Galerie Wilfried Lentz: Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Wendelien van Oldenborgh     Studio, Rotterdam, 13 – 09 – 2002, 3:30 to 7:15 PM
Slide-installation with four projectors, rear-projection on two screens, 2002

About the work:
“To strike a pose is to present oneself to the gaze of the other, as if one were already frozen, immobilized- that is: already a picture.” Graig Owens writes in an essay in the mid eighties. Identification and representation and the moment of becoming-the-image when one is being photographed are the main issues of this installation with slide-projection called Studio. Van Oldenborgh chose the Rotterdam based Ari Versluis as the photographer. Versluis gained internationally acclaim together with Ellie Uyttenbroek for a series of “portraits” called Exactitudes. In this work the duo identifies and registers groups of people, who code themselves, consciously or unconsciously, through dress sense and behaviour and have been photographing them for their series; posing “as themselves”. Van Oldenborgh filmed the photographer at work in a four-hour session one Friday afternoon.
In this session the models and the photographer have all become actors, playing the roles they have that afternoon, and partly portraying themselves in the image they expect. The camera is a silent observer of all the transitions, and an active creator of new intermediaries. Out of the raw footage of the film unique moments in the interaction are ‘frozen’ and transferred to slides. These moments are carefully directed in an exemplarily and compelling slide-installation. Studio was already made in 2002 but never shown in the Netherlands before. (Read also the full text on this work by Wendelien van Oldenborgh herself).

About the artist.
Wendelien van Oldenborgh was born in Rotterdam. After graduating from Goldsmiths’ College in London, she worked in Belgium and Germany for many years. Van Oldenborgh films communication and interaction between individuals, often against the backdrop of a unique (public) location. In this way her work investigates the political, social and cultural relationships in our society and how these are openly manifested through everyday social intercourse. Other works of Wendelien van Oldenborgh are at the moment shown at the Van Abbemuseum (Maurits Script, 2007) and the MuHKA in Antwerp (LECTURE/AUDIENCE/CAMERA, 2008). In september there will be an overview of her work of the last five years at TENT in Rotterdam.

About the gallery.
Wilfried Lentz is situated at the Groot Handelsgebouw in Rotterdam, next to the Centraal Station. The gallery offers an international program of contemporary art.
At the moment there is the evocative solo-show in the gallery with the Swedish artist Matts Leiderstam, Seen from here, which can still be seen through May the 31st.
Upcomming galleryshow from June 7 till July 12 with Susanne Kriemann who is currently at the Berlin Biennale 5 with the seminal work 12 650 000.

Open: Thursday – Saturday  1 – 6 pm (or by appointment).
For more information www.wilfriedlentz.com
contact: office@wilfriedlentz.com  or  010-4126459