The Constellation of Maybe
Joëlle Tuerlinckx

EXHIBITION UNTIL THE 4TH NOVEMBER 2018

The Vassivière Island International Centre for Art and Landscape is delighted to be welcoming Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx.

For this large-scale solo exhibition Joëlle Tuerlinckx is offering 11 new works spread all over the island, from the art centre building to the lakeshore: a constellation of out-of-the-ordinary elements that explore the power of form to appear and disappear, and the infinite possibility of a space and an oeuvre. One of the exhibits – a lake-water outlet with aspirations to being a fountain – is going to join the Sculpture Wood collection.

Via these unique works – on show both inside the art centre and outside, amid the meadows, woodland and the lake – the artist explores the narrative power of form and abstraction. The visitor is invited to walk through a site made up of ground-level pieces which, based on the starry skies of the Millevaches Plateau, form another constellation of singular objects that transforms our habitual relationship with this territory and its components. Moreover, some of these shapes are inspired and governed by an iconography that takes account of the locality's special character and what makes it attractive: the architecture of the art centre, for example, or the overall look of the lake. 

The tower of Aldo Rossi and Xavier Fabre's building becomes the locus for the wellspring and creative energy of this new landscape. The artist has delved into the lake's industrial history and the production of electricity via the enormous mass of water that shapes the island's contours, and the resultant works reflect her discovery of this energy. The art centre's individual spaces dissolve into a single area of machined parts that have been reversed, displaced and modified.

The sculptures in the woods and on the lake have to be tracked down. They elude the senses, evoking and at the same time disrupting their birthplace. Among their surprises is a remarkable site-specific work, a lake-water outlet that dreams of becoming a fountain.

Questioning the infinite possibilities of a space and an oeuvre – from form to materiality, from presence to absence – this Constellation of Maybe has found in Vassivière the very place its existence calls for.

A publication comprising texts and maps, specially designed by the artist, will enable visitors to acquaint themselves with the exhibition as a whole. In association with other international bodies the art centre will also be publishing a monographic catalogue.

With the support of the Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Friends of the Art Centre association and the gallery Nächst St Stephan - Rosemarie Schwarzwälder in Vienna.

With the technical assistance of the Syndicat le Lac de Vassivière.

The works were produced with Arrolimousin  (Limoges), CRAFT  (Limoges), Couffignal Foundry  (Aixe-sur-Vienne), Jean-Michel Louel  (Belgium), Picat Carrosserie (Limoges) and Portiso (Peyrat-le-Château)...

PRESS : HD visuals available on request:

nadia@closeencounters.fr 

+33 (0) 6 52 08 69 08

Opening:

Saturday 7 July 2018 at 6 pm followed by a performance by Christoph Fink and Valentijn Goethals.
 

 + Sunday 8 July 11am: conversation with art historian and writers Catherine Mayeur and Marjorie Micucci  

Download the press kit