Van Abbemuseum

12 + 12, Wine and Dreams of Art

22 Jan - 05 Apr 2013

12 + 12, WINE AND DREAMS OF ART
library exhibition
Curators: Serge-Aljosja Stommels (the Netherlands) and Mikhail Pogarskij (Russia).
22 January - 5 April 2013

For the exhibition “Wine and Dreams of Art" 12 artists from the Netherlands and 12 artists from Russia are producing a book based on two ancient themes in the visual arts: the Apollonian and the Dionysian themes.
The exhibition is part of 12 + 12, an international programme involving various different countries.
The Apollonian and the Dionysian themes are a pair of concepts which have been customary for a long time in traditional views of the history of art. They embody a polar vision of the arts in which the Apollonian aspect represents the “dream artist” character, while the Dionysian aspect represents the intoxicated artist. This dualism continues in the systematic categorisation of the works of art of the types concerned: rationality versus feeling, order versus expression, constructivism versus expressionism and utopia versus reality. But aren’t the two aspects two sides of the same coin? After all, a single work of art often incorporates some polarity. Perhaps this is an artificial choice, a construction to identify works of art in this way. How do contemporary artists respond to this construction?
The 24 contemporary artists involved in this project saw these questions as a challenge and elevated the polarity as a thematic element in the work of art itself. In this way the two themes become a means for reflection and reveal a merging of opposing themes. Some artists have given their own translation of the two starting points, while others have entered the discussion, and there are also those who follow the themes literally to express them in a traditional way in free or more constructed works.
The participating artists are:
1. Frank van Ansem (N)
2. Dmitrij Babenko (R)
3. Simon Benson (N)
4. Theo Besemer (N)
5. Dmitrij Drozdetskij (R)
6. Ksenia Galiaeva (N,R)
7. Harrie Gerritz (N)
8. Jevgenij Glyz (R)
9. Diederik Grootjans (N)
10. Irina Jablotsjkina (R)
11. Olga Karjakina (R)
12. Valerij Kortsjagin (R)
13. Margriet Luyten (N)
14. Aleksandr Medvedev (R)
15. Geert-Jan van Oostende (N)
16. Jelena Pavlova (R)
17. Pjotr Perevezentsev (R)
18. Mikhail Pogarskij (R)
19. Andrei Roiter (N,R)
20. Jac Splinter (N)
21. Elisabeth Tonnard (N)
22. Vasilij Vlasov (R)
23. Wim Zurné (N)
24. Gonda van der Zwaag (N)
 

Tags: Ksenia Galiaeva, Andrei Roiter