Centraal Museum Utrecht

With the exhibition Exploded view, collaboration between five contemporary artists, Centraal Museum is taking a stance. Artists create spaces, safe havens, new places to think, feel and experience. Art needs freedom, and art provides freedom. Freedom to think differently - outside of the political, religious, ideological and moral box. It is up to the museum to protect these havens against populist politics, where only the big names gain recognition and contemporary art is ridiculed. On the other hand, art should be free of the ideological views and complicated essays exhibition makers tend to burden it with. Centraal Museum relies solely on the expressiveness of the image itself. Artists William Engelen, Wolfgang Flad, Ab van Hanegem, Joris van de Moortel, and Driessens & Verstappen have therefore been invited to create together an exhibition and to develop new work, showing visitors just what you can achieve when you have the freedom to think out of the box.

The exhibition is a process

Compiling the exhibition – the selection of artists – was not based on an all-over concept, but rather on choices made by three people involved: director Edwin Jacobs, who chose painter Ab Hanegem; Ab Hanegem, in his turn, put forward young German sculptor Wolfgang Flad, a familiar face from Berlin; as well as the duo Driessens & Verstappen,  with whom he has previously exhibited. Curator Marja Bosma suggested sound composer William Engelen and the young Flemish sculptor Joris van de Moortel. Centraal Museum invited them to get to know their fellow artists, exchange ideas and react to one another. We also asked the artists to create a new piece for the exhibition. The goal was to collectively make the exhibition happen: not as a concept, but as a process.

Exploded view

Although the artists use different media and are each led by their own fascinations, both relations and contrasts constantly emerge between their different oeuvres. Throughout the exhibition individual pieces are displayed from one artist to the next, creating new dialogues as you go. An exhibition with not just a single linear vision, but actually an ‘exploded view’ - fragmented with multiple dimensions.

The artists

* William Engelen (Weert 1964), composer of music based on elements taken from everyday life or immediate surroundings
* Wolfgang Flad ((Reutlingen D 1974) creates organic sculptures, reminiscent of Hans Arp and the contemporary art of the Donald Duck.
* Ab van Hanegem (Vlissingen 1960) constructs imaginary spaces, sometimes straight and geometric, other times fluid and lyrical.
* Joris van de Moortel (Oostakker B 1983) creates sculptural installations, often incorporating the instruments used in his performances
* Driessens & Verstappen Erwin Driessens, (Wessems 1963) and Maria Verstappen (Someren 1964) are intrigued by the cycles of nature, which they not only accurately describe, but also translate into simulations.