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Flor Linckens
Exposing underlying systems
Flor Linckens is a cultural historian and art collector - of conceptual and geometric abstract minimal art in particular. In addition to being an editor and digital marketeer for GalleryViewer, she works as a freelancer for the Van Abbemuseum, Art Rotterdam, Unseen, Young Collectors Circle and Rotterdam Art Week. For her personal platform Galeriereporter, she visited nearly 200 galleries, museums and art fairs last year (94 this year), so she is well informed about what is going on in the art world. She explains her love for activist art in this collection that she has put together.
2020 is not only the year of the pandemic, but also a year in which a number of underlying systems were examined even more critically. Systems that, for example, have ensured that racism is institutionalised, just like misogyny, heteronormativity and so on. For this collection I chose five artists who, in their artistic practice, all focus in their own way on uncovering those systems.
2020 is not only the year of the pandemic, but also a year in which a number of underlying systems were examined even more critically. Systems that, for example, have ensured that racism is institutionalised, just like misogyny, heteronormativity and so on. For this collection I chose five artists who, in their artistic practice, all focus in their own way on uncovering those systems.
3 Media items ᛫ 17 Available artworks
5 Shows ᛫ 0 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
As a first-year history student, I was all set to immerse myself in history — only to learn almost immediately that there is no such thing as The History: historiography is in itself a construct, written down by a small and powerful group of people. Particularly since postmodernism, critical analyses have taken place and people have examined how more and more diverse narratives can be added to our representation of history. For example by 'queering history', researching women's history, exploring the linguistic nature of history and the concept of multiple modernities: the idea that there is not one single (AKA: the Western) route to modernity. That is the starting point for the decolonization of history. Natasja Kensmil looks at Dutch history from a new perspective in her drawings and paintings. Kensmil: "Within history I focus very much on power and violence." She also shows that brutal violence and abuse of power are a recurring subject in our history and that we cannot simply separate the present from the past. Currently, her works are hung in the Hermitage, surrounded by a group of classic 17th-century portraits. This year I bought a screen print by Natasja Kensmil for my own modest art collection.
0 Media items ᛫ 36 Available artworks
4 Shows ᛫ 2 Highlights ᛫ 0 Recommendations
In his work, the Flemish artist Wesley Meuris deals with the discourse surrounding certain power structures, specifically the power structures that, consciously and unconsciously, determine how we look at art. With his 'imaginary architecture' installations, Meuris tries to make these power structures visible, so that we become more aware of our blind spots when we look at art. But it goes deeper than that: the ways in which we preserve art (what do we keep, and what do we leave out), classify it (do we add it to the canon or not?), rationalise and standardise arise from an inherent human need, but also ensure that what we collect as a society may no longer correspond to reality — or just the reality of a small group. Perhaps new categories and structures have to be added so that elements that currently do not belong anywhere can be accommodated as well. As part of his practice, Meuris also founded the fictional organisation “Foundation for Exhibiting Art & Knowledge”. This work is called “Department of Art History” (2017).
0 Media items ᛫ 8 Available artworks
3 Shows ᛫ 0 Highlights ᛫ 0 Recommendations
I think the “gaze” is one of the most fascinating subjects in art. This academic concept shows the existence of certain power relations. The person who captures the other (whether on film, in a painting or in a photo) has a lot of control over how the portrayed person is immortalised and viewed by others. Consider, for example, "the male gaze" (how women are objectified by men) or "the oriental gaze" (how people from colonial areas were recorded by their overlords as "exotic" or "uncivilised"). Last year, in one of my favourite films, this concept took center stage: in Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma. It is all about looking and being watched and who carries the power (or in this case: shares the power). Flemish artist Karin Hanssen reproduces historical photographs from the 50s, 60s and 70s, but also adds a new interpretation in this conversion of mediums. In the process of painting, Hanssen literally looks back and, on the other hand, she answers the gaze through time. It also forces you to think about your own prejudices. This is a painting of a photo that was taken at a fun fair in Tehran in 1970 — probably nothing like you imagined!
3 Media items ᛫ 3 Available artworks
7 Shows ᛫ 7 Highlights ᛫ 1 Recommendations
This summer I made a dedicated trip to Berlin to see Otobong Nkanga's solo exhibition at the Gropius Bau. This artist, who was born in Nigeria, regularly visualises the materials that symbolise the ways in which the West consumes products. Consider, for example, mica, malachite and copper: raw materials that are used in smartphones, jewelery and make-up and are therefore mined on a large scale on the African continent. Nkanga highlights that problem on different levels. On the one hand, she sees it as a symbol of the ways in which we commodify nature. Anything to satisfy our insatiable appetite for (and hence dependence on) raw materials, regardless of consequences such as environmental pollution and radical geological changes. Nkanga: "How we treat our living environment has an impact on the landscape." In addition, Nkanga compares the system to a modern form of Western exploitation of cheap labour in various African countries. First, that happened in a colonial context and now again, but in a capitalist context. Yet the power relations, those who benefits the most from this system, have not changed.