Characteristic is the role of the public, which is often involved in one way or another, not just as a guest but rather as a factor.
Dheedene very often organizes his exhibitions as an acting context in which the ritual, the performance and the collective are brought into relation with his artistic production; a moment or a place in which the work achieves a moment or a place in which the work fulfills its sole and proper function through the intervention of the public. Issues such as instruction, norm and convention are thereby tested. The exhibition thus becomes an enclave, an autonomous place, rather than a space.
This is also the case here. The series of works entitled "35 Synonyms for 'hammered into'", set up as an installation on the ground floor, is a migration from another context: the works were first set up in an exhibition at Yuri G. Gallery in Antwerp (2020). A total of 29 hammers of different length, head, handle and weight are hung, divided over 9 racks. The hammers were loaned out to the visitors during their first exhibition for a year, leaving the racks partially empty for the remainder of the exhibition. They are brought back by the same borrowers during this exhibition.
The installation thus acquires a dimension of time, promise and commitment. Dries Verstraete