The Revenge of the Common Place

Artists Francis Alÿs, Song Dong and Rinus van de Velde have been selected by curator Hans De Wolf to represent the Ministry of the Flemish community in the Ca’Foscari Palace within the University of Venice.

De Wolf has developed a controversial and humorous exhibition, constructed around some of the most fundamental misunderstandings between Western tradition and the Far East. Traditionally, in the West, the idea of authorship has always been highly protected and linked with the notion of genius. Today, many artists operating in the avant-garde have transcended those ideas, a trend that started perhaps with Duchamp. What is not yet clear is the question of whether we have already come to terms with all possible consequences of this new situation, a question which became all the more obvious since a new kid appeared on the block: the Chinese artist.

Taking Andy Warhol’s famous Brillo Boxes as a starting point, this exhibition will lead the spectator into a new climate, in which the status of the art work as an object becomes unsecure and suggesting that we might have reached a ‘post-object-era’. This current situation will be tackled head on by a new piece by painter Rinus Van de Velde, while the exhibition as a whole will be considerably enriched by a new installation by Song Dong and a video by Francis Alÿs.

This exhibition is accompanied by a programme of four talks to be held in collaboration with the Ca’ Foscari University. The talks will take place from September 2015. Confirmed speakers so far include Hans Belting, Luc Tuymans, Hans De Wolf, Eugen Blume, Jean-François Chevrier and more.