09 august 2021, Flor Linckens
“A future unknown to me except as the whisper of a plea”
Ellen de Bruijne invited the young curator Sergi Rusca for an interesting and fresh interpretation of the work of five artists: Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Anne-Lise Coste, Daniele Formica, Erin Johnson and Maria Pask. Rusca points out a relevant social trend, in which we seem to want to return to the old normal as quickly as possible — without wondering whether that normal was in fact normal, and whether that system actually still serves us.
Rusca: “As we are rushing to a state of normalcy that brought us to the current situation, we seem to be creating new spaces of relationality within the old spaces without replacing them.”
At the same time, Rusca takes a closer look at the ways in which the pandemic has led to loneliness and a lack of intimacy. How do we rediscover that affection, in a society that is currently characterised by caution? Rusca: “[The exhibition] “A future unknown to me except as the whisper of a plea” explores the confrontational duality of desire and caution in a time of coping with the impactful shifts that have affected us individually and collectively, whilst seeking to reflect on relationality and kinship. In a socio-political race to the past so as to resume the future, how do we make room for healing and moving on, despite the uneasiness and alertness we have internalised?”
Simnikiwe Buhlungu, My Dear Kite (You Can But You Can’t) - Late Yawnings 01h43, 2020, Ellen de Bruijne Projects.
For example, Rusca selected the work “My Dear Kite (You Can But You Can't) - Late Yawnings 01h43” by South African artist Simnikiwe Buhlungu, who moved to the Netherlands from Johannesburg just before the pandemic started. In this video artwork, she reflects on themes such as displacement, the ways in which the pandemic has changed notions of play (both inside and outside), the subversive power of domestic spaces, as well as the socio-cultural consequences of this historical event. Buhlungu: "Recorded in this ubiquitous time of confusion and uncertainty, [the work] is an attempt to navigate the dilemma of a displaced in/out[door] activity of ‘play', while simultaneously attempting to make sense of the socio-cultural consequences that will arise from the pandemic, as well as my own bodily and geographic [dis]placement from Johannesburg, South Africa, having recently moved to The Netherlands. Woven into these attempts are questions on what it means to be a creative practitioner, to be productive and the (in)ability to respond artistically.”
Erin Johnson, Lake, 2021, Ellen de Bruijne Projects.
Brooklyn-based artist Erin Johnson — an area that was hit hard during the first wave of the pandemic — mixes documentary, experimental and narrative filmmaking techniques for her video installations, delving deeper into the ways in which the lives of individuals merge with a collective socio-political reality. In the video installation “Lake” (2021), featured in this exhibition, you see people drifting to and from each other, creating a captivating contrast between intimacy and distance. She wants us to rethink reciprocity, but also kinship — both with each other and with objects around us — at a time when those concepts are a bit less self-evident.
Maria Pask, I am the CEO of my love life. Flush them out. This is for you, Orlando, 2021, Ellen de Bruijne Projects.
The work “I am the CEO of my love life. Flush them out. This is for you, Orlando’” by Maria Pask is about boundaries and addiction, specifically in the field of sex and intimacy. At the same time, she uses the work to resist the oppressive heteronormativity in our society. Anne-Lise Coste, on the other hand, uses her drawings and paintings to express her changing emotional state— and by extension; the emotions of others in the city. She often adds socio-political element to her work as well. Daniele Formica's work focuses on regeneration, in particular cyclical regeneration that moves between abundance and scarcity — for example, the harvest, but also the rising and setting of the sun. The works bear titles that refer to the dawn and the rise in gold prices. Formica is inspired by similar cyclical movements on a social and emotional level, although there is usually more inherent change in those processes, so that the cycle is always slightly different. How can we influence that?
