Catalyst

With his singular and position in the artistic scene of Belgium, Marcel Berlanger formulates the way by which the picture constructs itself nowadays, through which process it engraves itself in our consciousness and uses its power of reminiscence on them. His work deals with the figure's pictorial inscription in all the complexity of its perceptive dimensions (spatial, temporal and sonorous). Echoing the quality of the space and the singularity of the IKOB's cross-border context, CATALYST literally opens up the imaginary field of the picture to that of the place, functioning in the exhibition space as a rhizome. Familiar and distant, the works will superimpose and associate with each other to create thematic relations and formal critics.

The visitor is thus at the very heart of the exhibition, within the equipment, in that unique spot from where s/he can enter and leave the picture. From here, the gaze will embrace entire sections of the work: the metal frame, shades and light, the breakthrough in space, the close and the distant, the writing, the vagueness… and perceives the fragments of the installations that surround her/him. Hence CATALYST is offering a sight on the contemporary, fragmented status of the figure, which is taken in the net of media, documentary and schizophrenic pictures. Out of all these powerful opposition a feeling of intense and unresolved tension will rise, that announces and denounces a disintegration of balances. It is an exhibition meant to make the figure exist, appear and disappear as in a whirl and to reveal its critical socio-political content.

CATALYST is part of a cycle of 4 exhibitions coproduced with Emergent (Veurne), Galerie Rodolphe Janssen (Brussels) and the BPS 22 (Charleroi) between 2014 and 2016

A project conceived and realized by Maïté Vissault and Marcel Berlanger
Invited artist: Adrien Lucca