Guido van der Werve
21 Sep - 14 Nov 2009
"Minor Pieces"
Opening September 21th 2009, 7.00-9.00 p.m.
Three years on from his Italian debut with Monitor in 2005, the gallery proudly presents a second solo show devoted to Dutch artist Guido van der Werve.
Walter Pater’s statement that all art is influenced by music finds full confirmation in the work of van der Werve. Be he at the North Pole attempting to turn in the opposite direction to the Earth’s movement (Nummer negen) or walking just in front of the prow of an icebreaker in the sea off Finland (Nummer acht), music and sound have always been of paramount importance to this artist. Van der Werve’s last film, Nummer twaalf, Variations on a theme: the king’s gambit accepted, the numbers of the stars in the sky and why a piano cannot be tuned or waiting for an earthquake, fully exemplifies this. Two years of research and study have been condensed into forty intense minutes that convey the artist’s passion and obsession for unresolved riddles – opening a game of chess with the suicidal but romantic King’s Gambit move that leaves the king vulnerable, tuning a piano, attempting to count the stars in the sky.
The choice of locations for each of the film’s three parts is no less spectacular – the famous Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan (where Duchamp would ractice whenever he was in New York), the active volcano of Mount St. Helens in northwest America and the San Andreas valley in California. But the film’s real underlying motif is in fact the soundtrack, a concerto for piano/chessboard in A minor. Guido van der Werve composed it for Nummer twaalf and during the Italian debut of the work it will be accompanied by a series of unpublished photographs and by the curious piano-chessboard that the artist made for the shooting.
Despite looking misleadingly like a chessboard, the object will turn out to be a piano on which, durin the opening, the artist will play a game of chess whose movements were studied and ‘composed’ by the grand master Leonid Yudasin in the autumn of 2008 – naturally the game will open with the King’s Gambit move.
Over the years Guido van der Werve’s work has managed to preserve the personal, almost private quality that distinguished it from the start. The svelte black figure outlined against the vastness of the sky stands as the emblem of its utter anti-heroic nature. Whether trying to count the stars in the sky or tuning a piano, the most important thing is personal commitment, however futile, absurd or useless it may seem.
Guido van der Werve’s performance will take place September 21th at 7.30 p.m. with the partecipation of the chess player Salvatore Mileto and the Nova Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.
Special Thanks to The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Rome for the support.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a text by the art critic and curator Angela Serino, who lives in Amsterdam.
In the gallery it will be possible to find the book Nummer elf in limited edition, signed andnumbered.
Opening September 21th 2009, 7.00-9.00 p.m.
Three years on from his Italian debut with Monitor in 2005, the gallery proudly presents a second solo show devoted to Dutch artist Guido van der Werve.
Walter Pater’s statement that all art is influenced by music finds full confirmation in the work of van der Werve. Be he at the North Pole attempting to turn in the opposite direction to the Earth’s movement (Nummer negen) or walking just in front of the prow of an icebreaker in the sea off Finland (Nummer acht), music and sound have always been of paramount importance to this artist. Van der Werve’s last film, Nummer twaalf, Variations on a theme: the king’s gambit accepted, the numbers of the stars in the sky and why a piano cannot be tuned or waiting for an earthquake, fully exemplifies this. Two years of research and study have been condensed into forty intense minutes that convey the artist’s passion and obsession for unresolved riddles – opening a game of chess with the suicidal but romantic King’s Gambit move that leaves the king vulnerable, tuning a piano, attempting to count the stars in the sky.
The choice of locations for each of the film’s three parts is no less spectacular – the famous Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan (where Duchamp would ractice whenever he was in New York), the active volcano of Mount St. Helens in northwest America and the San Andreas valley in California. But the film’s real underlying motif is in fact the soundtrack, a concerto for piano/chessboard in A minor. Guido van der Werve composed it for Nummer twaalf and during the Italian debut of the work it will be accompanied by a series of unpublished photographs and by the curious piano-chessboard that the artist made for the shooting.
Despite looking misleadingly like a chessboard, the object will turn out to be a piano on which, durin the opening, the artist will play a game of chess whose movements were studied and ‘composed’ by the grand master Leonid Yudasin in the autumn of 2008 – naturally the game will open with the King’s Gambit move.
Over the years Guido van der Werve’s work has managed to preserve the personal, almost private quality that distinguished it from the start. The svelte black figure outlined against the vastness of the sky stands as the emblem of its utter anti-heroic nature. Whether trying to count the stars in the sky or tuning a piano, the most important thing is personal commitment, however futile, absurd or useless it may seem.
Guido van der Werve’s performance will take place September 21th at 7.30 p.m. with the partecipation of the chess player Salvatore Mileto and the Nova Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.
Special Thanks to The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Rome for the support.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a text by the art critic and curator Angela Serino, who lives in Amsterdam.
In the gallery it will be possible to find the book Nummer elf in limited edition, signed andnumbered.