Bart Geerts
PhD Student, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University Louvain), Belgium
Guest Teacher, Media & Design Adademy Genk, Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg, Belgium
Painting out of Place: The Space in Between
Painting out of Place is a practice based research project dealing with contextualising my artistic practice. The general underlying question is ‘Why to paint?’. It is concerned with the relevancy of painting and the meaning of painting as a medium of expression. It also considers the possibilities of a medium that has been declared dead many a time. The project tries to outline the context of that debate en zooms in on the discursive difficulty when talking about painting.
On the other hand the daily practice of working as a young artist in relation to painting paves the way for further investigations that move into the direction of a more spatially oriented interpretation of painting. Space has always been inherent in the tradition of painting, but it was generally reserved for a space created through optical or mental illusion. There is, however, a much more straightforward spatial dimension in painting when considering for instance the thickness of the stretcher or the size of a painting in relation to the space in which it is shown. My work is mainly concerned with the constructive and deconstructive aspects of that literal space that painting can occupy. In that respect my works have become borderline cases touching upon sculpture or installation art.
Presentation
- I would like to briefly outline the aim and proceedings of the research project as some sort of a chronological journey in the work of a young visual artist struggling with the legacy of a medium that cannot simply be declared dead nor can/should be artificially kept alive.
- I will talk about some methodological aspects underlying the project. The importance of interviews within a network of contemporary artists and curators will be stressed and I will try to show the importance of those interviews on the evolution of the research project. I will also show how collaborative projects and exhibitions can influence both artistic decisions and discursive models that are used as theoretical ground.
- The main part of the presentation will deal with an introduction to some texts, works and artists that have shaped my own critical stance towards painting. In that discussion I will refer (among other) to the work of the French artist Daniel Buren, and more specifically draw some conclusions from his written statements. Also the American writer Mark Z. Danielewski will be prominent in that discussion. Interesting parallels to painting can be drawn from his experimental way of dealing with the novel.
