EXHIBITION CATALOGUE (PDF)
AN EXHIBITION AT THE INITIATIVE OF LENA HAGER & LUKE LUKE LUKE
CO-DIRECTED AND ASSISTED BY EVE IDA FIERTAG, LUNA LAMBERT & PAUL PERRUCON
with :
VINCENT BENTOLILA, RUNE BERING, RACHEAL CROWTHER, LOUIS DAVID, ROMÉO DINI, JACQUES DI PIAZZA, LAMBERT DUCHESNE, LENA HAGER, LUNA LAMBERT, LUKE LUKE LUKE, PAUL PERRUCON, ROGERGOON, EMMA VAN DER PUT, COLLECTIF DERNIER SOUFFLE – SIBYLLE DE LA GIRAUDIÈRE, PIERRE BOYER & JÉRÉMY REYNAUD
Between the 8th and the 14th of May 2023, the collective exhibition This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever was on view in the commercial lot of the former Libris library, inside the Galerie Louise mall, Av. de la Toison d'Or 40, 1050 Brussels.
Taking its cues from the editorial project 250_Ko by Lena Hager and Luke Luke Luke, published through Acédie 58 in May 2022, this in-situ exhibition comprising 16 artists intends to revive the library, which has been vacant for almost a decade, prompting a dialogue between their pieces and the temporal qualities of the location. Through in situ proposals, the exhibition aims to emphasize the context of the space, as well as the socio-economic parameters and contemporary reflections that surround it.
What was initially a project around the constraints and limitations of the Nokia-3310 (2017)’s camera, the book 250_Ko led Hager and Luke to question the ambivalence of such an object. This phone became a repurposed tool for an hauntological investigation while simultaneously witnessing its poetics: absurd mundane scenes, billowing landscapes, indecipherable materials, and anecdotes left adrift between tenderness, chaos and drama. Similar inquiries arose from the abandoned liminal space which has housed This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever. Both petrified in a bygone era and stretched towards what Mark Fisher identified as “lost futures”, the space exists in a disturbing atemporal present haunted by persistent specters, which stand contrary to its dilapidation andpotential future activations.
The exhibition will be open to the public from the moment the first artwork is installed, giving visitors the chance to witness its full conception by working around the unique temporality of this space through the blurring of the opening and closing of the exhibition. This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever will assemble artworks which, through their materiality and/or presence in the space, question the lags between our present and its haunted futures.
AN EXHIBITION AT THE INITIATIVE OF LENA HAGER & LUKE LUKE LUKE
CO-DIRECTED AND ASSISTED BY EVE IDA FIERTAG, LUNA LAMBERT & PAUL PERRUCON
with :
VINCENT BENTOLILA, RUNE BERING, RACHEAL CROWTHER, LOUIS DAVID, ROMÉO DINI, JACQUES DI PIAZZA, LAMBERT DUCHESNE, LENA HAGER, LUNA LAMBERT, LUKE LUKE LUKE, PAUL PERRUCON, ROGERGOON, EMMA VAN DER PUT, COLLECTIF DERNIER SOUFFLE – SIBYLLE DE LA GIRAUDIÈRE, PIERRE BOYER & JÉRÉMY REYNAUD
Between the 8th and the 14th of May 2023, the collective exhibition This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever was on view in the commercial lot of the former Libris library, inside the Galerie Louise mall, Av. de la Toison d'Or 40, 1050 Brussels.
Taking its cues from the editorial project 250_Ko by Lena Hager and Luke Luke Luke, published through Acédie 58 in May 2022, this in-situ exhibition comprising 16 artists intends to revive the library, which has been vacant for almost a decade, prompting a dialogue between their pieces and the temporal qualities of the location. Through in situ proposals, the exhibition aims to emphasize the context of the space, as well as the socio-economic parameters and contemporary reflections that surround it.
What was initially a project around the constraints and limitations of the Nokia-3310 (2017)’s camera, the book 250_Ko led Hager and Luke to question the ambivalence of such an object. This phone became a repurposed tool for an hauntological investigation while simultaneously witnessing its poetics: absurd mundane scenes, billowing landscapes, indecipherable materials, and anecdotes left adrift between tenderness, chaos and drama. Similar inquiries arose from the abandoned liminal space which has housed This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever. Both petrified in a bygone era and stretched towards what Mark Fisher identified as “lost futures”, the space exists in a disturbing atemporal present haunted by persistent specters, which stand contrary to its dilapidation andpotential future activations.
