GUIDO VAN DER WERVE

Nummer zeventien
killing time
attempt one: from the deepest ocean to the highest mountain

28 novembre 2015- 23 gennaio 2016

A sei anni di distanza dall’ultima mostra a Monitor, l’artista olandese Guido van der Werve porta negli spazi della galleria una nuova opera, un video doppio canale che lo vede impegnato in un’azione performativa della durata di 10 ore.

Lo sforzo fisico e l’attività sportiva sono ancora al centro del lavoro intitolato Nummer zeventien,
 killing time
 – attempt one: from the deepest ocean to the highest mountain. Il linguaggio artistico di Werve, continua a viaggiare in paralleo con l’intensificazione della sua attività sportiva. Dal 2007 infatti l’artista ha anche intrapreso l’attività agonistica di maratoneta prendendo parte a numerose competizioni internazionali.

Questa volta l’obiettivo di Werve è emulare due imprese sportive estreme, quali la conquista della vetta del Monte Everest (m 8848) e la discesa nei fondali più profondi dell’Oceano (11040), imprese che fa entrare in contrasto evidente e ironico con i luoghi domestici  appositamente scelti come ambienti di ripresa.

In questo senso Nummer zeventien può essere legato ai lavori precedenti Nummer dertien, emotional poverty, 2011 – in particolar modo al lavoro intitolato You’re always only half a day away – che lo vedeva impegnato in una corsa di molte ore intorno ad una casa.

In questo caso l’obiettivo della performance sportiva è di natura più marcatamente psicologica, come se l’artista ci volesse parlare anche del raggiungimento di una maggiore stabilità ed equilibrio interiore, rispetto ai contrastanti sentimenti più evidenti nei lavori precedenti. Se nel lungo metraggio Nummer Vertien, Home (2012, 54′), la ‘casa’ era un sottotitolo che rimandava all’intenzione di realizzare un lavoro più maturo e saldo e con una forte referenza autobiografica, questa volta la casa diviene lo spazio fisico dell’azione, nel quale viene racchiuso anche il lasso temporale dell’impresa.

La conquista della vetta dell’Everest, da sempre visto come il tentativo metaforico di ogni individuo di raggiungere ‘la vetta più alta’ nel corso della propria esistenza, viene riproposta dall’artista in maniera ‘assoluta’, scevra dall’ intenso lavoro di preparazione atletica, ma lasciando spazio e tempo alla dimensione mentale dell’azioje.

Un atto di resistenza che viene traslato nella quotidianità, senza bisogno di mostrarne gli aspetti più forti e spettacolari, ma comunque capace di porre lo spettatore di fronte alla sensazione del compiersi di una impresa degna di nota.

In occasione dell’apertura della mostra la galleria sarà aperta al pubblico per 10 ore consecutive.

La mostra è stata realizzata con il supporto del Netherlands Mondriaan Fund

ENGLISH VERSION

Nummer zeventien
killing time
attempt one: from the deepest ocean to the highest mountain

November 28th 2015- January 23rd 2016

Six years on from his last show at Monitor, Dutch artist Guido van der Werve will be featured at the gallery with a new work, a double channel video installation showing him in a ten-hour performance action.

In Nummer zeventien
 killing time
 attempt one: from the deepest ocean to the highest mountain, physical exertion and sport once more play a central role. Van der Werve’s creative language in fact continues to develop alongside his sporting activity: since 2007 he has been competing at an international level in a number of marathons.

In the work presented here, van der Werve aims to emulate two extreme sporting achievements: the climbing of Mount Everest (mt. 8848) and the descent into the deepest ocean abyss (11040) – two feats that contrast both starkly and ironically with the domestic surroundings chosen for the filming. In this sense Nummer zeventien is a continuation of van der Werve’s previous works Nummer dertien, emotional poverty, 2011, particularly the one entitled You’re always only half a day away in which he performed running around the house for several hours.

Compared with the conflicting sentiments that emerged previously, the nature of the sporting performance in Nummer zeventien is decidedly more psychological, as if the artist were showing that he has attained a level of greater stability, an interior equilibrium. This emerges clearly in a comparison between the feature length film (54 min) Nummer veertien, home (2012) – in which the strongly autobiographical ‘home’ was a subtitle alluding to the intention of completing a more mature, grounded work – and Nummer zeventien in which it becomes the physical space in which the action is played out, as well as the time frame of the entire piece.

The ascent of Mount Everest has always been considered a metaphor for each individual’s striving to reach “the highest peak” in his or her lifetime. Here van der Werve has created his own, ‘absolute’ version of that metaphor, despoiled of the gruelling physical preparation but spatially and temporally open to the mental dimension of the action.

This is an act of endurance that has been transposed into everyday life, without its tougher or more spectacular traits but still capable of confronting the viewer with the feeling that a noteworthy task has been accomplished.

For this show the gallery will remain open non-stop for ten hours.

