{"id":19159,"title":"GERLACH EN KOOP - 2007 - A Badly Fitting Mirror Image [EN, essay]","dimensions":"5 p.","date_begin":null,"material":"","art_status_id":13,"legal_status_id":47,"category_id":25,"platform_id":1,"deleted":false,"asset_count":1,"stream_count":0,"collection":"Hans Theys Archive / Archief Hans Theys","cached_tag_list":"essay","publishing_process_id":1,"annotation":"","date_end":null,"reference":"","stream_count_app":10,"permalink":"gerlach-en-koop-a-badly-fitting-mirror-image-en-essay","description_ca":"","short_description_ca":"","description_it":"","short_description_it":"","cached_primary_asset_url":null,"cached_actor_names":"Hans Theys","hide_from_json":true,"prev_platform_id":null,"description_uk":null,"short_description_uk":null,"description_tr":null,"short_description_tr":null,"mhka_works":false,"category":{"en":"Text","nl":"Tekst","fr":"Texte"},"poster_image":null,"poster_credits":null,"translations":[{"locale":"en","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n__________\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nHans Theys\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eA Badly Fitting Mirror Image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eSome words about the work of gerlach en koop\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cem\u003eThe work of gerlach en koop is very special: beautiful, clever, mysterious, reserved and sensual in a refined manner. It is an art of equilibrium, drawing fine wrinkles in the image that we drape over reality every day, a form of practicing attention. It is work that apparently could only originate on the border of southern and northern cultures: rational and sensuous, conceptual and material, witty and serious, inspired by literature but with a well-executed plasticity. What we see here is a held-back, scintillating plasticity that remains as dregs from thickened conversations and other adventures. I am glad that I got to know this work. \u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe apparent mirror image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWednesday, August 29, 2007. I saw a very beautiful exhibition in The Hague today. It was situated in the front rooms of the former cellar space of a wide building. This space is visible from the pavement, because a part of the floor was taken out over the entire width of the building. Originally there were two separate cellars, which are now connected by means of two openings. The artists closed off these openings, so that the spectators are given the impression of standing in front of a solid wall. The intervention is essential, because through recreating the original division between the two cellars, it creates a kind of mirror image. The apparent mirror image is a recurring theme in the work of these artists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn every space there is a grey table on which we find two finished, ready-bought jigsaw puzzles of different size and on which we recognise what seem to be identical photographs. Only on closer inspection it turns out that they are two different photographs, made within a short interval of each other. (We recognise the same people and clouds that have moved ever so slightly in the interval.) There are two tables, on which two jigsaw puzzles are placed each. The table in the first space contains horizontal puzzles, whereas there are vertical puzzles on the table in the second space. The puzzles are laid down next to each other, pushed against the bottom and left-hand side of the table. Placed over the puzzles are two sheets of glass that each cover half of the entire surface of the table, thus creating a double bipartition. On the one hand there is the apparent doubling of the jigsaw puzzle photo (with matching scale change, because the puzzles are not the same size), whilst on the other hand the entire surface of the table is split in two by the sheets of glass. In that way a fine visual shifting or rippling of the picture occurs, that reminds us of another work that is being exhibited entitled \u003cem\u003eSix shoulders, three mugs and three plants (don\u0026rsquo;t take any notice of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor)\u003c/em\u003e. The work is a found book cover that was printed on the front and reverse side with the same photograph. To the left and right of the spine however, the photo was not cut exactly in two, resulting in a strip being printed twice.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eA small drawing of a window with curtains and house plant, that they found on the left bottom corner of an open file, is reproduced on a great white sheet, that is displayed beneath a picture of the file.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn every space there is a white electricity flex from which the actual copper wire has been removed, so that a long, empty, double cable is left.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eTwo brown trays with a damaged corner are situated on the wall, next to each other. The first tray is original; the second is a duplicate that, after much practice, has been given a highly resembling damaged corner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe theme of the apparent mirror image returns slightly altered in the theme of the negative space. In one space of the current exhibition we find three white volumes that are reconstructions of the empty spaces behind one volume of the Van Dale dictionary of the Dutch language (a through i) in three different bookcases. In the other space we find similar white volumes, which are actually scale models of the volumes that were used to close off the partition wall between both halves of the cellar space. The three paper sculptures that give shape to the negative space behind the three volumes of the Van Dale dictionary have arisen from an intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, entitled \u003cem\u003eart books (beside the art).\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eFor this intervention they pushed all the books in the library backwards on their shelves, so that the books no longer aligned at the front, but at the back. By doing so, the library\u0026rsquo;s minimal architecture was given an almost invisible, but certainly tangible, frayed appearance. The library looked more like that of a private house, where people often shove the books to the back of the shelves to create space for little objects in front of them. In public libraries the reverse is generally done, because the titles on the spines are more legible that way. The library in Eindhoven was given more air and less (hidden) darkness. What the artists did was simple, physical, visual and politically inspired in a funny way. At least, that is how I felt it. To me it seems like a beautiful, poetic, soft and at the same time radical disruption of a glossy functionality.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIrony, consensus and irony \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eI need to tell you something about irony. I do not like irony when it implies a condescending attitude (like with Duchamp) or negativity (the so-called saying the opposite of what you mean). \u0026lsquo;Irony\u0026rsquo; means that you say something different than you appear to be saying, without giving a clue about your real intention. What does this notion add to reality? It repeats the feeling of the child that can only guess at the meaning of words it does not understand. Sometimes, this misunderstanding results in a feeling of insecurity. Every \u0026lsquo;meaning\u0026rsquo; of words has something ironic about it. Words have a tangible shape, but that shape does not cover the meaning. Something is escaping. In that sense, a metaphor results from irony. The beautiful thing about irony is that you can say things that are true and untrue at the same time. If Gerard Reve stated on television that the Russians ate children, then of course that was not a true statement, but still it was true. I once read letters by Flaubert for months. The most fascinating parts were the pages on which he corrected poems by Louise Colet, because for me it was often impossible to see why he found a verse good or bad. It comes as no surprise to me that gerlach en koop sometimes quote from his \u003cem\u003eDictionnaire des id\u0026eacute;es re\u0026ccedil;ues \u003c/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003eDictionary of Received Ideas\u003c/em\u003e). It has been a long time since I have read this book, but I remember that it contained many ideas of which I did not understand what was \u0026lsquo;received\u0026rsquo; about them. gerlach en koop used such a clich\u0026eacute; as a title for one of their exhibitions: \u0026lsquo;Concessions? Never make any.