Différence et Répétition / Skilnad og gjentaking

Artist list

Alexander Blank, Alexandra Hopp, David Bielander, Felix Lindner, Gisbert Stach, Hans Stofer, Kerianne Quick, Lauren Kalman, Manon van Kouswijk, Monika Brugger, Richard Elenbaas, Sofie Boons, Sungho Cho, Suska Mackert, Warwick Freeman, anonymous (from the collection Keller)

An exhibition in four parts


Contemporary craft finds more often than not in the singular form of the unique piece a way out of its destiny as common object. While contemporary practice always positions itself in relationship to the long history of craft, it does so by setting itself apart from that history’s expected trajectory: it innovates through creative disruptions, and likes to hinge the novelty of its contribution on the figure of an author. By doing so, it subjects itself to what French sociologist Nathalie Heinich calls the regimen of the singular.

At times, however, craft practitioners utilize whatever is generic in craft’s inventory of forms, whatever is repetitive in its gestures, or redundant in its production to lay the foundation of an oeuvre that is both singular and generic: this riskier strategy supposes that re-doing again is compatible with the contemporary definition of what is artistic.

This tension between the singular and the generic affects the entire practice of contemporary jewelry: it informs the type of knowledge it produces, the socio-professional identity of its actors or the economical models between which they oscillate.

What we propose doing here is not so much an exhibition as a reverse demonstration: by presenting a series of objects as so many solutions to a problem they may not have formulated, we hope to establish that our working hypothesis was correct: so there a regimen of creation that combines the repetitive and the singular; so this regimen is that of contemporary craft.

Shall we try?

Curator: Benjamin Lignel


Artists
Week 1: Monika Brugger, Alexandra Hopp, Kerianne Quick, Manon van Kouswijk
Week 2: anonymous (from the collection Keller), David Bielander, Alexander Blank, Sungho Cho, Warwick Freeman, Lauren Kalman, Manon van Kouswijk
Week 3: David Bielander, Felix Lindner, Gisbert Stach
Week 4: Sofie Boons, Richard Elenbaas, Suska Mackert, Hans Stofer