Tentoonstelling ‘TRIBUTARY’ 12 feb – 30 apr 2021

De tweede expositie in Orange Art House is onderdeel van BrusselsPhotoFestival, en biedt een een fotografie tentoonstelling met werk van de in Antwerpen woonachtige Nederlandse kunstenaar Joost Vandebrug. De expositie werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met UNSEEN (fotografie beurs Amsterdam).

ARTIST STATEMENT: TRIBUTARY 

The Danube River is the soul of the series TRIBUTARY. It flows through 10 countries, which is more than any other river in the world. So far I have been photographing the river in Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, from 2014 to 2020 and ongoing. Abandoned and quiet landscapes, set by the boundaries and limitations of the river have been the subject of my previous series such as Provenance, and Provenance and Progress. In this work, however, I have accumulated the photographs of the river itself, and that represents the lifeblood of the series as a whole. 

As with all flowing bodies of water, the Danube is metaphorically rich with symbols of purity, fertility, and the circulation of life. It embodies and celebrates the irreversible passing of time, life, and culture. The change of the river is constant, though it will always remain a river as long as it flows. 

For me, water and reflection are connected to peace, happiness, healing, and clearing thoughts. Water reflects images and light, though the surface needs to be flat in order to see oneself. A flowing river is too anarchic to reflect a clear image. The element of copper, which is the material of the plates where these photographs are printed on, emphasize this original reflection and are the perfect flat surface that allows the viewer to once again see oneself. Copper also holds the quality of purifying, it kills microorganisms like molds, fungi, algae, and bacteria in the water it is in contact with.  

Accidents and bruises are a considerable part of my work and are a reaction to the delicate photographic techniques and pigment transfers that I use in my practice. Once they appear, they become imperative to the final object and reveal the mechanics of the process that typically stay invisible – to me they make the final object feel more alive. 

Informatie Joost Vandebrug en zijn werken

Ingrid Deuss Galerie te Antwerpen is de vaste galerie van Joost Vandebrug.

Contact : ingrid@ingriddeuss.be  +32 475 56 22 83