\u0026rsquo; At this exhibition we could see a doorpost marked with two lines indicating the lengths of both artists. The distance between both lengths forms their scope. The part of the doorpost between the marks was sawed loose and removed during the exhibition. Afterwards it was replaced invisibly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Many people took the title of the exhibition seriously,\u0026rsquo; according to gerlach en koop. \u0026lsquo;As if you can live or work without having to make concessions. In any case, we can only work together if we are prepared to reach a consensus. Our entire life consists of concessions. The difference between us two is our manoeuvering space.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerceiving and seeing (the duplication of reality)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eOne of gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s beautiful publications contains the translation of a passage from a novel by Jules Verne, which was left out by the Dutch translator in spite of the fact that it said \u0026lsquo;unabridged\u0026rsquo; on the title page. It concerned one of the many enumerations that appear in this novel and that were very common in the nineteenth century, but were perceived as annoying at a later date.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e(In \u003cem\u003eLes testaments trahis \u003c/em\u003eKundera remarks that the first thing translators or conductors leave out is usually the most essential part of the piece of art they are working on.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThree hundred years ago, or more, when I was a student at university, I tried to demonstrate the difference between the original \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e and the many shortened and vulgarised versions y pointing out a gradation in the opening line of the famous eighth chapter of this novel (About the good fortune that the brave Don Quixote experienced in the frightful and never dreamt of adventure of the windmills, besides other events, worthy of unforgettable remembrance.) The sentence goes as follows: \u0026lsquo;At that moment they sighted thirty or forty windmills, that are situated there in the fields, and when Don Quixote saw them he said unto his servant...\u0026rsquo; In the original version Cervantes uses the words \u0026lsquo;descubrir\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;ver\u0026rsquo;, or \u0026lsquo;perceive\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;see\u0026rsquo;. In the adaptations this apparent repeat is always lost. This novel is, however, continuously about the difference between what can \u0026lsquo;really\u0026rsquo; be seen and what Don Quixote thinks he is seeing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe very first work made by gerlach en koop together was a picture postcard with the image of a lost painting by Jan van Eyck (with corrected perspective) that we only know from a copy that was painted by Willem van Haecht, as part of the painting \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest\u003c/em\u003e (1628). The Jan van Eyck painting, \u003cem\u003eWoman doing her toilet \u003c/em\u003epictures two ladies. One of them is naked (even though she is wearing slippers), the second one is dressed. A ball mirror reflects them both. Maybe they are the same woman. What we do not see is the empty shell: the clothes that are elsewhere without the body of the naked woman. In the left of the forefront there are empty overshoes, which emphasise the absence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Every work of art is the mirror of another work of art,\u0026rsquo; writes a fictitious author who is being quoted by Perec in the short novel. \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait\u003c/em\u003e. \u0026lsquo;A great number of paintings, if not all, do not get their significance until in conjunction with previous art that has simply been copied, partly or completely, or is assimilated therein in a referring way.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eI quote this sentence, because I think it must have appealed to gerlach en koop. In this way they comply with literary tradition that took shape amongst others in an essay by Borges about Cervantes\u0026rsquo; \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e. The \u003cem\u003eQuijote\u003c/em\u003e consists of two parts. In the second part, that was written and published later, Don Quixote meets people who have read the first part. The theme of the double experience of reality that was already expressed in the many different adventures of Don Quixote and his companion is duplicated yet again. The \u0026lsquo;authentic\u0026rsquo; reminiscences of Don Quixote are always out of keeping with the reminiscences of the readers who read the first part. Borges compares this adventure of the duplicating experience with Shakespeare\u0026rsquo;s \u003cem\u003eHamlet\u003c/em\u003e, because Hamlet stage-managed a play in order to find out the truth about his father\u0026rsquo;s murder. Borges sees in these mirroring duplications an infinite tumbling that absorbs the reader in the realm of fiction: \u0026lsquo;If the characters of a fabrication could also be readers or onlookers, such inversions suggest that we, their readers and onlookers, might be fabricated too\u0026rsquo;.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWe are talking about an \u0026lsquo;infinite tumbling\u0026rsquo;, because the abyss that opens in the novel can be infinite, as appears from the story quoted by Borges from \u003cem\u003eThousand and One Nights\u003c/em\u003e, in which Sheherazade tells the king, who is being stringed along with the thousand stories, his own history, in which of course she describes herself telling the stories, etcetera.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003egerlach en koop do not only make beautiful publications, they are also acting as anti-publishers: it is their intention to take off the market all copies of a certain book. In this work there is also an infinite progression that reminds us of the paradox of Zeno.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eI do not think that visual arts can derive their strength and effect solely by literature. I also think that this is not the intention of gerlach en koop. I rather think that their work is akin to the many reflections and variations of form that we find in work by Belgian artists such as Marcel Broodthaers or Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx (and Dutch or international artists whose work I am not as well acquainted with) that occasionally connect them with the literary tradition. Form remains the aim.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWhen we look at the aluminium ruler that makes us think of a frieze (because the blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints is repeated dozens of times) blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints) then this reminds me of the \u0026lsquo;infinite\u0026rsquo; reflection that we in Belgium know from the mirrors at the top of the stairs of the home of the architect Horta. In reality this reflection is never infinite, because what we see is a sort of diminishing sequence. In this fine work by gerlach en koop we meet a perfect reflection, in the form of a measurable series. The endless regression is the inspiration for a new measuring staff that takes it place in history beginning with the \u003cem\u003eStoppages \u0026eacute;talon\u003c/em\u003e by Marcel Duchamp, and has found a number of handsome variations in the \u003cem\u003eMeasuring Staffs\u003c/em\u003e by Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe length of the ruler coincides with the maximum length that could be made. The gauge is the same as an aluminium cube that was published as an erratum at the intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe most impressive thing about gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s work is the combination of maximum erudition and a minimal, held-back form. Literature is reduced to its essence, which is silence. No noisy arguments, but a careful sliding forward of puzzling images, wrinkled into a clear shape.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion without ending\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe artists told me that they would like to wander aimlessly in a city, but that they never can. That is why they have chosen the finding of torn off corners of posters as the pretence aim of their wanderings. Their wish resembles the statement of the Belgian painter Walter Swennen, who once stated that he dreamt that he could paint \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;, in analogy with Lacan, who corrected Freud\u0026rsquo;s instruction to his patients \u0026lsquo;to narrate whatever crops up\u0026rsquo; by inviting them to narrate \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;. Even though we try to move aimlessly, we will always meet our own phantom images. Our reality is a closed off hall of mirrors in which tautologies and all kinds of guises create an illusion of diversity and freedom in the way of dreams. We are locked up in our way of looking and the limited number of things that we can see. However, at the same time the stories and the guises and the costumes and the masks are so diverse and their number so infinite that we will never be able to explore them all and will forever chase our phantom images.