Koenraad Dedobbeleer
Bad Timing
For the first exhibition in the recently opened GEORG KARGL BOX, 30-year-old Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer transforms the new gallery into a spatial installation. In his construction he subjects the internal space to sensitive changes, interfering with the viewers’ habitual perceptive patterns by means of deliberate and precisely executed architectural interventions and additions. Its tension is generated by actively involving the viewers, by disrupting unambiguous allocations and the security associated with reality and deception. This makes the viewers recapture and relive their way of interacting with Dedobbeleer’s objects in the specific context of the surrounding space.
Koenraad Dedobbeleer’s installation, whose title alludes to Jim O'Rourke’s eponymous album and Nocolas Roeg’s film “Bad Timing” of 1980, is a complex reference to art and cultural history. His considerations depart from a photograph made by American conceptual artist Louise Lawler; in it, she documents and analyzes the environment and presentation mode of a kinetic object by George Rickey in one of Sotheby’s sales rooms, devoting her attention to the social, aesthetic, and economic aspects of institutional conditions. Similarly to Lawler’s strategy of appropriating extrinsic artistic positions, Dedobbeleer detaches the display wall, pedestal, and Rickey’s sculpture from their photographic model, as it were, to translate it back into the reality of the gallery’s economic and institutional framework. Through this “transformation of transformation” his installation addresses questions pertaining to the autonomy of the artwork in a social, economic, and thematic context.
The carpet-covered wall confronts visitors like an obstacle that impedes direct access to the 40 squaremeters-gallery, deliberately guiding them along predetermined tracks. That is how it also defines a “private” space for the 4-m reproduction of Rickey’s sculpture and a photograph put on a pedestal. By walking through the installation, visitors penetrate an intimate setting and are made acutely aware of the complex interactions between object, subject, and presentation. Seemingly everyday objects, used conventionally in exhibition environments, are freed from their regular usage and are reassessed by their new contextualization. Dedobbeleer’s objects oscillate between sculpture and basic commodity; on the one hand, they stand for themselves, and on the other hand, they identify themselves, for the duration of their individual constellation and in their own functionality, as a “non-functional” artwork and a seemingly functional everyday object. They occupy and mark the newly created space, and make it perceivable as a permanently changing sphere for activities which also contradicts existing referential systems and customary perceptive patterns.
In the architecturally and functionally defined framework provided by the GEORG KARGL BOX, Dedobbeleer’s objects appear intentionally undefined, thwarting any attempt at locating them with great precision in a temporal referential system. During the exhibition they are like the forgotten remnants of a gallery that has just gone out of business, rather than one that has just opened. However, there is no evidence of their use. Their timeless no-frills formal idiom makes them appear deceptively solid. But these expectations are not met as their quality of workmanship is deliberately poor, which puts them in contrast to Richard Artschwager’s portal, crafted to perfection.
Dedobbeleer’s installation Bad Timing, put on display in the GEORG KARGL BOX, is expanded by two “hidden sculptures” featured in the parallel exhibition Good Timing. Connections are not articulated primarily by an open physical presence; rather, the two shows encourage viewers to set intellectual points of reference in the physical course they are following.
Text: Fiona Liewehr
Biography
born 1975 in Halle/BE, lives and works in Brüssel
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019
Sache: Gallery of Material Culture, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover
miart Milano 2019, Milan
Plastik- Gallery of Material Culture, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
Performance by appointment, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2018
Kunststoff- Gallery of Material Cuture, Kustmuseum Wiels, Brussels
2017
Images Entertain Thought, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
2016
Catch as A Catch Can, CLEARING, New York
A Formal Model / An Inhibition Show, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Brussels
2015
(SIC), Brussels
There Is No Real Life, Only The Story Of The Life We Are Currently Living, Projecte SD, Barcelona
2014
A Useless Labour, Apolitical and of Little Moral Significance, CLEARING, New York
A quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing, GAK, Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
The Desperate, Furiously Positive Striving of People Who Refuse to Be Dismissed, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp
Cherry & Martin (with Sebastian Black), Los Angeles
Up! (with Kris Kimpe), La Loge, Brussels
2013
Hearsay, Rumours, Bed-Sit Dreamers and Art Begins Today, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
You Export Reality to Where It Is You Get Your Money From, De Vleeshal, Markt, Middleburg
Workmanship of Certainty, Centre d'art contemporain d'Ivry - le Crédac, Ivry-Sur-Seine
2012
Naive Monoliths, RECEPTION, Berlin
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Lokremise, St. Gallen
Some Material Culture Following a Random Method Based on Aleatory Rules, Mai36, Zurich
2011
Good plans are made by hand, Projectesd, Barcelona
To Fallow, Clearing, New York (with Robert Janitz)
2010
A sense of disquietude concerning the existing order of things, Koenraad Dedobbeleer and Herbert Hinteregger, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Ignorance never settles a question, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
A Privilege of Autovalorization, Galerie 1 – Fundacaco Caixa Geral de Depósitos - Cultergest, Lisbon
Theory was Always Against Ideology, Reception, Berlin
2009
Know What We Are Knowing, Galeria Carreras Múgica, Bilbao
Museen Haus Lange-Haus Esters, Krefeld
Museum of Modern Art, Oostende (with Rita McBride)
2008
Deflationary Exercise, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Remember to Remember, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Tight, Repeating Boredom, Frac Bourgogne, Dijon (withRita McBride)
I Don´t Care If Nothing Goes My Way, Museum X (Museum Abteiberg) Mönchengladbach
Repeating Boredom, FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon
Sideline Sitters, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2007
La liberté d'erreur, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
2006
Le souhait de disposer, Kiosk KASK, Ghent
Contextual Minimalism I, Benedengalerij, Kortrijk
Throw That Trust On The Fire, Konsortium, Düsseldorf (with Steve Vanden Bossche)
2005
Bad Timing, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
Raymond Vanderzande, Netwerk Galerie, Aalst (with Kristof Van Gestel)
Remember the Small Things, CC Strombeek, Grimbergen (with Anne Daems)
2004
Dedobbeleer en Zoon, Artis, 's-Hertogenbosch
2003
Passover, 5er Projectspace, Rotterdam
Shallow, Young Gallery Zone – Art Cologne, Cologne
2002
So Far, Galerie Drantmann, Brussels
Fiction Tales, Galerie Michael Zink, Munich
Collaborative Project, Rijksacademie, Amsterdam (with Els Vanden Meersch)
2001
Parcours d’Incidents, de Ateliers, Amsterdam
Pluses and Minuses, Artists Unlimited, Bielefeld
2000
You are never going Anywhere, Galerie Drantmann, Brussels
Hans Op De Beeck and Koenraad Dedobbeleer, De Warande, Turnhout
1999
Etablissement d’en Face, Brussels
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020
Small is beautiful: (A)rtschwager to (Z)augg, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
2017
Gruppenausstellung, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Copy Construct, Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Mechelen
2016
Referenz. Im Kontext Mies van der Rohe, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
Ficciones y territorios, Arte para pensar la nueva razón del mundo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Solid Liquids. Internationale Tendenzen der Skulptur in der Gegenwartskunst, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster
Naturally Obscure, Centre d'Art Passeralle, Brest
Les Possédés, La Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille
Two-Story, CLEARING, Brussels
Everything Architecture, Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Brussels
2015
Display Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Mortel, suite et fin, FRAC, Basse-Normandie, Caen
Eminent Domains (proper names), Robert Miller Gallery, New York
The Corner Show, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp
Sweet Disposition, Cultuurcentrum Ter Dilft, Bornem
Pierre Leguillon, The Museum of Mistakes: Contemporary Art and Class Struggle, Wiels, Brussels
A Studio in Hand-Reading: Charlotte Wolff. A project by Valentina Desideri, Kunstverein, Amsterdam
The Image of Generator, Extra City, Antwerp
2014
Roma Publications 1998-2014, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
A Pair is Not a Collection, LLS 387, Antwerp
Small Museum for the American Metaphor, Redcat, Los Angeles
Maybe It's a Hum, Atelier Rouart, Paris
Der Brancusi Effekt, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
Widening, Carreras Mugica, Bilbao
Fata Morgana, IKOP, Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Eupen
2011
Archizines, AA school of architecture, London
The Self-portrait, the House and the Season, Mu.ZEE, Ostend (Co-Curator)
Found in Translation, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Beyond the Fragile Geometry of Sculpture, De Vleeshal Markt, Middelburg
2010
Tegenlicht, SMAK, Ghent
Rehabilitation, Wiels, Brussels
Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
Wall & Floor, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris
2009
Avec Le Tems – In Time, Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één, Hedah, Maastricht
3 Artists Selected by Dan Graham and work by Dan Graham, 303 Gallery, New York City
Merz in Februar, emyt, Berlin
2008
Un-Scene, Wiels, Brussels
Integratie, Intégration, Nieuw(bouw)kunst, Broelmuseum, Kortrijk
Group exhibition curated by Susanne Prine, Emyt, Berlin
2007
Mood Swings, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp
the subjective object, Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf
Proposals, Kunstencentrum Netwerk, Aalst
Jeune Peinture Belge, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels
Early Retirement, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
2006
ERGENS (Somewhere), MuHKA - Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp
Independex – BB 4, Ausstellungsraum Restitution, Berlin
Anspach, Anspach Center, Brussels
2005
Le genie du lieu, Musée des Beaux Arts, Dijon
Time to close, Galerie Drantmann, Brussels
Soundscape, STUK, Leuven
La perspective du cavalier, CAC Parc Saint Léger, Pouges-les-Eaux
Photography within/as an Installation, Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerpe
Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe
2004
Multiple Miscellaneous Alliances, Clubsproject Inc., Melbourne
Dedobbeleer, Sailstorfer and Wissel, Zink & Gegner, Munich
Pistes, Netwerk Galerie, Aalst
Alles was bij voorbaat al begonnen, Factor 44, Antwerp
2003
The Sublime was Yesterday, RUG, Ghent
Bestuifbegeerte, Z33, Hasselt
Once Upon a Time..., MuHKA, Antwerp
Screening, Etablissement d´en France, Brussels
New, Netwerk Galerie, Aalst
2002
Early Works, de Ateliers, Amsterdam
As If, Octopus–Brugge, Bruges
De Kelder op de Vliering, W139, Amsterdam
La salle de cinema, Centre d´Art Contemporain „La Passerelle“, Brest
Diazonali, Pacos das Artes, Sao Paulo
2001
Interferenties, de Overslag, Eindhoven
Pentagon, STUK, Leuven
Parcours d´incidents, De Ateliers, Amsterdam
Flat Space, Witte Zaal, Ghent
2000
Part II, CC Strombeek, Brussels
Diasporical Thoughts, TACK Toren, Kortrijk
CC/NICC, Place Fontainas, Brussels
1999
Trouble Spot Painting, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen
Folle, Studio Ercolani, Bologna
Bouillion, HISK, Antwerp
1998
Ik was vier in 75, Nicc, Antwerp
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