflections and fireworks – to create a polymorphous, intertextual and poetic space in which darkness emerges from light. Marcel Broodthaers and Stéphane Mallarmé are important references for this exhibition.

DeSingel is presenting Cerith Wyn Evans’ first solo exhibition in Belgium. We shall be publishing an exclusive artist’s book in association with the publisher Walter König.

We would like to invite you to the opening at 8 pm on Thursday 15th October 2009. In characteristic style, Wyn Evans will bring the evening to a close with his characteristic text fireworks at 10 pm.

You will find more information about the artist and his project enclosed. We hope you will be able to devote some space to this exhibition in your columns. If you would like any additional information or photos, we shall be pleased to help you.

Moritz Küng, curator, [email protected], T +32 (0)3 244 19 20 ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITION CERITH WYN EVANS “. . .” Thu 15 Oct 2009 > 10 Jan 2010

Opening Thu 15 October . 8 pm . Blue Hall - 8 pm: introductory talk by Moritz Küng, curator - followed by a concert of Edgar Varèse’ ‘Density 21.5’ for solo flute, performed by Susan Stenger (Ireland) - 10 pm: fireworks by Cerith Wyn Evans in the enclosed garden

Opening hours Wednesday to Sunday: 2 > 6 pm with performances: 7 > 11 pm closed Mon, Tue and holidays, and 25 to 29 Dec., 1 to 5 Jan. free exhibition guide admission free

Guided tours for groups max. 20 people, on request, €60 enquiries: +32 (0)3 248 28 28

Publication/artist’s book Cerith Wyn Evans, “. . .” 36 pages, 24,7 x 32.5 cm 500 copies, numbered 1 to 500 published by deSingel in association with Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Cologne. €40, on sale during the exhibition and from www.desingel.be

Producer deSingel international arts campus, Antwerp with thanks to: , London / Daniel Buchholz Gallery, Cologne / Neu Gallery, Berlin / Anny De Decker, Antwerp / Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels

For press photos contact Rudi Wilderjans T: +32 (0)3 244 19 37 [email protected] CERITH WYN EVANS / “. . .” Thu 15 Oct 2009 > Sun 10 Jan 2010

The first exhibition of the new season is also the fifth solo presentation by an artist as part of deSingel’s architectural programme. It is devoted to the Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans (1958, Llanelli, Wales, UK). Just as for the large-scale, site-specific exhibitions by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Aglaia Konrad, Joelle Tuerlinckx and Heimo Zobernig, at the request of deSingel Wyn Evans has taken his inspiration from the architecture of the site, both present and absent.

Background Cerith Wyn Evans lives in London and his career moves between a variety of disciplines. In the early eighties he was active in the British underground movement: first as an assistant to the film director , later the ‘punk choreographer’ Michael Clark. At the same time he was working with the indie bands The Smiths and The Fall. In the early nineties, his works of art – sculptures, films and photos and above all light installations – catapulted him into the contemporary art scene. Cinema, literature, philosophy, music, sciences and art history became the major starting points for his often coded works.

Fireworks In his exhibition at deSingel, Wyn Evans is now emphatically adding his thoughts on architecture to his oeuvre of ‘aesthetic clashes’ that arise somewhere between surrealism, pre-pop art and situationist utopias. One of the works in which this is made apparent is the new firework piece ‘In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni’. The work will be set up in a circle in one of deSingel’s enclosed gardens and lit at 10 pm on the evening of the exhibition opening. The title is a reference to a palindrome in mediaeval Latin which, loosely translated, means ‘We go round and round in the night and we are consumed by fire’. Theatrical, complex, dazzlingly beautiful and also alarming. This work typifies the whole of Cerith Wyn Evans’ oeuvre: a form of pure poetry that floats through the room like smoke and burns like fire into the tissues of the memory.

Luminous columns The exhibition starts in the entrance hall with three luminous columns almost six metres tall. They are composed of several long, standard fluorescent tube-lights and represent a basic element in architectural vocabulary. Several notions of building physics are undermined, because it seems as if the ceiling is supported by light alone. In the lobby of the concert hall, Wyn Evans is installing another lit column, this time around an existing supporting column. While the ensemble near the entrance looks more like a theatrical setting, the solitary column actually becomes part of the architecture.