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nMontagne de Miel, 10 October 2007\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"nl","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n__________\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nHans Theys\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eHet slecht passende spiegelbeeld\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnkele woorden over het werk van gerlach en koop\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cem\u003eHet werk van gerlach en koop is heel bijzonder: mooi, uitgekiend, geheimzinnig, teruggetrokken en op een verfijnde manier sensueel. Het is een evenwichtskunst, een trekken van fijne rimpels in het beeld dat we dagelijks over de werkelijkheid draperen, een vorm van oefenende aandacht. Het is werk dat schijnbaar alleen kon ontstaan op de grens van de zuidelijke en de noordelijke culturen: rationeel en zinnelijk, conceptueel en materieel, grappig en ernstig, literair ge\u0026iuml;nspireerd maar plastisch uitzonderlijk verzorgd. We stuiten hier op een ingehouden, tintelende plasticiteit, die als droesem is overgebleven van ingedikte gesprekken en andere avonturen. Ik ben blij dat ik dit werk heb leren kennen.\u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHet schijnbare spiegelbeeld\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWoensdag, 29 augustus 2007. Vanmiddag zag ik in Den Haag een heel mooie tentoonstelling. De werken bevonden zich in de voorste vertrekken van de voormalige kelderruimte van een breed gebouw. De ruimte is zichtbaar van op het trottoir, omdat over de gehele breedte van het gebouw een deel van de vloer werd weggenomen. Het gebouw is een samensmelting van twee huizen. Oorspronkelijk waren er dus twee kelders, die nu echter met elkaar verbonden zijn door twee openingen. Deze openingen werden door de kunstenaars dichtgemaakt, zodat de toeschouwer de indruk heeft voor een massieve muur te staan. De ingreep is essentieel, omdat ze een soort van spiegelbeeld cre\u0026euml;ert. Het schijnbare spiegelbeeld keert voortdurend terug in het werk van deze kunstenaars.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn elke ruimte bevindt zich een grijze tafel waarop twee afgewerkte, kant-en-klaar gekochte legpuzzels van ongelijke grootte liggen, waarop we ogenschijnlijk dezelfde foto\u0026rsquo;s herkennen. Pas bij nader onderzoek blijkt het om twee verschillende foto\u0026rsquo;s te gaan, die met een korte tussenpose gemaakt werden. (We herkennen dezelfde mensen en wolken, die zich in de tussenpose echter een klein beetje hebben verplaatst.) Er zijn dus twee tafels, waarop telkens twee legpuzzels liggen. Op de tafel in de eerste ruimte gaat het om horizontale puzzels, op de tafel in de tweede ruimte gaat het om verticale puzzels. De puzzels liggen naast elkaar, tegen de onderste en de linkerrand van de tafel geschoven. Daarover liggen twee glasplaten die elk de helft van de volledige oppervlakte van het tafelblad bedekken. Zo ontstaat er een dubbele tweedeling. Enerzijds heb je de schijnbare verdubbeling van de legpuzzel-foto (met bijbehorende schaalverschuiving, omdat de puzzels niet even groot zijn), anderzijds wordt het totale oppervlak van de tafels precies in twee gedeeld door de glasplaten. Zo ontstaat een fraaie visuele verschuiving of rimpeling van het beeld, die doet denken aan een ander tentoongesteld werk dat luistert naar de titel \u003cem\u003eZes schouders, drie bekers en drie planten (let niet op Richard Burton en Elizabeth Taylor).\u003c/em\u003e Het werk is een gevonden boekomslag dat op de voor- en achterflap bedrukt werd met dezelfde foto. Links en rechts van de rug werd de foto echter niet precies doormidden gesneden, zodat een strook ervan twee keer wordt afgedrukt.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eEen tekeningetje van een venster met gordijnen en kamerplant, dat ze hebben aangetroffen in de linkerbenedenhoek van een opengeslagen ordner, wordt gereproduceerd op een groot wit vel, dat onder een afbeelding van de ordner wordt tentoongesteld.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIn elke ruimte bevindt zich een wit elektriciteitssnoer waaruit de eigenlijke koperdraad werd verwijderd, zodat een lange lege, dubbele huls overblijft.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eTegen de muur hangen naast elkaar twee bruine dienbladen met een beschadigd hoekje. Het eerste dienblad is origineel, het andere is een duplicaat, dat na veel oefenen een zeer gelijkend beschadigd hoekje heeft gekregen.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eHet thema van het schijnbare spiegelbeeld kent een variant in het thema van de restruimte. In \u0026eacute;\u0026eacute;n ruimte van de huidige tentoonstelling treffen we drie witte volumes aan, die reconstructies zijn van de lege ruimte achter \u0026eacute;\u0026eacute;n deel van het Van Dale woordenboek (a/i) in drie verschillende boekenkasten. In de andere ruimte vinden we twee soortgelijke witte volumes, die schaalmodellen zijn van de volumes die gebruikt werden om de scheidingsmuur tussen beide helften van de kelder te dichten. De drie papieren sculpturen die gestalte geven aan de restruimte achter de drie Van Dale woordenboeken zijn voortgevloeid uit een ingreep in de bibliotheek van het Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, die als titel droeg \u003cem\u003ekunstboeken (naast de kunst)\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eVoor die ingreep hebben ze alle boeken van de bibliotheek naar achteren geschoven, zodat die niet meer vooraan, maar achteraan op \u0026eacute;\u0026eacute;n lijn stonden. De minimale architectuur kreeg hierdoor een vrijwel onzichtbaar, maar zeker voelbaar, rafelig aanzien. De bibliotheek leek meer op die van een priv\u0026eacute;woning, waar mensen de boeken vaak achterin de schabben duwen zodat ze meer plaats krijgen om voorwerpjes tentoon te stellen. In openbare bibliotheken gebeurt doorgaans het omgekeerde, omdat de rugteksten op die manier beter leesbaar zijn. De bibliotheek kreeg meer lucht en minder (verborgen) duisternis. De ingreep was eenvoudig, fysiek, visueel en op een grappige manier politiek ge\u0026iuml;nspireerd. Zo voel ik het althans aan. Het lijkt mij een mooie, po\u0026euml;tische, zachte en tegelijk radicale verstoring van een glossy functionaliteit.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIronie, consensus en ironie \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIk moet u hier iets vertellen over ironie. Ik hou niet van ironie in de vorm van neerbuigendheid (zoals bij Duchamp) of negativiteit (het zogenaamde tegenovergestelde zeggen van wat je bedoelt). \u0026lsquo;Ironie\u0026rsquo; betekent dat je iets anders zegt dan je lijkt te zeggen, zonder dat je dit uit het gezegde kan opmaken. Wat voegt dit begrip toe aan de werkelijkheid? Het herhaalt het gevoel van het kind dat alleen maar kan gissen naar de betekenis van woorden die het niet begrijpt. Soms zorgt dit onbegrip voor een onveilig gevoel. Elk \u0026lsquo;betekenen\u0026rsquo; van woorden heeft iets ironisch. Ze hebben een concrete vorm, maar die vorm dekt niet de lading. Iets ontsnapt. In die zin ontstaat de metafoor uit ironie. Het mooie aan ironie is dat je dingen kan zeggen die tegelijk waar en onwaar zijn. Als Gerard Reve op de verrekijk verklaarde dat de Russen kinderen opaten dan was dat geen ware uitspraak, natuurlijk, maar toch was het waar. Ik heb eens maandenlang brieven van Flaubert gelezen. De boeiendste passages waren voor mij de bladzijden waarin hij verzen van Louise Colet verbeterde, omdat het voor mij vaak onmogelijk was te zien waarom hij een vers goed of slecht vond. Het verbaast mij dan ook niet dat gerlach en koop soms citeren uit zijn \u003cem\u003eDictionnaire des id\u0026eacute;es re\u0026ccedil;ues\u003c/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eThesaurus van pasklare idee\u0026euml;n\u003c/em\u003e). Ik heb dit boek allang niet meer ter hand genomen, maar ik herinner me dat er tal van idee\u0026euml;n waren waarvan ik het \u0026lsquo;pasklare\u0026rsquo; niet begreep. gerlach en koop hebben zo\u0026rsquo;n clich\u0026eacute; gebruikt als titel voor een tentoonstelling: \u0026lsquo;Concessies? Nooit doen.\u0026rsquo; Op deze tentoonstelling trof je op een deurpost twee streepjes aan die de lengte van beide kunstenaars aangaven. De afstand tussen beide lengtes vormt hun speelruimte. Het deel van de deurpost tussen de streepjes was op de tentoonstelling zelf losgezaagd en verwijderd. Na de tentoonstelling werd het onzichtbaar teruggeplaatst.