THE EVERYDAY FIRE

On Sunday 30 April at 3 p.m. the exhibition THE EVERYDAY FIRE | artists between reality and imagination will open at the Stadsgalerij Heerlen, with works by Natasja Kensmil, Marc Mulders, Eléonore de Montesquiou and Marjolein Rothman. In THE EVERYDAY FIRE four artists come together who defend themselves in their work against the pressure of everyday facts. They incorporate historical or topical events into their work, exploring for example the visual language of power and aggression, or connecting current affairs with religious motifs. At the same time, in their work these artists create a world of their own which testifies to freedom and the power of imagination.

With the exhibition The Everyday Fire the Stadsgalerij is taking up the debate about social and political engagement in contemporary visual art. While public opinion tends to make a black and white distinction between art which connects with social reality and ‘navel-gazing’ art which is turned in on itself, the Stadsgalerij is seeking nuances in this debate. The art works shown in The Everyday Fire refuse to be political pamphlets, but nevertheless, in their own distinctive and imaginative ways, confront hard reality and react to it. In a variety of media (film, collage, drawings and paintings) political engagement is expressed in contemporary art.

In his collages Marc Mulders approaches evil in a direct way. For example, he takes images of the attacks in New York and Madrid and juxtaposes them with religious images of compassion. Natasja Kensmil also connects evil with religious symbols and a personal visual language. Among other things, her drawings show two soldiers who were discredited for torturing Iraqi prisoners. From a distance, Marjolein Rothman paints the symbols with which historical leaders including Napoleon and Lenin have adorned themselves. In her subdued paintings she examines the visual language of power and heroism. Eléonore de Montesquiou is interested as a filmmaker in the influence of political relations on the lives of individual people. For example, in Iran she saw dressed and veiled women bathing in the sea, the images of which she transformed into a poetic short film. All of these artists succeed in finding different perspectives on everyday reality, which can often be so inflexible and one-dimensional.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a volume of poetry by Octavio Paz, El fuego de cada dia, published in Dutch as Het vuur van iedere dag (Amsterdam, 1990).

Pressetext

THE EVERYDAY FIRE
artists between reality and imagination

mit Natasja Kensmil, Marc Mulders, Eleonore de Montesquiou, Marjolein Rothman