We have pleasure in presenting new installativ works by the Belgian artist Koenrad Dedobbeleer (*1975 in Brussels, lives and works in Brussels) in our next exhibition. His work was recently exhibited in the temporary "Museum X" in Mönchengladbach and the Galerie Micheline Szwajcer in Antwerp, last year in the Benedengalerij in Kortrijk (BE), in 2006 at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, in 2005 in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon and in 1999 at the Muhka (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen) in Ant- werp, as well as in galleries in Vienna, Brussels and Munich. An exhibition project by Koenraad Dedob- beleer and Rita McBride is planned from June 2008 at the Frac Bourgogne in Dijon, at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland and at the PMMK (Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst) in Ostend (BE).
Koenraad Dedobbeleer's way of working is very conceptual, and he constructs references and narra- tions that nevertheless turn out to be the result of perception. The artist works with everyday objects, which he liberates from their original utility value. Or he creates objects whose individual elements ap- pear to be generally familiar, but which nevertheless have a disquieting effect. From time to time he draws our attention to the structures of the exhibition venue by emphasising them. Far from producing ready-mades, Dedobbeleer reinterprets these manipulated elements and distorts their meaning in order to examine them more effectively. With a view to the specific exhibition venue, the artist frequently modifies functional objects such as tables, perforated partition walls or pillars, often using photographs, projections and films, or single elements such as words or arguments. These objects and elements are successively developed into larger entities and combined to form their own rooms, real art venues that can be atmospherically charged. His objects belong may be regarded as something between sculp- tures and commodities. They fill and accentuate his installations, which frequently occupy a whole hall. And although we may intuit a narrative thread, the conclusive legibility of a potential narration does not emerge. Rather, the visitor's perceptual and adaptive skills are tested in that the objects are removed from their usual associations and placed in a different context.
For Mai 36 Galerie, Dedobbeleer created an installation in which the individual elements are arranged in a discursive constellation. Thus one piece of work comments on another, while others may appear to be incompatible. The whole show is organised as a construction and is intended to provide an insight into the way the exhibition is organised. One minute shows an exposure or a portrayal of a clear de- construction, the next reveals the deconstruction about to self-destruct. And yet all Dedobbeleer's works possess an inner logic, and the manipulations are comprehensible in the context of the installa- tion, regardless of whether the work in question is a sculpture that serves simultaneously as a plinth, or a photograph of a sculpture or, more accurately, an object that can be read as a sculpture on the grounds of its arrangement. Or found objects that have been enlarged and which continue to refer to the original while simultaneously assuming a different form. This strategy enables Dedobbeleer to charge the exhibition premises with a special significance, thus ensuring that the object will be inter- preted in a specific way. Dedobbeleer uses deconstruction and manipulation as means to reveal con- nections between, spaces and objects and to plumb the depths of the presence of things.
[Text: Dominique von Burg, Translation: Maureen Oberli-Turner]