Comme le mur qui attend le lierre Fiona Tan / Daniel Turner / Oriol Vilanova 23.05 > 29.08.21 PRESS RELEASE

Fiona Tan, Ruins, detail, 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Peter Freeman Inc., New York and Frith Street Gallery, London.© SABAM Belgium 2021

The Exhibition

Occupying two identical rooms in the former “Engineers’ House”, of which only the outside walls of its original architecture now remain, the exhibition proposes a poetic, critical meditation on the theme of ruins, based on an installation by Oriol Vilanova belonging to the Museum’s collection, a double projection of films by Fiona Tan and a sculpture by Daniel Turner.

Several mosaics of images are arranged along the walls. Vues imaginaires (2017) consists of a collection of hundreds of postcards depicting ruins, mainly archeological or as a result of wars, which Oriol Vilanova gleaned from flea markets. In response to this,Ruins (2020) presents two films shot in the former Machines Room at Grand-Hornu by Fiona Tan during her recent residence at the MACS, the first a High-Definition video and the second on Super 16mm film. They are projected separately on screens placed at a distance from each other. As a sort of intermediary between these two installations and in response to Bertolt Brecht’s poem1, a line from which inspired the title of this exhibition, Daniel Turner’s sculpture, RH2 (2012), extends our image of architectural ruins to a critique of the capitalist economy and its ‘creative destruction’ process through his salvaging of old refrigerator door handles, which he elevates to the status of archeological artefacts and whose incrusted grime from so many already ancestral hands is conserved. In this sense, the exhibition suggests that the equipment and edifices which we build to last are less “sheltered from time” but rather “shelters from time”2, just like the societies and institutions from a time that is not so much long gone as in fact rediscovered in their vestiges and archives.

By making use of supports like the postcard and gelatin silver film, which have become obsolete through the rise of digital technology, Oriol Vilanova and Fiona Tan thus propose devices that slowly draw the spectator’s attention away from “the picture of the ruin towards the ruin of the picture”. For Vues imaginaires, this awareness of the duration of images is the result of a work in progress based on the exploration of flea markets, the selection and classification of his discoveries, the choice of the device to present his collections and finally, the “spaces” that are waiting for future discoveries. The artist-collector thus envisages an economy running counter to the industrial production of snapshots, in his search for “difference in repetition”. In Ruins, the preservation of technical defects in the cinematographic image, notably the grain of the photograph and scratches on the film, enable us to intuitively capture the duration by escaping from scientific time and our lack of imagination, echoing the effect of gaps in the actual ruins: “Things which were once inside, private and protected are laid bare and revealed,” notes Fiona Tan in relation to this reversal of the viewpoint.

1. Bertolt Brecht, Gesammelte Werke 8: Gedichte 1, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/M. 1967, p. 387-388. 2. Maurice Blanchot, “Le Musée, l’Art et le Temps”, in : L’Amitié, Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1971, p. 37. 3. Fiona Tan, A Walk Among Ruins, New York, Peter Freeman, Inc. , 2019, p. 18.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 3 “The rooms, walls, corners and crevices are exposed to the elements. The building has been turned inside out, so to speak. I become aware of negative spaces and of what is missing. Like the terra incognita, the blank spaces on a map, each space or hollow is a puzzle and can point to potential creative possibilities.” 3

By exploiting such “negative spaces” each in their own way, according to an entropic vision of a world that is evolving in the wrong direction, the three artists take a doubly critical look at the paradox of modernity driven by obsolescence, and at the duration of works, “like the wall awaiting the ivy”, awaiting a future.

Denis Gielen Curator of the exhibition

3. Fiona Tan, A Walk Among Ruins, New York, Peter Freeman, Inc. , 2019, p. 18.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 4 Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 5 Artists

Fiona Tan was born in 1966 in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, to a Chinese father and Australian mother. She first lived in Melbourne, Australia. In 1984, she moved to Amsterdam where she continues to live and work. She studied at the Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam. In 2002, she was invited to documenta 11 and in 2009, she represented the Netherlands at the Venice Bienale. Her works have been presented in some of the most prestigious galleries and museums. In 2015, she created History’s Future, which was nominated in the Tiger competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and in 2016, Ascent won an award at the International Film Festival in Locarno. In 2016-2017, Fiona Tan received a grant for an artist residency at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. She also won the Spectrum International Prize for Photography in Germany for 2019. In the same year, the MACS invited her to take part in a residency, during which she created several works in relation to the Mundaneum, which were subsequently exhibited during her first exhibition in Belgium: L’Archive des ombres. In 2020, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and the Kunsthalle Krems simultaneously held the exhibition Mit der anderen Hand/With the Other Hand, the first major retrospective of her work.