The exhibition will be open to the public from the moment the first artwork is installed, giving visitors the chance to witness its full conception by working around the unique temporality of this space through the blurring of the opening and closing of the exhibition. This is Nowhere, and it’s Forever will assemble artworks which, through their materiality and/or presence in the space, question the lags between our present and its haunted futures.
⬇︎ EXHIBITION TEXT BY PAUL PERUCCON ⬇︎
FR
"Le fond de la galerie fait un peu peur. Je me penche sur le travail étrange des machineries suspendues : un bassin recouvert de poussière, la tuyauterie sans direction et un Noël éternel.
Je négocie mon chemin jusqu’ici, sous le plafond en miroir. Je pense à Marnie et Denis qui parlent au gérant, enfermé·e·s dans le sas de la bijouterie.
Ici, c’est vraiment nulle part; c’est comme un couloir consommé jusqu’à l’os et qu’on se figure dissout dans une clarté de néon. En fait, je crois à la vie de spectres du non-lieu, à cet espace qu’on devrait voir apparaître si on l’attaquait à l’acétone, une représentation trop publicitaire du réel : un ailleurs de derrière l’ailleurs, ma communauté de réparation.
Les commerçant.e.s nous ont fait un accueil étonné avant de nous ouvrir des fonds de commerce sombres qui ressemblaient à des chantiers. J’ai donc noté : ne surtout pas trahir l’idée de chantier, ni celle de fantôme.
La lumière ne s’allume pas dans celui-ci. Si je reste immobile, c’est comme si mon corps se dissolvait :
voilà comment on fait les spectres. Une présence s’oublie, rendue aux débris.
Celles et ceux qui marcheront après moi auront simplement plus froid que dans le reste de la ville.
Un royaume de zones commerciales annulées, des jungles de solvants et de poussières – je suis là, un petit peu, avec tous les business qu’on aurait pu monter. Je suis sur les rotules comme un cyborg, je ne sais plus où je commence."
Nous vous invitons à This is nowhere and it’s forever, moins une exposition qu’une sorte de chantier,
un moment de présence, de travail et de rencontre sur 7 jours qui se tient dans un magasin délaissé de la Galerie Louise en présence des artistes invité·e·s, des commerçant.e.s, voisin.e.s et des visiteur.euse.s.
Il s’agit d’investir un espace atemporel, hanté par l’insistance des spectres contraires de son délabrement et de ses potentielles activations.
Ce moment de création et de convivialité est l’occasion de s’interroger sur les trous d’airs fantomatiques, sur les réminiscences étranges qui peuvent se manifester dans ces non-lieux produits en série par le capitalisme tardif.
EN
"The back of the gallery is a bit scary. I lean over to look at the strange work of the suspended
machinery : a basin covered in dust, pipes going nowhere, and eternal Christmas decorations.
I navigate my way here, under the mirrored ceiling. I think of Marnie and Denis talking to the manager, trapped in the jewelry store’s airlock.
Here is really nowhere; it’s like a hallway consumed to the bone and imagined dissolved in neon light. In fact, I believe in the spectral life of non-place, it is this space we would see appear if we attacked it with acetone. A representation too commercial of reality : a elsewhere behind elsewhere, my resilience hub.
The shopkeepers gave us a surprised welcome before opening the dark storefronts that looked like construction sites. So I noted: do not betray the idea of a construction site, nor that of a ghost.
The light does not turn on in this one. If I stay still, it’s as if my body dissolves: that’s how ghosts are made.
A presence is forgotten, reduced to debris. Those who will walk after me will simply be colder than in the rest of the city.
A kingdom of canceled commercial areas, jungles of solvents and dust - I am here, a little bit, with all the businesses that could have been set up. I am on my knees like a cyborg, I no longer know where I begin."
We invite you to This is nowhere and it’s forever, less of an exhibition and more of a construction site, a moment of presence, work, and encounters over 7 days, held in an abandoned store of Galerie Louise, in the presence of invited artists, neighboring shopkeepers, and visitors. The aim is to invest in a timeless space, haunted by the persistence of contrary specters of its dilapidation and potential activations.
This moment of creation and conviviality is an opportunity to question the phantasmagorical voids, the strange reminiscences that can manifest in these non-places produced in series by late capitalism.
NL
"Vanachter in de galerij is het een beetje eng.
Ik buig me over het vreemde werk van de opgehangen machines : een stofbedekt bassin, leidingen zonder richting en een eeuwige kerst. Ik vind mijn weg hierheen onder het spiegelende plafond. Ik denk aan Marnie en Denis die met de manager praten, opgesloten in de ventilatie van de juwelierszaak.
