Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam is pleased to present , an exhibition of key collaborative works by Rossella Biscotti (b. Molfetta, IT, 1978) and Kevin van Braak (b. Warnsveld, NL, 1975).

The opening will take place Sunday, September 9th. Open the whole afternoon from 1-7pm. Reception from 5-7pm.

The show runs until November 4th and will be extended solely at our 2nd floor space. For more information or images, contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com, +31(0)104126459.

Featuring The Library (2010) and After Four Rotations of A, B Will Make One Revolution (2009-ongoing), the exhibition T  looks at the ideological re-formulation of post-soviet nations, and how this process may be represented in the transformations of works of art and literature from that era.

The Library is a welded steel structure filled with hunderds of Soviet-era books, all de-accessioned by the University Library of Vilnius in 2008. In this permeable but cage-like space, the many works of literature–selected by the artists from among thousands being disposed–give a picture of the ideological ‘prison’ written into society across fields of economic, political, philosophical, legal and sociological thought. Accompanying screenprints list the English translations of the title of each book withdrawn from the University Library’s collection and presented here.

In the series After Four Rotations of A, B Will Make One Revolution, a joint project that the artists have conducted for almost a decade, Biscotti and van Braak reconstruct existing figuative sculptures in minimalist form–a ‘reductive’ operation that further complicates questions of how history is told in sculpture. Portraits of Soviet political figures, such as Lenin, Stakhanov and Tito, are re-presented by sculptures of the same material, weight, and name, but in condensed and abstract shape. The simple forms, and their process of casting, point to the practice of destroying of such politically charged statues at the end of the regimes they stand for.

Particularly of note is the seven-part portrait of Josip Broz Tito, based on busts by Yugoslav artist Antun Augustinčić (1900-1979). Augustinčić’s works were discovered by Belgrade-based artist Dragan Srdić (b. Belgrade, 1958), who presented them in his own work in 2000. Here, Biscotti and van Braak acknowledge Srdić’s work, and the role of art in the mediation of national histories and identities.

Expanded versions of the exhibition T were previously presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia and Škuc Gallery, Ljubljiana, Slovenia; curated by Zoran Erić and Vladimir Vidmar.

Alongside their respective individual practices, Biscotti & van Braak have worked collaboratively since 2004. They will present a major new installation, The Standing Wave for Steirischer Herbst in Graz (AT), September 20th – October 14th.

Image: Rossella Biscotti and Kevin van Braak, Exhibition view T.