Daniel Turner was born in 1983 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He graduated with a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006 and currently lives and works in New York. Daniel Turner’s work has been shown in national and international exhibitions, including Daniel Turner at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, 2,220 at Objectif Exhibitions, in Antwerp and Die Kräfte Hinter Den Formen at the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck. Daniel Turner was also a guest researcher at the University of New York from 2009 to 2010. In 2020, he took part in the group exhibition Les Abeilles de l’Invisible at the MACS. He was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation prize in 2018 and won the grant prize of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from 2004 to 2009. He was a finalist of the Future Art Prize 2019/Victor Pinchuk Foundation and took part in their exhibition in Ukraine and during the Venice Bienale in 2019. His works are found in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, France; FRAC Bretagne, France; ICA Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Florida; FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris, France, the San Diego Museum of Art, California and the MACS at Hornu.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 6 Oriol Vilanova was born in 1980 in Manresa, Spain. He now lives and works in Brussels, where he scours the flea markets in search of postcards. An extension of performance, documentation and installation, his artistic practice generally takes as a starting point the major collection of postcards (several thousand) which he has built up almost obsessively for the past 15 years. He has taken part in a number of joint exhibitions in Europe and beyond, including MACBA, Barcelona in 2011, 2013 and 2014; Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2012 and 2020; LLS Paleis, Antwerp in 2018; Kunstverein Langenhagen (Germany) in 2018; APAP6 Trienal Anyang, Seoul in 2019 and PetahTikva Museum of Art, Tel Aviv in 2019. He has also had solo exhibitions in a number of institutions: Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona in 2013; M-Museum in Leuven in 2016; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (USA) in 2019 and Entre deux portes, Brussels in 2020.

He has presented performances and theatrical works, notably at the MUSAC, León (Spain) in 2011; the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims in 2013; LLS387 Antwerp in 2015; the K_nstvl_Festival, Amsterdam in 2017; the Villa Arson, Nice in 2019 and the Festival Playground, Leuven in 2018.

He has undertaken several residencies and has published a number of artist books, including They Cannot Die in 2012, edited by JRP Ringier, Zurich.

His works are found in the following collections: Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (USA); MACS, Grand-Hornu; M-Museum Leuven; MATHAF, Doha in Qatar; NMNM in Monaco; FRAC Grand Large, Dunkirk; Kunstsammlung DZBANK, Frankfurt; MACBA, Barcelona and the Fundación Botín, Santander.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 7 Works

Fiona Tan, Ruins, 16 mm film and high definition video installation, variable dimensions, 2020. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist, Peter Freeman Inc., New York and Frith Street Gallery, London.© SABAM Belgium 2021

Oriol Vilanova, Vues imaginaires, details of the installation, postcards, variable dimensions, 2017. Museum of Contemporary Arts of Grand Hornu collection, property of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. © Oriol Vilanova. Photograph: Philippe De Gobert.

Daniel Turner, RH2, polyethylene, aluminium and stainless steel, 2x (2.5 x 58 x 4 cm), 2012. Museum of Contemporary Arts of Grand Hornu collection, donated by the artist in 2021. Courtesy of the artist and the Galerie Allen, Paris.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 8 Daniel Turner, RH2, 2012.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 9 Fiona Tan, Ruins, detail, 2020.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 10 Oriol Vilanova, Vues imaginaires, detail, 2017.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 11 Exhibition Catalogue

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre Fiona Tan - Daniel Turner - Oriol Vilanova

Editor: MACS / Museum of Contemporary Arts at Grand-Hornu Authors: Denis Gielen and Fiona Tan Language: French Pages: 2 x 16 pages Illustrations / Documents: 14 colour illustrations Format: 18 x 13.5 cm ISBN: 978-2-930368-77-1 Price: €12

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 12 Extracts

« Les ruines m’attirent pour plusieurs raisons. D’abord, pour la vue du ciel encadrée par ces vestiges architecturaux dessinés par le hasard. Au milieu de ruines, je suis dans une structure qui a perdu sa fonction et est en train d’être mise à nu. (…) Ensuite, il y a la confrontation douce, progressive, mais inévitable avec la nature. (…) Mais surtout, j’ai l’impression d’entrevoir le temps en mouvement. »

Fiona Tan, « Promenade parmi les ruines », extract from the catalogue Comme le mur qui attend le lierre. Fiona Tan - Daniel Turner - Oriol Vilanova, MACS, 2021.

