Het Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht had in November 2016 een tentoonstelling die me ontroerde. Nu, terwijl ik deze pagina voor Friend’s Table prepareer, begrijp ik feitelijk pas wat het in me aanraakte…
Lars Nittve schreef het volgende over de kunstenaar Cai Guo-Qiang:
‘I have found myself thinking more and more about whether at the end of the day there is anything at all that unites the relatively few artists whom I have come to regards over the years as truly extraordinary, great, and amazing.
On the surface they are incredibly different in all respects – age, gender, cultural background, not to mention medium, technique and tradition. You name it. They are all totally different.
And yet, I am more and more convinced that there is something that unites them. It is not something that sits there, immediately recognisable in their work or biographies, or in what is regularly written about them. Rather is wel hidden and in a way invisible. Maybe it is not even a ‘something’ but perhaps rather a ‘nothing’. An absence. It may have to do with how the artists manages to evade things like categorisation, packaging and definition. On one side of the coin, it may have to do with the almost impossibility of talking about their work, not to mention explaining why it is so extraordinary. It may well be the opposite: the other side of the coin is saying almost anything about the work, cancelling out all defined positions.
For me, Cai Guo-Qiang is one of these artists. One of the great ones, who despite the incredible presence of his works or actions, and the extensive commentary they have led to, stays undefinable. Over the years, he has consequently and perhaps strategically, built on oeuvre that has opened up a sort of free space in between.’
De titel van dit stuk luidt The amazing freedom in between……
Cristian
PS als je Netflix hebt kan je de documentaire over de kunstenaar bekijken. Hij maakte onder andere een jakobsladder van vuurwerk naar de hemel… mooie symboliek!