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Veel mensen namen de titel van de tentoonstelling ernstig,\u0026rsquo; vertellen gerlach en koop. Alsof je kan leven of werken zonder concessies te doen. Wij kunnen in elk geval alleen maar samenwerken als we bereid zijn tot een consensus. Heel ons leven bestaat uit concessies. De afstand tussen ons beiden is onze manoeuvreerruimte.\u0026rsquo;\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOntwaren en zien (De verdubbeling van de werkelijkheid) \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eEen van de publicaties van gerlach en koop bevat de vertaling van een passage uit een boek van Jules Verne, die ondanks de vermelding \u0026lsquo;onverkorte uitgave\u0026rsquo; op het titelblad was weggelaten door de vertaler. Het ging om een van de vele opsommingen die in dit boek voorkomen en heel gebruikelijk waren in de negentiende eeuw, maar later als storend werden ervaren.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e(Kundera merkt in \u003cem\u003eLes testament trahis\u003c/em\u003e op dat het eerste wat vertalers of dirigenten weglaten, meestal het meest essenti\u0026euml;le is van het kunstwerk dat ze onder handen nemen.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDriehonderd jaar geleden of meer, toen ik studeerde aan de universiteit, probeerde ik het verschil tussen de oorspronkelijke Quijote en de talloze ingekorte en gevulgariseerde versies aan te tonen door te wijzen op een nuance in de openingszin van het beroemde achtste hoofdstuk van deze roman (Over het goed fortuin dat de dappere Don Quichot beleefde in het schrikkelijk en nooit gedroomd avontuur van de windmolens, benevens andere gebeurtenissen, heuglijke gedachtenis waardig). Die zin luidt als volgt: \u0026lsquo;Op dit ogenblik kregen zij dertig of veertig windmolens in zicht, die daar staan in de velden, en zodra Don Quichot ze zag, zeide hij tot zijn schildknaap...\u0026rsquo; In de oorspronkelijke versie gebruikt Cervantes de woorden \u0026lsquo;descubrir\u0026rsquo; en \u0026lsquo;ver\u0026rsquo;, \u0026lsquo;ontwaren\u0026rsquo; en \u0026lsquo;zien\u0026rsquo;. In de bewerkingen gaat deze schijnbare herhaling altijd verloren. Toch gaat het in deze roman voortdurend over het verschil tussen wat er \u0026lsquo;werkelijk\u0026rsquo; te zien is en wat \u0026lsquo;Don Quichot\u0026rsquo; meent waar te nemen.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eHet allereerste werk dat gerlach en koop samen maakten was een prentbriefkaart met de perspectivisch gecorrigeerde afbeelding van een verdwenen schilderij van Jan van Eyck, dat we enkel kennen van een kopie die werd geschilderd door Willem van Haecht, als onderdeel van het schilderij \u003cem\u003eKunstkamer van Cornelis van der Geest\u003c/em\u003e (1628). Het schilderij van Jan Van Eyck, \u003cem\u003eVrouw aan haar toilet\u003c/em\u003e, toont ons twee dames. E\u0026eacute;n van hen is naakt (al draagt ze slippers), de tweede is gekleed. Ze worden allebei weerspiegeld door een bolle spiegel. Misschien gaat het om dezelfde vrouw. Wat we niet zien is de lege huls: de kleren die ergens anders zijn zonder het lichaam van de naakte vrouw. Links op de voorgrond staan lege overschoenen, die deze afwezigheid versterken.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Ieder kunstwerk is de spiegel van een ander kunstwerk,\u0026rsquo; schrijft een fictieve auteur die wordt aangehaald door Perec in \u003cem\u003eEen kunstkabinet\u003c/em\u003e. \u0026lsquo;Een groot aantal schilderijen, zo niet alle, krijgt zijn werkelijke betekenis pas in samenhang met vroegere kunstwerken die er, geheel dan wel gedeeltelijk, eenvoudigweg in zijn overgenomen, ofwel er op een meer verwijzende manier in zijn verwerkt.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIk haal de zin aan, omdat ik denk dat hij gerlach en koop heeft aangesproken. Op die manier sluiten ze aan bij een literaire traditie die ondermeer gestalte kreeg in een essay van Borges over de Quijote van Cervantes. De \u003cem\u003eQuijote\u003c/em\u003e bestaat uit twee delen. In het tweede deel, dat later werd geschreven en gepubliceerd, ontmoet Don Quichot mensen die het eerste deel hebben gelezen. Het thema van de dubbele ervaring van de werkelijkheid, dat al tot uitdrukking kwam in de uiteenlopende ervaringen van Don Quichot en zijn compagnon, wordt zo nog eens verdubbeld. De \u0026lsquo;authentieke\u0026rsquo; herinneringen van Don Quichot stroken immers nooit met de herinneringen van de lezers van het eerste deel. Borges vergelijkt dit avontuur van de zich verdubbelende werkelijkheid met Shakespeares \u003cem\u003eHamlet\u003c/em\u003e, omdat Hamlet in dit stuk een toneelstuk ensceneert om de waarheid over de moord op zijn vader te achterhalen. Borges ziet in deze spiegelende verdubbelingen een eindeloze tuimeling die de lezer opslorpt in het rijk der fictie: \u0026lsquo;dergelijke omkeringen suggereren dat, als de karakters van een verzinsel ook lezers of toeschouwer kunnen zijn, wij, hun lezers en toeschouwers, misschien verzonnen zijn\u0026rsquo;.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWe spreken over een \u0026lsquo;eindeloze tuimeling\u0026rsquo;, omdat de afgrond die zich opent in het boek eindeloos kan zijn, zoals blijkt uit het door Borges aangehaalde verhaal uit \u003cem\u003eDuizend-en-\u0026eacute;\u0026eacute;n-nacht\u003c/em\u003e, waarin Sheherazade de koning, die aan het lijntje gehouden wordt met de duizend verhalen, ook zijn eigen geschiedenis vertelt, waarin ze natuurlijk zichzelf moet beschrijven die dit zit te vertellen, enzovoort.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003egerlach en koop verzorgen niet alleen fraaie publicaties, ze stellen zich nu ook op als anti-uitgever: ze hebben zich immers voorgenomen alle exemplaren van een bepaald boek uit de handel te nemen. Ook in dit werk schuilt een eindeloze progressie, die aan de paradox van Zeno doet denken.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIk denk niet dat plastisch werk zijn kracht of werking uitsluitend kan ontlenen aan de literatuur. Ik denk ook niet dat dit de bedoeling is van gerlach en koop. Ik denk eerder dat hun werk verwant is met de talloze spiegelingen en vormvariaties die je aantreft in het werk van kunstenaars als Marcel Broodthaers of Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx (en andere Nederlandse of internationale kunstenaars wier werk ik niet genoeg ken) die ze af en toe verbinden met de literaire traditie. De vorm blijft het doel.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAls we kijken naar de aluminium liniaal die aan een fries doet denken, omdat het blauwe en rode patroon van de King-pepermuntjes er tientallen keren in herhaald wordt, dan doet dit mij denken aan de \u0026lsquo;eindeloze\u0026rsquo; weerspiegeling die wij in Belgi\u0026euml; vooral kennen van de spiegels bovenaan de trap in het woonhuis van de architect Horta. In werkelijkheid is deze weerspiegeling nooit eindeloos, maar zien wij een soort van verminderende reeks. In dit mooie werk van gerlach en koop ontmoeten we een perfecte spiegeling, in de vorm van een meetbare reeks. De eindeloze regressie wordt de inspiratie voor een nieuwe meetlat, die haar plaats inneemt in een geschiedenis die begint met de \u003cem\u003eStoppages \u0026eacute;talon\u003c/em\u003e van Marcel Duchamp en een aantal fraaie varianten heeft gevonden in de \u003cem\u003eMaatstokken\u003c/em\u003e van Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDe lengte van het liniaal stemt overeen met de maximale lengte die gefabriceerd kon worden. De dikte stemt overeen met een aluminium kubusje dat naar aanleiding van de ingreep in de bibliotheek van het Van Abbemuseum werd gepubliceerd als erratum.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eHet meest indrukwekkende aan het werk van gerlach en koop is de combinatie van een maximale eruditie en een minimale, terughoudende vorm. De literatuur wordt teruggebracht tot haar essentie, die stilte is. Geen lawaaierige betogen, maar een voorzichtig naar voren schuiven van tot klare vorm geplooide raadselbeelden.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eSlot zonder einde \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDe kunstenaars vertelden mij dat ze graag doelloos zouden kunnen ronddwalen in een stad, maar dat dit nooit lukt. Daarom hebben ze het vinden van afgescheurde hoekjes van met plakband bevestigde affiches ooit benoemd tot schijndoel. Hun wens lijkt op de bewering van de Belgische schilder Walter Swennen die ooit beweerde ervan te dromen \u0026lsquo;om het even wat\u0026rsquo; te kunnen schilderen, naar analogie met Lacan die Freuds opdracht aan zijn pati\u0026euml;nten \u0026lsquo;te vertellen wat in hen opkwam\u0026rsquo; verbeterde door hen uit te nodigen \u0026lsquo;om het even wat te vertellen\u0026rsquo;. Hoe doelloos we ook proberen te bewegen, we zullen altijd weer onze eigen spookbeelden tegenkomen. Onze werkelijkheid is een afgesloten spiegelpaleis, waarin tautologie\u0026euml;n en allerhande vermommingen op de wijze van de droom een illusie van verscheidenheid en vrijheid scheppen. Wij zitten opgesloten in onze manier van kijken en in het geringe tal van de dingen die wij kunnen zien. Maar tegelijk zijn de vertellingen en de vermommingen en de kostuums en de maskers zo verscheiden en hun getal zo eindeloos, dat we ze nooit allemaal kunnen verkennen en eeuwig kunnen proberen onze spookbeelden te verschalken.