Language becomes image The remaining works and interventions by Cerith Wyn Evans can be described as ‘language become image’. Luminous neon words literally cover and describe a parallel space within an existing context. These displays look associative and poetic – quotations from scientific, philosophical and literary sources – which not only suggest an alternative spatiality, but also shift the visitor to a different mental space.

The work newly conceived for this exhibition is a good example: ‘Permit yourself to drift from what you are reading at this very moment into another situation ... Imagine a situation that, in all likelihood, you’ve never been in.’

These words are shown in mirror-image and can only be read correctly when reflected in the glass. The quote comes from a film review by the French situationist Guy Debord. The content and its setting illustrate perfectly what the French philosopher Michel Foucault describes as ‘hétérotopie’: an unreal place where I see myself, but where in actual fact I am not present.

The seventeen-metre-long text in the cloakroom refers to a more concrete place, the bedroom of Luis Barragán, one of Brazil’s most important modern architects: ‘The plexiglass cover of an eighties Bang & Olufsen record- player. Resting on top, the replica of an Aztec smiling face made from jade. Below, a jazz record that has remained still for years.’ This intimate yet exceptionally businesslike observation evokes the complex atmosphere of a lost age and at the same time outlines a portrait of the architect himself, who – like the artist – was an impassioned music collector, and had a record-player in almost every room of his house.

The diptych above the bridge in the corridor between the concert hall and the theatre, entitled ‘Space here becomes time / Time here becomes space’ evokes a universal space which, depending on the approach (walking upward on the way to a performance or walking down towards the exit) represents either the third or the fourth dimension. In each case, Cerith Wyn Evans confronts the spectator with this sort of intertextual spatial experience, on which his own comment is: ‘Text is something you swim in’.

‘Once a noun, now a verb...’ at the end of the corridor brings the poetic circuit to a striking close. As a result of the shifts in perception and meaning, the architecture, which was once passive and static, is given an active role by these subtle and precise additions.

The smallest work in neon, ”. . .” or ‘so to speak’, which is also the title of Wyn Evans’ first solo exhibition in Belgium, hangs in the corridor. In the form of a paraphrase transformed into an image, it marks the transition to the next major typology in Cerith Wyn Evans’ oeuvre, the book.

Mallarmé and Broodthaers It should by now be clear that Cerith Wyn Evans’ work is founded on exceptional erudition. He is capable of producing an elegant, positive and curiously unspoken artistic dialectic using extremely minimal means. This applies equally to his recent work ‘Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard’ (Throwing a dice will never bring an end to chance) from 2009. It is a series of twenty-two collages in which he refers explicitly to the poem of the same title by Stéphane Mallarmé, the forefather of concrete poetry, and also the Flemish artist Marcel Broodthaers, who presented his version of this poem in Antwerp exactly thirty years ago, in October 1969.

With this 1897 poem, which Gallimard only published after the poet’s death in 1914, Mallarmé unleashed a revolution in literature by arranging the words randomly over the page and in several different typefaces, so that the empty space around them took on its own meaning. He thereby transformed the book into an evocative and idealistic space, which is why he is considered to be the originator of hypertext.

Marcel Broodthaers went a step further and ‘translated’ the text of ‘Un coup de dés’ without using letters. In 1969, on the occasion of his third exhibition at the legendary ‘Wide White Space’ gallery in Antwerp run by Anny De Decker and Bernd Lohaus, he published a meticulous copy of Mallarmé’s work but with all the lines of text overprinted with black bars. In this way the written language was transformed into a purely visual composition. Whereas Mallarmé’s work was subtitled ‘poème’, Broodthaers used ‘image’. To Broodthaers, striking out the text did not signify a negation of the words, but, on the contrary, an enrichment of it, since the poet’s associative word composition was elevated to the level of an abstract image. Three hundred copies of this work were printed, and Broodthaers had ninety of them printed on thin tracing paper. This transparent paper allowed what were now translucent bars also to suggest spatiality in the form of a book.

Wyn Evans’ version is based on the Gallimard edition and is an amalgam of both the works mentioned. He intervened in the pages of Mallarmé’s poem in a gesture comparable to that of Broodthaers, but in this case he cut out each line of words. As a series of twenty-two pages mounted in transparent frames, the gaps left by the excised text allow one to look through to the wall behind. This makes the words not only into images but also a part of the room. A display case in the middle of the corridor contains documents and originals that make associative links between the works by the three artists.