Hier is het echt nergens; het is als een gang die tot op het bot is geconsumeerd en die we ons voorstellen opgelost in een neonhelderheid. In feite geloof ik in het spookachtige leven van de non-plaats, het is deze ruimte die zou moeten verschijnen als we het met aceton zouden aanvallen, een te commerciële representatie van de werkelijkheid: een elders achter elders, mijn gemeenschap van reparatie. – mijn veerkrachtige hub
De handelaars begroetten ons verrast voordat ze ons toegang gaven tot donkere bedrijfspanden die op bouwwerven leken. Dus heb ik genoteerd: verraad vooral niet het idee van een bouwplaats, noch dat van een geest.
Het licht gaat niet aan hier. Als ik stil blijf staan, lijkt het alsof mijn lichaam verdwijnt: zo maak je geesten. Een aanwezigheid wordt vergeten, overgeleverd aan puin. Degenen die na mij zullen lopen, zullen het gewoon kouder hebben dan in de rest van de stad.
Een rijk van geannuleerde winkelcentrums, jungles van oplosmiddelen en stof - ik ben er een beetje, met alle bedrijven die we hadden kunnen starten. Ik zit op mijn knieën zoals als een cyborg, ik weet niet meer waar ik begin."
Wij nodigen u uit voor This is nowhere and it’s forever, minder een tentoonstelling dan een soort werkplaats, een moment van aanwezigheid, werk en ontmoeting gedurende 7 dagen in een verlaten winkel van de Galerie Louise, in aanwezigheid van de uitgenodigde kunstenaars, de naburige handelaars en de bezoekers. Het gaat erom een tijdloze ruimte te bezetten, beheerst door de tegenstrijdige spookachtige aanwezigheid van verval en potentiële activering.
Dit creatieve en gezellige moment is een gelegenheid om na te denken over fantoomluchtgaten en vreemde herinneringen die zich kunnen manifesteren in deze niet-plaatsen die worden geproduceerd door het late kapitalisme.
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Philippe Van Roy (1980-2023),
magazines pages, installation, dimensions variable
Luna Lambert - Lambris d’appui (2023), wood, paint, installation, 110x140cm
Roméo Dini - AW Myths (2022), photographs printed on aluminium,
steel frame, 80x40 cm & 60x40 cm
Vincent Bentolila, Untitled (2023), urban fluids, installation, dimensions variable
Rogergoon - Cookies for the minotaur (2023), sound installation, 6,46’
listen here
Collectif Dernier Souffle (Pierre Boyer, Sybille De La Giraudière, Jérémy Reynaud) -
Untitled (2022), installation, dimensions variable
A view on the elevator from outside, where Collectif Dernier Souffle stacked up some of their pannels
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Call home (1990-2023),
phone card, CPU socket, installation, dimensions variable
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Photo1349.jpg & Photo0377.jpg (2019-23),
paper, ink, glue, installation, dimensions variable
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Attire clients (2023), incense, installation,
dimensions variable
Paul Perrucon - SUPERHIGHWAYS.emotional (2023), paper, ink, text, 21×29,7 cm
Library/lounge space on the first floor with some writings that shed lights on our preoccupations for the show including: Inside the White Cube by Brian O’Doherty, Le corps utopique- Les hétérotopies by Michel Foucault, K-punk by Mark Fisher, Non-lieux : Introduction à une anthropologie de la modernité by Marc Augé, Postproduction by Nicolas Bourriaud, Place and Placelessness by Edward Relph (extract) and a few articles about the history and controversies around the space in which the show was taking place, Galerie Porte Louise.
Jacques Di Piazza - Zones de transit (2022-2023), plaster, tarmac and rug, installation, dimensions variable
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Les relations réciproques (1970-2023), bubble level, picture mounted on wood, installation, 13,5x30,5cm
Emma Van Der Put - Mall of Europe (2018), HD video, 26’, sound by Maxime Rouquart
Stills from Mall of Europe
Rune Berring - Cosmos-field-730379245 (2021), laserprint, paper tray
Louis David - 110kHz (2023), video installation, 10,43’, sound by Virgile Guillaud
watch here
Lena Hager & Luke Luke Luke - Untitled (1901-2023),
magic lantern, carbon tripod, steel, wood, plastic, led, diapositive,
installation, dimensions variable
Racheal Crowther - Best Before (2023), pharmaceutical wall clocks (originally manufactured for promotional purposes), installation, dimensions variable
Office space scenography for Lambert Duchesne’s video work
Toys don't get wrinkles but they do age
Lambert Duchesne - Toys don't get wrinkles but they do age (2023), video, 3’30
stills from Toys don’t get wrinkles, but they do age
The very first action performed within the space was the addition of a red carpet extending the one already present in the premises, right up to the doors of the exhibition space.
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