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nMontagne de Miel, 10 oktober 2007\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"fr","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n__________\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nHans Theys\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eA Badly Fitting Mirror Image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eSome words about the work of gerlach en koop\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cem\u003eThe work of gerlach en koop is very special: beautiful, clever, mysterious, reserved and sensual in a refined manner. It is an art of equilibrium, drawing fine wrinkles in the image that we drape over reality every day, a form of practicing attention. It is work that apparently could only originate on the border of southern and northern cultures: rational and sensuous, conceptual and material, witty and serious, inspired by literature but with a well-executed plasticity. What we see here is a held-back, scintillating plasticity that remains as dregs from thickened conversations and other adventures. I am glad that I got to know this work. \u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe apparent mirror image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWednesday, August 29, 2007. I saw a very beautiful exhibition in The Hague today. It was situated in the front rooms of the former cellar space of a wide building. This space is visible from the pavement, because a part of the floor was taken out over the entire width of the building. Originally there were two separate cellars, which are now connected by means of two openings. The artists closed off these openings, so that the spectators are given the impression of standing in front of a solid wall. The intervention is essential, because through recreating the original division between the two cellars, it creates a kind of mirror image. The apparent mirror image is a recurring theme in the work of these artists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eIn every space there is a grey table on which we find two finished, ready-bought jigsaw puzzles of different size and on which we recognise what seem to be identical photographs. Only on closer inspection it turns out that they are two different photographs, made within a short interval of each other. (We recognise the same people and clouds that have moved ever so slightly in the interval.) There are two tables, on which two jigsaw puzzles are placed each. The table in the first space contains horizontal puzzles, whereas there are vertical puzzles on the table in the second space. The puzzles are laid down next to each other, pushed against the bottom and left-hand side of the table. Placed over the puzzles are two sheets of glass that each cover half of the entire surface of the table, thus creating a double bipartition. On the one hand there is the apparent doubling of the jigsaw puzzle photo (with matching scale change, because the puzzles are not the same size), whilst on the other hand the entire surface of the table is split in two by the sheets of glass. In that way a fine visual shifting or rippling of the picture occurs, that reminds us of another work that is being exhibited entitled \u003cem\u003eSix shoulders, three mugs and three plants (don\u0026rsquo;t take any notice of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor)\u003c/em\u003e. The work is a found book cover that was printed on the front and reverse side with the same photograph. To the left and right of the spine however, the photo was not cut exactly in two, resulting in a strip being printed twice.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eA small drawing of a window with curtains and house plant, that they found on the left bottom corner of an open file, is reproduced on a great white sheet, that is displayed beneath a picture of the file.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eIn every space there is a white electricity flex from which the actual copper wire has been removed, so that a long, empty, double cable is left.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eTwo brown trays with a damaged corner are situated on the wall, next to each other. The first tray is original; the second is a duplicate that, after much practice, has been given a highly resembling damaged corner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe theme of the apparent mirror image returns slightly altered in the theme of the negative space. In one space of the current exhibition we find three white volumes that are reconstructions of the empty spaces behind one volume of the Van Dale dictionary of the Dutch language (a through i) in three different bookcases. In the other space we find similar white volumes, which are actually scale models of the volumes that were used to close off the partition wall between both halves of the cellar space. The three paper sculptures that give shape to the negative space behind the three volumes of the Van Dale dictionary have arisen from an intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, entitled \u003cem\u003eart books (beside the art).\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eFor this intervention they pushed all the books in the library backwards on their shelves, so that the books no longer aligned at the front, but at the back. By doing so, the library\u0026rsquo;s minimal architecture was given an almost invisible, but certainly tangible, frayed appearance. The library looked more like that of a private house, where people often shove the books to the back of the shelves to create space for little objects in front of them. In public libraries the reverse is generally done, because the titles on the spines are more legible that way. The library in Eindhoven was given more air and less (hidden) darkness. What the artists did was simple, physical, visual and politically inspired in a funny way. At least, that is how I felt it. To me it seems like a beautiful, poetic, soft and at the same time radical disruption of a glossy functionality.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIrony, consensus and irony \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI need to tell you something about irony. I do not like irony when it implies a condescending attitude (like with Duchamp) or negativity (the so-called saying the opposite of what you mean). \u0026lsquo;Irony\u0026rsquo; means that you say something different than you appear to be saying, without giving a clue about your real intention. What does this notion add to reality? It repeats the feeling of the child that can only guess at the meaning of words it does not understand. Sometimes, this misunderstanding results in a feeling of insecurity. Every \u0026lsquo;meaning\u0026rsquo; of words has something ironic about it. Words have a tangible shape, but that shape does not cover the meaning. Something is escaping. In that sense, a metaphor results from irony. The beautiful thing about irony is that you can say things that are true and untrue at the same time. If Gerard Reve stated on television that the Russians ate children, then of course that was not a true statement, but still it was true. I once read letters by Flaubert for months. The most fascinating parts were the pages on which he corrected poems by Louise Colet, because for me it was often impossible to see why he found a verse good or bad. It comes as no surprise to me that gerlach en koop sometimes quote from his \u003cem\u003eDictionnaire des id\u0026eacute;es re\u0026ccedil;ues \u003c/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003eDictionary of Received Ideas\u003c/em\u003e). It has been a long time since I have read this book, but I remember that it contained many ideas of which I did not understand what was \u0026lsquo;received\u0026rsquo; about them. gerlach en koop used such a clich\u0026eacute; as a title for one of their exhibitions: \u0026lsquo;Concessions? Never make any.\u0026rsquo; At this exhibition we could see a doorpost marked with two lines indicating the lengths of both artists. The distance between both lengths forms their scope. The part of the doorpost between the marks was sawed loose and removed during the exhibition. Afterwards it was replaced invisibly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Many people took the title of the exhibition seriously,\u0026rsquo; according to gerlach en koop. \u0026lsquo;As if you can live or work without having to make concessions. In any case, we can only work together if we are prepared to reach a consensus. Our entire life consists of concessions. The difference between us two is our manoeuvering space.