Introduction
25.05.07 > 26.06.07

Introduction constitutes the inaugural exhibition of the gallery think.21. Beyond any curatorial concept, the show acts as a statement of the artistic perspective of think.21; its mission. This group show illustrates the multiple connections that bind contemporary art and technique, without being dependant on one or the other. Because as E. Couchot and N. Hillaire underline it: « The importance taken by these technologies {of communication – of reproduction, of conservation and of mass-distribution} directly affects art be it digital or not. » Thus « … the traditional techniques find in the digital the chance for an original tangent» . In accordance with the technical reality of art, Introduction shows that the interest of think.21 for the new technologies is not restrictive, and that it considers arts in their interdisciplinarity.

Introduction presents the work of three artists who originally come from distinct visual cultures. Consequently, their works are to be considered in an international context where they approach different topics such as the relationship between childhood and the adult world, the relation to the body, the consumer society and the place left to the individual, the street culture and the esthetisation of waste, or the digitalisation as new way of perceiving reality. With this intention, Introduction puts together different medias such as: painting, sculpture, installation, video, graphic design, etc. In the divergence of the interpretative intentions, the three artists share a common will to keep ironical. The ideas are never univocal and the concept of second degree is omnipresent.

More specifically, Stephan Balleux (1977, Belgium) has an extended and innovating vision of painting as a concept. The pictorial matter takes possession of the space by means of various media. In this way, the painting undergoes a constant mutation which erases any temporality whilst its digital rendering gives it its new statute.

Introduction presents recent works by the artist in which timelessness is increased by recourse to a « classical » vocabulary. Thus, the tondo format borrowed from the Italian Renaissance, along with the figuration of the vanitas typical of the northern paintings in the 16th and 17th centuries, both take part in the positioning of the work in a certain historical context. Moreover, taking into account that the study of perspective has brought revolutionary transformations in how we perceive space, the artist presents the digitalisation as a new way of interpretation. Also, the painting unites different Medias and thus becomes essential. The confrontation of the painted image and its digital study takes part in the will to give a new vision to this medium considered traditional.

Previously a graphic designer, Michael Salter (1967, USA) is specialised in image based communication and logotypes created by the use of data-processing tools. In the contemporary world where communication is associated with advertising and the exploitation of peoples’ perceptions and responses the artist is interested in the effects of these images. His work criticizes the discordance between visual image and message as it is perceived by the intellect, when the latter acts from the personal subjectivity of the viewer. The images thus exploit the semantic confusion and multiply the possible levels of interpretation. For the artist, this process also constitutes a manner of studying the way in which the object promoted to the rank of the image is transformed into desire in the consumers’ consciousness.

The exhibition shows the way in which images take possession of our environment. They evolve in an autonomous way in the form of mural paintings or kinetic sculptures. Otherwise, Michael Salter’s images invade isolated objects or are organised in voluntarily narrative compositions. The outcome is a multiple and at times confusing interpretation which confirms the critical ideas of the artist. Salter thus draws up a study between the rational and the irrational, and reflects on the way in which the familiar becomes uncanny.

Through a multi-field approach, Jeanne Susplugas (1974, France) studies the complex relation of the individual vis-à-vis to wavering between the acceptance and the refusal of the body envelope. Resulting in a subtle mixture of fascination and disgust the work of the artist is full of candid sensitivity and femininity. It is deeply intimate, erotic, sometimes worrying, but never without humour. The mix of styles and techniques as well as the absurdity of situations keeps recurring. In a way similar to that of the universe of Lewis Carroll the distinction between reality and fiction becomes difficult to distinguish.

For Introduction, think.21 has produced in collaboration with the artist an installation which is similar to an oversized doll’s house. This play on the confusion of scale finds its origins in the artists’ reflection upon the passage between the infinite world of childhood and, even more dramatic, that of adulthood. The idea of house architecture refers to the intimacy and represents metaphorically the body. Through the openings in the walls one can see the interior where short films are projected in loops. They show various practices of maintenance of the body. The message is intimate, but universal: in a hypochondriac society full of taboos, medicine and health care appear as an alternative, a placebo to the physical suffering and disappearance.