Artists in the Exhibition:

Meriç Algün Ringborg, Ghada Amer, Nina Beier, Pierre Bismuth, Liudvikas Buklys, Christian Burnoski, Claire Fontaine, Ryan Gander, Juozas Laivys, Sol LeWitt, Nina Beier and Marie Lund, Kris Martin, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Jonathan Monk, Alek O., Dan Rees, Mandla Reuter, Ron Terada, Mario Garcia Torres

Press release:

An Incomplete History of Incomplete Works of Art brings together artworks by both emerging and established artists that are in various ways and in different states incomplete.

Through painting, drawing, sculpture, video and photography, the exhibition looks at the incomplete, and respectively the complete, in connection with the visual arts as well as life at large. It poses questions in regard to whether or not a work of art can ever be complete, and if so by whom, in examining what is to be complete or incomplete.

Throughout the history of art, artwork has commonly been produced and exhibited as a stationary, fixed object, designed with the goal of being preserved for eternity in this condition. Some of the artworks exhibited in An Incomplete History of Incomplete Works of Art however subvert this norm by requiring additional input from other people once they have been exhibited. They request the role-play of viewers, particularly collectors, in a manner that allows them to be assailants, participants and direct accomplices in the making and construction of the work itself, rather than assuming the conventional position of patron or viewer. Considering the context of the gallery, both gallery and exhibition will come to function as a platform to allow this to ensue. While some of the artworks included in the exhibition are incomplete at present in this way, there are those that remain in states of incompletion, leading one to consider that which will always be missing.

Rather than adding to a number of existing explorations of the unrealised or the failed in the visual arts, the focus of An Incomplete History of Incomplete Works of Art firmly remains on the dimension of, and the creative potential in, the incomplete and the complete, and the precipice between the two. The exhibition presents the completed incomplete and the incomplete completed. It positions the audience to reflect on and investigate, how, why and where.

While the title of the exhibition describes the nature of the works on display, it also suggests that the exhibition might be incomplete overall. In this way, the title points to the fact that the incomplete is inherent in almost any exhibition – past, present and future. It is perhaps impossible to present a truly complete exhibition. One might consider numerous other works pertinent for a display, which, for a number of reasons – budgetary, politically and practically among them – cannot be presented.

more information: www.francescaminini.it