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerceiving and seeing (the duplication of reality)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eOne of gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s beautiful publications contains the translation of a passage from a novel by Jules Verne, which was left out by the Dutch translator in spite of the fact that it said \u0026lsquo;unabridged\u0026rsquo; on the title page. It concerned one of the many enumerations that appear in this novel and that were very common in the nineteenth century, but were perceived as annoying at a later date.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e(In \u003cem\u003eLes testaments trahis \u003c/em\u003eKundera remarks that the first thing translators or conductors leave out is usually the most essential part of the piece of art they are working on.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThree hundred years ago, or more, when I was a student at university, I tried to demonstrate the difference between the original \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e and the many shortened and vulgarised versions y pointing out a gradation in the opening line of the famous eighth chapter of this novel (About the good fortune that the brave Don Quixote experienced in the frightful and never dreamt of adventure of the windmills, besides other events, worthy of unforgettable remembrance.) The sentence goes as follows: \u0026lsquo;At that moment they sighted thirty or forty windmills, that are situated there in the fields, and when Don Quixote saw them he said unto his servant...\u0026rsquo; In the original version Cervantes uses the words \u0026lsquo;descubrir\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;ver\u0026rsquo;, or \u0026lsquo;perceive\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;see\u0026rsquo;. In the adaptations this apparent repeat is always lost. This novel is, however, continuously about the difference between what can \u0026lsquo;really\u0026rsquo; be seen and what Don Quixote thinks he is seeing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe very first work made by gerlach en koop together was a picture postcard with the image of a lost painting by Jan van Eyck (with corrected perspective) that we only know from a copy that was painted by Willem van Haecht, as part of the painting \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest\u003c/em\u003e (1628). The Jan van Eyck painting, \u003cem\u003eWoman doing her toilet \u003c/em\u003epictures two ladies. One of them is naked (even though she is wearing slippers), the second one is dressed. A ball mirror reflects them both. Maybe they are the same woman. What we do not see is the empty shell: the clothes that are elsewhere without the body of the naked woman. In the left of the forefront there are empty overshoes, which emphasise the absence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Every work of art is the mirror of another work of art,\u0026rsquo; writes a fictitious author who is being quoted by Perec in the short novel. \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait\u003c/em\u003e. \u0026lsquo;A great number of paintings, if not all, do not get their significance until in conjunction with previous art that has simply been copied, partly or completely, or is assimilated therein in a referring way.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI quote this sentence, because I think it must have appealed to gerlach en koop. In this way they comply with literary tradition that took shape amongst others in an essay by Borges about Cervantes\u0026rsquo; \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e. The \u003cem\u003eQuijote\u003c/em\u003e consists of two parts. In the second part, that was written and published later, Don Quixote meets people who have read the first part. The theme of the double experience of reality that was already expressed in the many different adventures of Don Quixote and his companion is duplicated yet again. The \u0026lsquo;authentic\u0026rsquo; reminiscences of Don Quixote are always out of keeping with the reminiscences of the readers who read the first part. Borges compares this adventure of the duplicating experience with Shakespeare\u0026rsquo;s \u003cem\u003eHamlet\u003c/em\u003e, because Hamlet stage-managed a play in order to find out the truth about his father\u0026rsquo;s murder. Borges sees in these mirroring duplications an infinite tumbling that absorbs the reader in the realm of fiction: \u0026lsquo;If the characters of a fabrication could also be readers or onlookers, such inversions suggest that we, their readers and onlookers, might be fabricated too\u0026rsquo;.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWe are talking about an \u0026lsquo;infinite tumbling\u0026rsquo;, because the abyss that opens in the novel can be infinite, as appears from the story quoted by Borges from \u003cem\u003eThousand and One Nights\u003c/em\u003e, in which Sheherazade tells the king, who is being stringed along with the thousand stories, his own history, in which of course she describes herself telling the stories, etcetera.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003egerlach en koop do not only make beautiful publications, they are also acting as anti-publishers: it is their intention to take off the market all copies of a certain book. In this work there is also an infinite progression that reminds us of the paradox of Zeno.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI do not think that visual arts can derive their strength and effect solely by literature. I also think that this is not the intention of gerlach en koop. I rather think that their work is akin to the many reflections and variations of form that we find in work by Belgian artists such as Marcel Broodthaers or Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx (and Dutch or international artists whose work I am not as well acquainted with) that occasionally connect them with the literary tradition. Form remains the aim.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWhen we look at the aluminium ruler that makes us think of a frieze (because the blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints is repeated dozens of times) blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints) then this reminds me of the \u0026lsquo;infinite\u0026rsquo; reflection that we in Belgium know from the mirrors at the top of the stairs of the home of the architect Horta. In reality this reflection is never infinite, because what we see is a sort of diminishing sequence. In this fine work by gerlach en koop we meet a perfect reflection, in the form of a measurable series. The endless regression is the inspiration for a new measuring staff that takes it place in history beginning with the \u003cem\u003eStoppages \u0026eacute;talon\u003c/em\u003e by Marcel Duchamp, and has found a number of handsome variations in the \u003cem\u003eMeasuring Staffs\u003c/em\u003e by Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe length of the ruler coincides with the maximum length that could be made. The gauge is the same as an aluminium cube that was published as an erratum at the intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe most impressive thing about gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s work is the combination of maximum erudition and a minimal, held-back form. Literature is reduced to its essence, which is silence. No noisy arguments, but a careful sliding forward of puzzling images, wrinkled into a clear shape.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion without ending\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe artists told me that they would like to wander aimlessly in a city, but that they never can. That is why they have chosen the finding of torn off corners of posters as the pretence aim of their wanderings. Their wish resembles the statement of the Belgian painter Walter Swennen, who once stated that he dreamt that he could paint \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;, in analogy with Lacan, who corrected Freud\u0026rsquo;s instruction to his patients \u0026lsquo;to narrate whatever crops up\u0026rsquo; by inviting them to narrate \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;. Even though we try to move aimlessly, we will always meet our own phantom images. Our reality is a closed off hall of mirrors in which tautologies and all kinds of guises create an illusion of diversity and freedom in the way of dreams. We are locked up in our way of looking and the limited number of things that we can see. However, at the same time the stories and the guises and the costumes and the masks are so diverse and their number so infinite that we will never be able to explore them all and will forever chase our phantom images.