Artist’s Book The Mallarmé-Broodthaers-Wyn Evans triptych in the corridor is also reflected in the publication to be issued on the occasion of this exhibition. It is published by deSingel in association with Walter König. Mevis & Van Deursen have designed the layout together with the British Paul Elliman. In format and size the book is identical to the abovementioned historical publications. In terms of artistic strategy, however, it is definitely a typical Wyn Evans work.

In its thirty-two pages it contains just a single sentence by the artist, the one he uses for the work in neon made on commission to deSingel: ‘Permit yourself to drift from what you are reading at this very moment into another situation ... Imagine a situation that, in all likelihood, you’ve never been in.’ Each letter was cut out of paper with a laser and the words were distributed irregularly over the whole volume. The typography, by Paul Elliman, derives from a typeface designed by the artist and Bauhaus teacher Josef Albers in 1926. This gives rise to a complex relational system in which Cerith Wyn Evans once again refers to both his own and other people’s work. For example, the traces of burning caused by the laser cutter on the verso pages are reminiscent of his firework texts.

Brief biography Cerith Wyn Evans (1958, Wales) graduated from St. Martin’s School of Art in London in 1980 and obtained an MA in film and video at the Royal College of Art in London in 1984. He has taken part in the biennales in Venice (1995, 2003 & 2009) and Istanbul (2005), in Kassel (2002), the Tate Triennial in London (2006) and the Yokohama Triennial (2008). He has recently had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston ((2004), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2006), the Lembachhaus, Munich (2006), CCA Kitakyushu (2007), Kunsthaus Graz (2007), Musac in Léon (E, 2008) and Tramway in Glasgow (2009). His work has been shown in group exhibitions including ‘The Secret Public: The Last Days of the British Underground 1978-1988', Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2007), ‘Punk. No One is Innocent’, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2008), ‘Everstill’, Casa-Museo Federico Garcia Lorca, Granada (E, 2008), ‘The Kaleidoscopic Eye’, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (J, 2009), ‘Audio, Video, Disco’, Kunsthalle Zurich (CH, 2009).

In Belgium, his work has been shown in the group exhibitions ‘Lost Past’ at the Merghelinck Museum in Ypres (2002), ‘ForwArt’ at the Dexia Bank in Brussels (2002), ‘Schöner Wohnen’, Be-Part, Waregem (2004), Curating the Library, deSingel, Antwerp (2004) and ‘Still/Moving/Still’, Cultuurrcentrum Knokke-Heist (2009).

Brief bibliography 2009 Küng, Moritz (ed.). Cerith Wyn Evans, " . . . " (deSingel International Arts Campus, Antwerp and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2009) 2008 Zaya, Octavio (ed.), , … visibleinvisible (Musac-Museo de Arte Contemperáneo de Castilla y Léon, Léon, and Hatje-Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, 2008) 2007 Pakesch, Peter (ed.), Adam Budak, Mark Cousins, Jonathan Crary, Martin Prinzhorn, Alain Robbe- Grillet & Hans-Ulrich Obrist, An Verwoert, Bubble Peddler (Walther König, Cologne and Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, 2007) 2006 Friedel, Helmut & Susanne Pagé (eds.), Laurence Bossé, Anne Dressen, Susanne Gaensheimer, Douglas Gordon, Florian Hecker, Molly Nesbitt, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Angeline Scherf, … in which something happens all over again for the very first time (Musée d’Art de la Ville de Paris/ARC and Städtische Galerie im Lehmbachhaus, Munich, 2006) 2005 Kintisch, Christine (ed.), The Curves of the Needle (BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, 2005) 2004 Buchholz, Daniel & Christopher Müller, Nicolaus Schafhausen (eds.), Manfred Hermes, Juliane Rebentisch, Andreas Spiegl, Jan Verwoert, Cerith Wyn Evans (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt and Lukas & Sternberg, New York, 2004) 2004 Arning, Bill. Thoughts unsaid, now forgotten … (MIT List Visual Art Center, Boston, 2004) 2004 Higgie, Jennifer. Cerith Wyn Evans (Camden Arts Centre, London, 2004) 2003 Shani, Annushka. Look at that picture… How does it appear to you now? Does it seem to be Persisting? (Jay Jopling/White Cube, London, 2003) 2003 Buchholz Daniel & Christopher Müller (eds.), Related Texts (edition, 20 copies, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne, 2003) 2000 Meredith, Rachel. Cerith Wyn Evans. Art Now (Tate Publishing, London, 2000) 1998 Wyn Evans, Cerith. Cerith Wyn Evans. In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni (Centre for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu, Kyoto and Korinsha Press, 1998)

