umbrella
west coast exhibitions

Premises for an artistic gesture at umbrella | west coast exhibitions

 

 

 

Although it does not have a clearly defined status, umbrella's outdoor space is a key element of the umbrella site. Whether through its landscaped area or the adjoining field left fallow, it constitutes an interstitial and transitory space that, above all, creates a physical and mental distancing of the exhibition space and the other buildings on the site from the public access to umbrella and from the surrounding land devoted to agricultural production.

 

Inserting an artistic gesture into this space raises a number of questions:

 

Can an artistic gesture inscribed in the external space of umbrella find its raison d'être in the vagueness of status - or in the lack thereof - of this same space?

 

Can this vagueness of status constitute artistic material?

 

Can a material addition increase the vagueness or lack of status of umbrella's exterior space?

And also, can an artistic gesture, instead of being the target of the gaze, be the place from which we look? Can it be a deflector towards what it is not?

 

Despite its lack of status, the exterior space of umbrella has a strongly defined structure and clearly defined outer limits. Can a plastic gesture dissolve this coherence without physically or spatially changing the space? And, can such a dissolution of coherence generate a zone of permanent floating - and can this floating spread to those who use the space?

Can an artistic gesture generate a black hole?

 

An artistic gesture placed in the outdoor space of umbrella is in fact an intercalary element between the entrance to the site and the indoor exhibition space. Can or should this intercalary characteristic influence the form of the gesture?
 

The people who use umbrella's outdoor space are no longer passers-by, but they are not yet visitors of an exhibition space either. Thus, in strolling through the outdoor space of umbrella, these people no longer have a defined status and find themselves in a situation of possible or even necessary choice.  Can an artistic gesture then be based on this notion of choice, of decision making, of stance taking by those who encounter this gesture? Can choice - and the tiny break in time that it implies- be an artistic material?

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Born in 1960 in Bochum, Germany, Veit Stratmann has lived and worked in Paris for many years. 

The artist's approach revolves around a reflection on space and its use. His works are generally in close connection with the places where the artist is invited to intervent.  Their dimensions, the neutrality of their forms and colors, the materials used, and their positioning in places of passage, give the works of Veit Stratmann the appearance of an improbable urban furniture which engages the spectator to question his perceptive habits and to call into question his culture of space. 

 

His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Galerie Arndt and Partner, the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, the FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon and Rhône-Alpes, the Museum Folkwang in Essen and the Museum Serralves in Porto. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin among others