« RH2 (2012) appartient à la série d’œuvres réalisées par Daniel Turner à partir de poignées de portes récupérées sur des réfrigérateurs usagés. Pièces détachées d’un objet emblématique de la société de consommation, ces poignées désaffectées voient leur statut glisser de l’objet utilitaire à l’artefact archéologique. »

Denis Gielen, extract from the catalogue Comme le mur qui attend le lierre. Fiona Tan - Daniel Turner - Oriol Vilanova, MACS, 2021.

« Oriol Vilanova a choisi d’organiser son travail selon le principe, rarement poussé à un tel point en art contemporain, de la collection, l’appliquant de surcroît à un objet devenu obsolète : la carte postale. »

Denis Gielen, extrait du catalogue Comme le mur qui attend le lierre. Fiona Tan - Daniel Turner - Oriol Vilanova, MACS, 2021.

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 13 Bertolt Brecht, Gesammelte Werke 8: Gedichte 1, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt/M. 1967, p. 387-388.

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Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 14 Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 15 Agenda of Activities* * These activities may be postponed or cancelled in accordance with health measures.

Reservation essential Online: www.mac-s.be/fr/reservations By phone: +32 (0)65 613 902 By mail: [email protected]

GUIDED VISITS

Guided visits in your bubble are organised by reservation (payable).

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Opening Family Thursdays 22nd May - 3pm to 6pm 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th July and 5th, 12th, 19th 23rd May - 10am to 6pm and 26th August

Discover the exhibitions Comme le 10-11.30am: guided visits in families mur qui attend le lierre and Cento. of the exhibitions Comme le mur qui attend le lierre and Cento. Children’s guided visits: (MACS) 22nd May: 4pm to 5.30pm 11.30am-12: discovery of the raised 23rd May: 10.30am to 12pm and 2.30pm to vegetable beds. (MACS) 4pm 1-3pm: Sylvotherapy initiation on Reservation obligatory by telephone or mail. coal tip n°9 (CID)

Free day Night at the Museum 20th August Neighbours’ Day 28th May Come and enjoy the museum for an evening that is entirely reserved for The MACS and the CID cordially you. Try your hand at life drawing in the rooms to bring the works invite you to a day for neighbours. of James Welling to life and make the most of a good meal and a 6-7pm: Information session about film before going home for a good the actions of the not-for-profit night’s sleep. association, ASBL Rivière Haine and joint actions with the municipal 9-12 years administration of Boussu. €15 (meal included) All evening: Tai chi with Eric Caulier 6pm to 9.30pm Reservations essential by phone or mail. Free day

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 16 Courses Memory Hunters 9th-13th August Archaeologist’s Seeds 9am-4pm 12th to 16th July 9am to 4pm Silver gelatin or digital photography, photography lab, collection, safari photos, excavations… come and In the footsteps of our artists, join discover the various means of us this summer and find out about recording images and investigating some mysterious techniques: places, questioning the past and drawings and photographs of sparking your imagination inspired traces of the past; archiving stories by the approaches of the artists and collecting old documents; currently presented at the MACS. 3D reconstruction based on fragments; visiting ruins and many 9-12 years other fascinating experiments. €60 Reservation obligatory by phone or mail 5-8 years €60 Reservation obligatory by phone or mail

4pm: Let it Rain! Initiation in dance FESTIVITIES with Danses et Compagnies by Xavier Gossuin. (CID)

Open Space (11am to 5pm): undertake various activities on the theme Summer Grand-Hornu of light, colour and photography. 1st July to 31st August (MACS)

Treasure hunt (10am to 6pm)

National Day Free day 21st July 9.30am-6pm Botanical Apero The MACS and the CID invite you to meet up at Grand-Hornu to 15th August celebrate the National Day. 11am

The MACS invites you to an walk on Coal Tip n°9. (CID) 9.30am: encounter between contemporary 11am: “Optimal Experiences” by the art and vegan cuisine on Sunday Taiji on Coal Tip n°9. (CID) 15th August (guided visit + apero) 11am - 1pm - 2pm - 3pm - 4pm: guided visits of the exhibitions €25 Comme le mur qui attend le lierre Reservations obligatory by phone or email. and Cento. (MACS) 2pm: rendez-vous with words as part of the exhibition Après la sécheresse (After the Drought). (CID)

Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 17 Comme le mur qui attend le lierre 18

Practical Information

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