Stella Lohaus

Job Koelewijn

25 Oct - 01 Dec 2007

© Job Koelewijn
Installation view. Front: Untitled (Gaz Station), 2007
JOB KOELEWIJN
“what is the word”

25.10.07 - 01.12.07

The title of this exhibition is taken from the title of Beckett’s last poem.
In general, Koelewijn’s oeuvre is permeated by poetry and language. The centrepiece is a sculpture of books. The starting point for this particular work is a 2004 magazine interview in which a number of writers and philosophers were asked to make a selection of what they considered to be ‘dangerous books’. This interview led to a list of 46 books, which Koelewijn then collected in various languages. Ultimately, these books were cut up into a sculpture.
The sculpture shows a place that actively recalls memories: we recognise certain books, our memory is set to work, reading experiences are summoned. Koelewijn’s work creates a poetic divide between the object and its content. This breaking point causes the trivial place that a petrol station is, to suddenly change into an environment that offers a critical capacity.
In various ways Koelewijn sculpts literature and poetry. On top of that, the smell of eucalyptus is a regularly recurring feature in his work. One of the most important characteristics of eucalyptus is that it ‘opens’. In the large containers that are normally filled with the muscle-enhancing food of bodybuilders, you now find an aphorism. Koelewijn has the visitors breath ‘aphorisms’. He turns language into something physical.
In Job Koelewijn’s oeuvre intrinsic themes meet physical experiences, the spectator experiences the content.
 

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