Antwerp Art Weekend

12—16 May 2021

Artists

Joris Van de Moortel

The 3 works presented here at Ballroom swim similar waters of the sea surrounding the land we once boarded. To reenter this sea and continue our journey we need a harbor, a role that suits the city that hosts this art fair; Antwerp. 

The theme of the works cruise the waves of a European imagination which set sail more than 500 years ago, caught in a storm with greek mythology, picking up all sorts of driftwood, elements that are too obscure and mystic to dive into detail in a skim. 

The allegoric medieval ship of fools was often a ramshackle boat having all sorts of dubious intentions and even more dubious persona on board, set on an unknown course to a utopian destination known as; Narragonia. The land of fools. The work All swollen to a kind of epic wind. Livid the land, who has taken over. A darker, more chilling ship of fools is a depiction of such a ship of fools, sailing out for a secret mystic and dubious invasion, again, without drowning into detail here. The work Rehearsals are even to scheduled for us represents a poster, a pamflet, recruiting to join upon this magical mad trip. Referring to the fact that rehearsals, the action before an actual performance, are an unnecessary obstruction for the creativity, shows here that the intention not fixed. They know more or less where they are going, but in fact they only will know when they arrive, if they ever arrive. How to get there, how long, with who and what is all very vague. And has to be vague! For the sake of their imagination and creativity. They are going, and they call to all join and rejoice for this trip, there’s enough place a board!

The sculpture Medusa Luster which physiognomy has references to a classic luster, represents an imaginative creature, a monster at sea, that will not necessarily obstruct but rather might play a crucial role as a guide for this long journey. 

The ship of fools is an allegory to our current time. As it always was and can be an allegory of all times. It’s a vessel that helps me from drowning on a transhistoric, dubious, pilgrimage.

Represented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia