A Whole Range Of Furtively Titillating Stereotypes

curated by Koenraad Dedobbeleer

There seems, at first sight, to be no theme for this exhibition. However, hopefully, a strong presumption or intuition might emerge that all these works speak to one another and start telling a non-prescribed story that is logical in a non-logical way. The peculiar small etching Olympia by Edouard Manet is the demonstration of a hyper complicated set of references and as such functions as an emblem for the exhibition reproduced in this small catalogue. The allusions emerging from the etching of Manet’s Olympia are investigations into a thick and opaque topic on which hardly any scholar agrees. That opulent opaqueness could leave the field open to almost any kind of interpretation.

When Olympia caused scandal at the 1865 salon, Emil Zola was the only one taking up it’s defence in a lengthy article in l’Evenement in 1866. To thank him, Manet sent him a letter including a reproduction of his scandalous painting. On his turn, Zola took the initiative to rework his seminal article and publish it as a booklett, to be published on occasion of the privately organised solo presentation of Manet’s works in 1867. The respectfull Manet decided to rework his prepartory drawings of Olympia and include it as an illustration for that publication. Soon after that, both agreed that the latter should once paint the portrait of the admiring critique, as the ultimate present. The logic of things wanted that this anecdote resulted into the setting for what was eventually the sitting of Zola. A portrait where the novelist appears as a modern-day Parisian intellectual, rather the image and reality of the artist instead of the writer.

Different intentions can be found in various works in this exhibition, here and there we see clues, later on opposit or diverging directions. The exhibition seeks to create a setting in which relations exist and simultaneously allow to nurture a great deal of associative speculation.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer

A Whole Range Of Furtively Titillating Stereotypes is a group show curated by Koenraad Dedobbeleer with works by Lili Dujourie, Luciano Fabro, Rodney Graham, Edouard Manet, Valérie Mannaerts, Guy Mees, Lucy Mckenzie, Asier Mendizabal, Willem Oorebeek, Manfred Pernice, Vaclav Pozarek, Simon Starling, Walter Swennen, Jochem Vanden Ecker & Pol Matthé, Jessica Warboys.

December 12 – February 8, 2014