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nMontagne de Miel, 10 October 2007\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"ru","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"de","short_description":"","description":"\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n__________\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nHans Theys\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eA Badly Fitting Mirror Image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eSome words about the work of gerlach en koop\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cem\u003eThe work of gerlach en koop is very special: beautiful, clever, mysterious, reserved and sensual in a refined manner. It is an art of equilibrium, drawing fine wrinkles in the image that we drape over reality every day, a form of practicing attention. It is work that apparently could only originate on the border of southern and northern cultures: rational and sensuous, conceptual and material, witty and serious, inspired by literature but with a well-executed plasticity. What we see here is a held-back, scintillating plasticity that remains as dregs from thickened conversations and other adventures. I am glad that I got to know this work. \u003c/em\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe apparent mirror image\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWednesday, August 29, 2007. I saw a very beautiful exhibition in The Hague today. It was situated in the front rooms of the former cellar space of a wide building. This space is visible from the pavement, because a part of the floor was taken out over the entire width of the building. Originally there were two separate cellars, which are now connected by means of two openings. The artists closed off these openings, so that the spectators are given the impression of standing in front of a solid wall. The intervention is essential, because through recreating the original division between the two cellars, it creates a kind of mirror image. The apparent mirror image is a recurring theme in the work of these artists.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eIn every space there is a grey table on which we find two finished, ready-bought jigsaw puzzles of different size and on which we recognise what seem to be identical photographs. Only on closer inspection it turns out that they are two different photographs, made within a short interval of each other. (We recognise the same people and clouds that have moved ever so slightly in the interval.) There are two tables, on which two jigsaw puzzles are placed each. The table in the first space contains horizontal puzzles, whereas there are vertical puzzles on the table in the second space. The puzzles are laid down next to each other, pushed against the bottom and left-hand side of the table. Placed over the puzzles are two sheets of glass that each cover half of the entire surface of the table, thus creating a double bipartition. On the one hand there is the apparent doubling of the jigsaw puzzle photo (with matching scale change, because the puzzles are not the same size), whilst on the other hand the entire surface of the table is split in two by the sheets of glass. In that way a fine visual shifting or rippling of the picture occurs, that reminds us of another work that is being exhibited entitled \u003cem\u003eSix shoulders, three mugs and three plants (don\u0026rsquo;t take any notice of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor)\u003c/em\u003e. The work is a found book cover that was printed on the front and reverse side with the same photograph. To the left and right of the spine however, the photo was not cut exactly in two, resulting in a strip being printed twice.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eA small drawing of a window with curtains and house plant, that they found on the left bottom corner of an open file, is reproduced on a great white sheet, that is displayed beneath a picture of the file.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eIn every space there is a white electricity flex from which the actual copper wire has been removed, so that a long, empty, double cable is left.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eTwo brown trays with a damaged corner are situated on the wall, next to each other. The first tray is original; the second is a duplicate that, after much practice, has been given a highly resembling damaged corner.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe theme of the apparent mirror image returns slightly altered in the theme of the negative space. In one space of the current exhibition we find three white volumes that are reconstructions of the empty spaces behind one volume of the Van Dale dictionary of the Dutch language (a through i) in three different bookcases. In the other space we find similar white volumes, which are actually scale models of the volumes that were used to close off the partition wall between both halves of the cellar space. The three paper sculptures that give shape to the negative space behind the three volumes of the Van Dale dictionary have arisen from an intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, entitled \u003cem\u003eart books (beside the art).\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eFor this intervention they pushed all the books in the library backwards on their shelves, so that the books no longer aligned at the front, but at the back. By doing so, the library\u0026rsquo;s minimal architecture was given an almost invisible, but certainly tangible, frayed appearance. The library looked more like that of a private house, where people often shove the books to the back of the shelves to create space for little objects in front of them. In public libraries the reverse is generally done, because the titles on the spines are more legible that way. The library in Eindhoven was given more air and less (hidden) darkness. What the artists did was simple, physical, visual and politically inspired in a funny way. At least, that is how I felt it. To me it seems like a beautiful, poetic, soft and at the same time radical disruption of a glossy functionality.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIrony, consensus and irony \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI need to tell you something about irony. I do not like irony when it implies a condescending attitude (like with Duchamp) or negativity (the so-called saying the opposite of what you mean). \u0026lsquo;Irony\u0026rsquo; means that you say something different than you appear to be saying, without giving a clue about your real intention. What does this notion add to reality? It repeats the feeling of the child that can only guess at the meaning of words it does not understand. Sometimes, this misunderstanding results in a feeling of insecurity. Every \u0026lsquo;meaning\u0026rsquo; of words has something ironic about it. Words have a tangible shape, but that shape does not cover the meaning. Something is escaping. In that sense, a metaphor results from irony. The beautiful thing about irony is that you can say things that are true and untrue at the same time. If Gerard Reve stated on television that the Russians ate children, then of course that was not a true statement, but still it was true. I once read letters by Flaubert for months. The most fascinating parts were the pages on which he corrected poems by Louise Colet, because for me it was often impossible to see why he found a verse good or bad. It comes as no surprise to me that gerlach en koop sometimes quote from his \u003cem\u003eDictionnaire des id\u0026eacute;es re\u0026ccedil;ues \u003c/em\u003e(\u003cem\u003eDictionary of Received Ideas\u003c/em\u003e). It has been a long time since I have read this book, but I remember that it contained many ideas of which I did not understand what was \u0026lsquo;received\u0026rsquo; about them. gerlach en koop used such a clich\u0026eacute; as a title for one of their exhibitions: \u0026lsquo;Concessions? Never make any.\u0026rsquo; At this exhibition we could see a doorpost marked with two lines indicating the lengths of both artists. The distance between both lengths forms their scope. The part of the doorpost between the marks was sawed loose and removed during the exhibition. Afterwards it was replaced invisibly.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Many people took the title of the exhibition seriously,\u0026rsquo; according to gerlach en koop. \u0026lsquo;As if you can live or work without having to make concessions. In any case, we can only work together if we are prepared to reach a consensus. Our entire life consists of concessions. The difference between us two is our manoeuvering space.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePerceiving and seeing (the duplication of reality)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eOne of gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s beautiful publications contains the translation of a passage from a novel by Jules Verne, which was left out by the Dutch translator in spite of the fact that it said \u0026lsquo;unabridged\u0026rsquo; on the title page. It concerned one of the many enumerations that appear in this novel and that were very common in the nineteenth century, but were perceived as annoying at a later date.