06 Dec 2010

Geert Goiris & Vincent Lamouroux at KIOSK

'Turbulence' is the moniker under which KIOSK, space for contemporary art, lets the works of French artist Vincent Lamouroux and Belgian photographer Geert Goiris interact.

Both artists employ their practice as a means to examine notions as time and space, fiction and reality, landscape and composition. The results are often real or constructed spaces which strike the viewer as simultaneously familiar and alien. Goiris and Lamouroux have collaborated before, and for this occasion they have again decided to take a common point of departure: the concept of 'turbulence', and the ways it can spark off the interaction between their work, the space it inhabits, and the visitor. The dialogue between their respective work is deliberately stimulated in an interplay of light, vistas and contrastive vertical and horizontal lines in space. The 'turbulence' between both arrangements is made palpable both in the harmony and the contrast between the upward force in Lamouroux' sculpture in the hemicycle room on the one hand and the pull of gravity on Goiris' hanging photo prints in the side room on the other. This turbulence manifests itself as a continuous struggle between perceptions.

Vincent Lamouroux (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1974) resides and lives in Paris. He creates spaces that appear both architectural and sculptural, both organic and constructed. His work originates in the notion that a sculptural intervention will influence the entire space. Often impressive interventions destabilize visitors' orientation. Next to a number of smaller spatial interventions, Lamouroux presents the work 'Hélioscope' in KIOSK's hemicycle room. 'Hélioscope' prompts an immediate novel, vertical interpretation of the room: the 8 meter high spiral staircase leans forward into the room, effectuating a dynamic upward movement. The upwards structure of the staircase lifts up the room, its whiteness absorbs the light and its subtle imbalance disorients the viewer. The artist received the 'Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard' prize in 2006. KIOSK is the first venue to show Lamouroux' work in Belgium.

Belgian photographer Geert Goiris (Bornem, 1971) currently lives in Antwerp, from where he is steadily making his way in the international art scene. Goiris won this year's Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel, and he had recent solo shows in the Hamburger Kunsthalle and at CAB Burgos. Until 16 January 2011, his work is on display in the group show 'Fresh Hell' at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Goiris' photographs go beyond merely recording as they make viewers instantly feel the alienating nearness of the abandoned, isolated places they show. Time and space are being cancelled out in a play with light, depth and subject matter. Goiris emphasizes both nature in itself and the traces of human presence in dilapidated architectural and utopian landscapes. Goiris' landscape shots are often made using a slow shutter speed, a method which seems to impose on the viewer a parallel way of contemplating the photographs: they demand slow observation, allowing the gaze to adapt time's own pace in penetrating the rows of trees and exploring the infinite horizons. Next to a number of earlier works, Goiris will present a new serie of photo prints, 'Giants' which is being presented at KIOSK.

KIOSK was initiated jointly by non-profit organization Kunstensite and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) at the University College Ghent, with the support of the Flemish Authorities and the city of Ghent.

The exhibition will be closed on 24-25-26 and 31 December 2010, 1 and 2 January.