Dennis Tyfus: Do you want to go on a date with me? … No? … Let’s just be friends, then?

KUNSTHALLE São Paulo invites Belgium artist Dennis Tyfus (b. 1979, Antwerp) to present Do you want to go on a date with me? … No? … Let’s just be friends, then?, his first solo exhibition in Brazil.

Daily experience and humour are central to Tyfus’ work. Several weeks prior to arriving in São Paulo, he was interviewed and photographed by a Belgian magazine. Tyfus then proposed to produce a collage out of the photos, rather than the magazine using the original portraits. The resultant artwork led to the title for the exhibition at KUNSTHALLE São Paulo — Do you want to go on a date with me? … No? … Let’s just be friends, Then? — and to a fictional dialogue between two imaginary protagonists. The title forms the basis for a number of works in the exhibition, Tyfus’ first solo show in Brazil: a publication (Ultra Eczema 203), sculptures, oil paintings and a specially-recorded soundtrack, all of which play out scenarios originating from the aforementioned dialogue.

Tyfus’s practice ranges from drawings, paintings, installations and videos to magazines and books (published and distributed under his own label Ultra Eczema), music, vinyl record productions and radio shows, concerts and performances. He has presented solo shows at Beursschouwburg (2014), Brussels; The Zone (2014), Easthampton, USA; Kunstschlager (2013), Reykjavik, Iceland; Be-Part (2010), Waregem, Belgium;
Well Well Well Artspace (2014), Vienna; AIR Antwerpen (2014), Antwerpen; Istituto Svizzero (2013), Milan; MuHKA (2012), Antwerpen; and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2009), Berlin.

This exhibition is included in the programme of LX92, which consists in a series of artistic projects realized between Europe and KUNSTHALLE São Paulo, with the support of Swiss International Air Lines. The project title is a reference to the direct flight that connects Zurich to São Paulo.