This exhibition was generously supported by the Netherlands Mondriaan Fund

Bio Guido van der Werve

1977 Papendrecht, The Netherlands

Solo exhibitions (selection) 2016 Guido van der Werve: Frist center, Nashville, USA (upcoming); 2015 Nummer Zeventien, Monitor, Rome 2014 Guido van der Werve: Nummer Acht, everything is going to be alright, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, USA; Guido van der Werve: Nummer veertien, home, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Michigan, USA; Guido van der Werve: Nummer Veertien, home, Art Basel, Parcours section, Basel, Switzerland Guido van der Werve: Nummer Veertien, home, Joan Levine Freedman ’57 and Richard I. Freedman gallery, USA Véritables Preludes Flasques (Pour un chien) 2/4: Guido van der Werve, Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France2013 Guido van der Werve, Secession, Wien Directing Art as a Music, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo; Nummer Veertien, home, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL; 2012 Nummer Veertien, home, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome, Nummer Veertien, home, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL; Nummer Veertien, home, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA; Emotional Poverty, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, DE; 2011 Emotional Poverty, Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam, NL; Pro Arte Festival, Solo during festival Nummer acht shown. The Krassin museumship, St. Petersburg, Russia, Object Subjects, Screening One night exhibition with Nummer acht, Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, USA; Nummer 11 Performance, Live performance of the music in nr. 12 with the chess-piano, Galeri,; 2010 Nummer Twaalf, Luhring Augustine, New York, USA; Planned Guido van der Werve, Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, USA; Guido van der Werve, Gallery Juliette Jongma Amsterdam, NL; Guido van der Werve, Institute Neerlandais, Paris, FR; Minor Pieces, DHC foundation for Contempary Art, USA Minor Pieces, Marc Foxx Gallery Los Angeles, USA; Minor Pieces, Gallery Monitor, Rome, IT 2008 Nummer Twee, La Maison Rouge, la Vestibule, Paris, FR; Everything is going to be alright, Hayward Gallery London, UK; Nummer Acht, shown on the MTV television screen on time square for a month by creative; time, NY, USA; On parity of days, Kunsthalle Basel, CH 2007 Nummer Acht, De Hallen, Haarlem, NL

Group exhibitions (selection): 2015 City Limit. The Journal Gallery, New York, USA Fairy Tales, Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, Taiwan Trial, Error, Art, the Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK Eppur si muove – Mudam – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxemburg White noise, Kunsthaus Glarus, CH Doma Art Festival, Sofia, BG Collective Collection, exposition autour de la collection de Laurent Fievet, VOLET III, BBB dentre d’art, Toulouse, FR Rolling snowball, organized by the Chinese European Art Center, in the town of Djùpivogur, IS Obsession, Maison Particulière asbl, Brussels, BE Landscape in motion – Cinematic Visions on an uncertain Tomorrow, Kunsthaus Graz, AUT; Istanbul Biennal, Istanbul, TR Moscow Medium Forum, Manege, Moscow, RU Dancing Light, let it move you, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, NL Sebald Variations, CCCB, Barcelona, ESP Nordic Fact, Bang Centre, Montreal, CA 2014 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, IND Days of endless Time, The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, USA Ce Que Raconte la Solitude, La Frice Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR Dancing Light / Let it Move you, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, NL Fair Play – arte, video, sport, curated by Cristiana Perrella and Paola Ugolini, MAXXI, Rome, IT NOLI ME TANGERE, L’arte in movimento e la malattia dei sentimenti di Michelangelo Antonioni, curated by Eva Comuzzi and Andrea Bruciati, Sala Nervi – Biblioteca Civica Archivio Regionale di Videoarte, Verona, IT Ha visto i colori divini del Lago di Costanza?, Spazio Thetis, Venice, IT Art or Sound, Fondazione Prada, Venice, IT

Room by Room: Monographic presentations from the Falcouner and Rachofsky collections, The Warehouse, Dallas, USA; Oh My god, Museum Hilversum, Hilversum, NL; Reflections on (Life and) Death, MoCA Cleveland | Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, US 2013 Ghost in the System – Scenarios for Resistance, NCCA, Moscow, Russia Art-Athina 2013, Taekwondo Stadium, Palaio Faliro, Athens, Greece; 2012 Paesaggi complicati, Palazzo Incontro, Rome, Italy; La la la Human Steps, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey; The walking pigeon, Foam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Cantemus– Choirs, The Sublime and the Exegesisof Being, Center for Art and Media, Brussels, Belgium; K lang und Stille – Sammlung Goetz in Haus der Kunst, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany; Global Navigators, Distinctivly Dutch festival, Pittsburgh, US; 2011 Winged Shadows: Life among birds, North Dakota Museum of Art, USA; IKJIJWIJ, Rabo Kunstcollectie, Kunstzone, Utrecht, NL; Performa 11, New visual Art Performance Biennial, New York City, USA; Nummer Vier shown in Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia; That’s me. Groupshow, Schloss Ringenberg, Hamminkeln, Germany; Summer in the middle of Winter, groupshow, Kunsthalle Athens, Greece; 3e biënnale ‘Moving Images, inspired videoart, Grote of Lebuinuskerk in Deventer (NL); Pinchuck Future Generation Art Prize @ Venice, Palazzo Papadopoli, San Polo, 1364 Venezia; GUIDO VAN DER WERV; Prix de Rome 2011 Visual Arts Nominees exhibition, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (NL).