Déformation Professionnelle

Nourished by the artists’ observation and their professional experience in the galaxy of art galleries and cultural institutions, the works gathered in “Déformation Professionnelle” represent various digressions on the art world, shapes and materials, with a particular focus on the production and installation of the works of art and the gallery maintenance. Their practice highlights a specific vocabulary and a set of materials usually invisible to viewers, carefully kept in a storage room, cleared during the final check before the public opening, or belonging to the intimacy of the artist’s studio.

In this show, curated by Raphaël Denis, several works refer directly to tools and other heterogeneous elements used by art handlersin charge of physically installing and dismantling exhibitions: foam edge protectors, moveable walls, rolls of tape, hanging and packaging devices, traces of paint or plaster become the main subject of their practice. Playing with the nature and appearance of such familiar objects, the artists transform them in independent works of art. Often “cast against type”, the objetcs are deprived of their inner function to find a new meaning in absurd structures. Such as Simon Nicaise‘s nailed nails, Elodie Huet‘s sticked glue sticks, Roeland Tweelinckx‘s ceiling-supporting shelves, Sebastian Wickeroth‘s smashed walls or Gabriel Leger‘ s crystal drill bit…