Bookstore Pro-Gression # 16 / Isabel Cordeiro & Hortense Lauras

About

Isabel Codeiro

Foreign Affair

In may latest work I have been exploring the relation between painting and sculptural objects by making ‘hybrids’ that are both. This relation, that binds both elements of the work, is made visible through colour. In short, I wrap objects that I make with canvas, such that both object and canvas accommodate each other; I then paint over the combined object; after, I unwrap the canvas and separate it from the object. The traces of paint left on both canvas and object map each other, they speak of a circumstantial relation. The ambiguity of these pieces lies in the fact that we are no longer able to tell with certainty if we are looking at a ‘painting’ or a ‘sculpture’, if they complete each other or if they steal from each other. In the work Foreign Affair I address precisely this ambiguity: perhaps the actual work is neither the painting nor the sculptural object, but resides instead in-between.

Furthermore, I am inspired by a movement in Colour Theory named Relationism. Relationism claims that colours are dispositions, constituted in terms of relations between subjects and objects. Thus, colour exists neither in the subject nor in the object, but it simply 'happens' when a certain subject encounters a certain object. In Foreign Affair I consider the following possibility: what if colour is what happens when two objects meet (independent from a subject)? http://www.isabelcordeiro.com/

Hortense Lauras

The Commune Project - Introduction Note

The Commune Project unfolds in several chapters, which each investigates a key notion of vivre-ensemble*. The short film “Entre Nous et Moi” and the photo installation “Timber” are the first two chapters of this social exploration. Both works share the same underlying context of community living. From this context, a singular perspective arises on the notions of loneliness (“Entre Nous et Moi”) and work (“Timber”). On what level do loneliness and work find roots in communal living? And how do they shape one’s relation to the social group?

About the background of The Commune Project

Contemporary western societies are known to be going through an individualisation process that has been particularly accentuated in the last decades. We are evolving in societies promising us that one will find his or her true self through singular acts of differentiation: “Think different”, “Just do it”, “Impossible is nothing”, etc. Through this process, freedom and individuality are slowly merging into a single notion. Aware of this change and witnessing it on a daily basis I started researching the notion of Community. A community is defined by a set of common values and behaviours shared by its members, and by a process of shared differentiation rather than individual differentiation. In the growing social context of our western societies, where identity is defined by uniqueness, members of communities appear as very interesting counterexamples to reflect upon the evolution of the individualisation crisis we are witnessing today.

This project is made possible thanks to the support of the Werkbijdrage Jong Talent, Mondriaan Fonds voor Kunstenaars.

* Vivre-ensemble: living together with harmony
http://www.hortenselauras.com/

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BOOKSTORE SPACE continues the Pro-Gression program in 2017. The program has been realized with the support of the Leuwenstein Foundation and was established to give a new face to the existing BOOKSTORE gallery and to offer opportunities to artists at the beginning of their careers.

The new program will feature work by a refreshing artist of the new generation every 5 weeks. The program is curated by the artist Justina Nekrašaitė.