A Syntax of Dependency

A floor work spreads out over a space of some 1600m2, with tricolore bands of black, red and yellow linoleum that alternate with white and grey, and strewn with fragments of text in English, Flemish and French, such as Folded within itself/Replié sur soi-même/Op zichzelf geplooid. This is definitely not the sort of exhibition one normally expects to see nowadays in the context of a museum.

By using a material like linoleum—which has direct associations with bland spaces and impersonal clinics—they take up the challenge of the architecture of the institution and turn it to their advantage. To work in dialogue with a space and leave the public deep in thought is something that fewer and fewer artists are able to achieve. Weiner and Gillick leave the walls of the museum bare, which also lends the work a sense of expansive space.

With the title, A syntax of dependency, and their use of the three-toned tricolore of the Belgian flag, the artists are also commenting on the difficult political situation and community tensions that have been ongoing since June 2007 and which have become problematic since the election of June 2010, from which point the political parties have to this day failed in any attempt to form a government.

In an interview with the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, Lawrence Weiner asserted that "All art is political," echoing a statement by political theorist Chantal Mouffe: "There is an aesthetic dimension in the political and there is a political dimension in art. This is why I consider that it is not useful to make a distinction between political and non-political art."



Creating 'A syntax of dependency:' from Muhka Web TV on Vimeo

Until 22 May 2011
Lawrence Weiner and Liam Gillick
MuHKA
Leuvenstraat 32
2000 Antwerp