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e(In \u003cem\u003eLes testaments trahis \u003c/em\u003eKundera remarks that the first thing translators or conductors leave out is usually the most essential part of the piece of art they are working on.)\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThree hundred years ago, or more, when I was a student at university, I tried to demonstrate the difference between the original \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e and the many shortened and vulgarised versions y pointing out a gradation in the opening line of the famous eighth chapter of this novel (About the good fortune that the brave Don Quixote experienced in the frightful and never dreamt of adventure of the windmills, besides other events, worthy of unforgettable remembrance.) The sentence goes as follows: \u0026lsquo;At that moment they sighted thirty or forty windmills, that are situated there in the fields, and when Don Quixote saw them he said unto his servant...\u0026rsquo; In the original version Cervantes uses the words \u0026lsquo;descubrir\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;ver\u0026rsquo;, or \u0026lsquo;perceive\u0026rsquo; and \u0026lsquo;see\u0026rsquo;. In the adaptations this apparent repeat is always lost. This novel is, however, continuously about the difference between what can \u0026lsquo;really\u0026rsquo; be seen and what Don Quixote thinks he is seeing.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe very first work made by gerlach en koop together was a picture postcard with the image of a lost painting by Jan van Eyck (with corrected perspective) that we only know from a copy that was painted by Willem van Haecht, as part of the painting \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait of Cornelis van der Geest\u003c/em\u003e (1628). The Jan van Eyck painting, \u003cem\u003eWoman doing her toilet \u003c/em\u003epictures two ladies. One of them is naked (even though she is wearing slippers), the second one is dressed. A ball mirror reflects them both. Maybe they are the same woman. What we do not see is the empty shell: the clothes that are elsewhere without the body of the naked woman. In the left of the forefront there are empty overshoes, which emphasise the absence.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u0026lsquo;Every work of art is the mirror of another work of art,\u0026rsquo; writes a fictitious author who is being quoted by Perec in the short novel. \u003cem\u003eA Gallery Portrait\u003c/em\u003e. \u0026lsquo;A great number of paintings, if not all, do not get their significance until in conjunction with previous art that has simply been copied, partly or completely, or is assimilated therein in a referring way.\u0026rsquo;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI quote this sentence, because I think it must have appealed to gerlach en koop. In this way they comply with literary tradition that took shape amongst others in an essay by Borges about Cervantes\u0026rsquo; \u003cem\u003eQuixote\u003c/em\u003e. The \u003cem\u003eQuijote\u003c/em\u003e consists of two parts. In the second part, that was written and published later, Don Quixote meets people who have read the first part. The theme of the double experience of reality that was already expressed in the many different adventures of Don Quixote and his companion is duplicated yet again. The \u0026lsquo;authentic\u0026rsquo; reminiscences of Don Quixote are always out of keeping with the reminiscences of the readers who read the first part. Borges compares this adventure of the duplicating experience with Shakespeare\u0026rsquo;s \u003cem\u003eHamlet\u003c/em\u003e, because Hamlet stage-managed a play in order to find out the truth about his father\u0026rsquo;s murder. Borges sees in these mirroring duplications an infinite tumbling that absorbs the reader in the realm of fiction: \u0026lsquo;If the characters of a fabrication could also be readers or onlookers, such inversions suggest that we, their readers and onlookers, might be fabricated too\u0026rsquo;.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWe are talking about an \u0026lsquo;infinite tumbling\u0026rsquo;, because the abyss that opens in the novel can be infinite, as appears from the story quoted by Borges from \u003cem\u003eThousand and One Nights\u003c/em\u003e, in which Sheherazade tells the king, who is being stringed along with the thousand stories, his own history, in which of course she describes herself telling the stories, etcetera.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003egerlach en koop do not only make beautiful publications, they are also acting as anti-publishers: it is their intention to take off the market all copies of a certain book. In this work there is also an infinite progression that reminds us of the paradox of Zeno.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eI do not think that visual arts can derive their strength and effect solely by literature. I also think that this is not the intention of gerlach en koop. I rather think that their work is akin to the many reflections and variations of form that we find in work by Belgian artists such as Marcel Broodthaers or Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx (and Dutch or international artists whose work I am not as well acquainted with) that occasionally connect them with the literary tradition. Form remains the aim.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eWhen we look at the aluminium ruler that makes us think of a frieze (because the blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints is repeated dozens of times) blue and red pattern of the \u003cem\u003eKing\u003c/em\u003e peppermints) then this reminds me of the \u0026lsquo;infinite\u0026rsquo; reflection that we in Belgium know from the mirrors at the top of the stairs of the home of the architect Horta. In reality this reflection is never infinite, because what we see is a sort of diminishing sequence. In this fine work by gerlach en koop we meet a perfect reflection, in the form of a measurable series. The endless regression is the inspiration for a new measuring staff that takes it place in history beginning with the \u003cem\u003eStoppages \u0026eacute;talon\u003c/em\u003e by Marcel Duchamp, and has found a number of handsome variations in the \u003cem\u003eMeasuring Staffs\u003c/em\u003e by Jo\u0026euml;lle Tuerlinckx.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe length of the ruler coincides with the maximum length that could be made. The gauge is the same as an aluminium cube that was published as an erratum at the intervention in the library of the Van Abbemuseum.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe most impressive thing about gerlach en koop\u0026rsquo;s work is the combination of maximum erudition and a minimal, held-back form. Literature is reduced to its essence, which is silence. No noisy arguments, but a careful sliding forward of puzzling images, wrinkled into a clear shape.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion without ending\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp style=\"color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif,Arial,Verdana,\u0026amp;quot;trebuchet ms\u0026amp;quot;; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;\"\u003eThe artists told me that they would like to wander aimlessly in a city, but that they never can. That is why they have chosen the finding of torn off corners of posters as the pretence aim of their wanderings. Their wish resembles the statement of the Belgian painter Walter Swennen, who once stated that he dreamt that he could paint \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;, in analogy with Lacan, who corrected Freud\u0026rsquo;s instruction to his patients \u0026lsquo;to narrate whatever crops up\u0026rsquo; by inviting them to narrate \u0026lsquo;no matter what\u0026rsquo;. Even though we try to move aimlessly, we will always meet our own phantom images. Our reality is a closed off hall of mirrors in which tautologies and all kinds of guises create an illusion of diversity and freedom in the way of dreams. We are locked up in our way of looking and the limited number of things that we can see. However, at the same time the stories and the guises and the costumes and the masks are so diverse and their number so infinite that we will never be able to explore them all and will forever chase our phantom images.\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nMontagne de Miel, 10 October 2007\u003c/p\u003e\r\n"},{"locale":"es","short_description":"","description":""},{"locale":"el","short_description":"","description":""}],"actors":[]}