Links www.whitecube.com www.galerieneu.com www.galeriebuchholz.de www.fortesvilaca.com.br www.vanhaerentsartcollection.com

Works in the exhibition

Cerith Wyn Evans Marcel Broodthaers Untitled (light columns) Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard - image 2008 - 2009 1969 installation, entrance hall Catalogue, 300 copies 43.7 x 550 cm / 50 x 550 cm / 56.4 x 550 cm (Ø x h) 32.5 x 24.7 cm, serigraphy on normal paper courtesy the artist & deSingel, Antwerp collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp

Cerith Wyn Evans Marcel Broodthaers Untitled (light column) Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard - image 2009 1969 installation, Blue Hall incline Book edition, 31/90 56.4 x 360 cm (Ø x h) 32.5 x 24.7 cm, serigraphy on translucent paper courtesy the artist & deSingel, Antwerp collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp

Cerith Wyn Evans Marcel Broodthaers Permit yourself to drift from what you are reading at this Marcel Broodthaers à la Deblioudebliou/S, exposition very moment into another situation... Imagine a situation literaire autour de Mallarmé that, in all likelihood, you’ve never been in 1969 2009 Invitation card for exhibition text in neon, corridor between Red and Blue Halls 10.7 x 16.1 cm, c. 700 copies 1206 x 13 cm (l x h) collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp courtesy the artist & deSingel, Antwerp Marcel Broodthaers Cerith Wyn Evans Archive photo of the installation Un coup de dés jamais IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI n’abolira le hasard 2009 1969 fireworks, inner garden black & white photo, 17.2 x 23 cm 80 x 650 cm (h x Ø) photographer: R. Van den Bempt courtesy the artist & deSingel, Antwerp the only photographic document that offers an overview of the exhibition Cerith Wyn Evans collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard 2009 Marcel Broodthaers serigraphy, corridor Archive photo 22 pieces, each 32.5 x 24.7 cm (h x b, excl. frame) 1969 courtesy Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne black & white photo, 17.2 x 23.8 cm photographer: Maria Gilissen Cerith Wyn Evans collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp The plexiglass cover of an eighties Bang & Olufsen record player. Resting on top, the replica of an Aztec smiling face Marcel Broodthaers made from jade. Below, a jazz record that has remained still Archive photo for years 1969 2008 black & white photo, 17.3 x 23.6 cm text in neon, cloakroom photographer: R. Van den Bempt 1710 x 14 cm (l x h) collection Anny De Decker & Bernd Lohaus, Antwerp Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels courtesy Galerie Neu, Berlin Stéphane Mallarmé Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard - poème Cerith Wyn Evans Facsimile of the 1914 Gallimard edition Space here becomes time 32.5 x 24.7 cm, 2000 Time here becomes space collection: Curating the Library, deSingel, Antwerp 2004, edition 2/3 text in neon, corridor between Red and Blue Halls Cerith Wyn Evans 131.5 x 10.1 cm / 131.5 x 10.3 cm (l x h) " . . . " courtesy Jay Jopling–White Cube, London 2009 catalogue, 500 copies Cerith Wyn Evans 32.5 x 24.7 cm, serigraphy , laser perforation " . . . " published by deSingel, Antwerp & Walther König, Cologne 1998 - 2009 neon, corridor, edition AP 28 x 8.4 cm (l x h) courtesy of the artist & deSingel, Antwerp

Cerith Wyn Evans Once a Noun now a Verb… 2005, edition 2 / 3 text in neon, De Kunsthaven foyer 13 x 156.5 cm (h x l) courtesy the artist & White Cube, London