September 9, 2018

Beyond the Moon ~ Ger C. Bout

posted in collaboration, exhibitions, open call, research, subsidy

089_the_House_Project (dragged)
The House Project in Pori, Finland 1993

Beyond the Moon ~
Ger C. Bout

21.09 – 23.09.2018

during CO-OP at Unseen Amsterdam
Westergasfabriek

OFFICIAL OPENING: 20 September 2018 18:30-21:00h

In the Summer of 2016 the artist Ger C. Bout (1950 NL) approached Upominki, seeking for mentorship and assistance on the prospects of presenting publically his photographic work. Despite the generational gap, their open attitudes led them to a friendship. They spent some time discussing exhibition making, the possibilities and specificities of his practice and his interest in images. Unfortunately, before making the first public presentation of his photographic work, Ger deceased in May 2017 after a yearlong fight against cancer.

Together with the insight and support of his wife Riitta Bout-Saari, in the last half-year we have been investing in re-visiting the archive of Ger’s rich body of work, as well as his most recent photographic series. One of them Beyond the Moon will be presented at CO-OP during Unseen Amsterdam.
Beyond The Moon produced between 2013-2015 shows the artist long fascination in body-movement, as observed in theatre and dance. It is a series of large-scale black-and-white digital photographs capturing zoomed-in body parts. The series derives from the artist in-depth – medium and material – research into the subject of a body in its most abstract form. Through this work Ger reminds us that seeing and thinking, only seem to be the same, but in fact are very different. Beyond the moon brings a memory of the time when as a child we looked at the world without any preconceived notions, thus with no input in the memory of things. This work is the artist’s proposition to look at only one thing at the same time, in its most pure environment, and where the body is intentionally detached from any possibility of being erotically interesting. Finally, this sincerely aesthetic work may be seen as the artist’s turn towards the Wittgenstein’s idea of pictures, which by themselves do not carry any meaning, but only acquire one by being put to a specific uses and by being applied in a specific contexts.

Beyond the Moon exhibition at CO-OP – conveying the same title as the central piece – is an experiment on the exhibition making and the exhibition formats that may channel the artist’s interests and work. It is a result of a collective effort, which brings along the collaborative spirits between Upominki, Riitta and Ger’s legacy. While showing a selection of the artist’s archive that studies the multiple meanings of a house, within his material and collaborative projects, and the Beyond The Moon series for example. We are physically and figuratively constructing a platform that carries and frames Bout’s practice within his endless interest around ideas of hosting, housing and making together.

Subsequently to this international exhibition, between October 13th and November 11th we will be bringing Beyond the Moon to Rotterdam and presenting it in our space and in the neighbours homes. This shift will be the perfect moment to give different formats to the exhibition of Ger’s work, while also enabling his legacy to be shown in the city he loved, where he lived and worked. This simultaneous endeavour will create a wonderful opportunity for the local public to see the artist’s work in a neighbourhood/community context.

Through this presentation Upominki wishes to explore the ways in which the individual artistic vision challenges that of the curator, and how they can merge or diffuse. We are interested in expanding the notions of collaboration and the manner in which the artist’s legacy can be transmitted outside of the sterile or the neutral. As we find ourselves most essentially motivated by the relationships we built throughout our creative processes. This project is a tribute to Ger C. Bout’s work and our friendship.

Ger C. Bout (1950-2017) was a Dutch architect and artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following years of completing furniture designs, architectural structures and installations, Bout began initiating large scale projects in public spaces internationally. In recent years he has focused on and incorporated photography into his projects. His ideas were always process based; he applied multiple techniques and skills to realise his work using varieties of mediums and expressions from architecture to furniture design, installation, drawing, performance, sculpture and photography.

This project is kindly supported by CBK Rotterdam, Gemeente Rotterdam.

With special thanks to Riitta Bout-Saari.

BANNER EXHIBITING

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