BLEND Magazine’s creative direction Perre Van Den Brink (Editor-in-Chief of BLEND) and Wouter Vandenbrink (Photographer and co-founder of BLEND) curated an interesting exhibition that will open its doors coming Friday 1st of April at the Paraplufabriek.
The art initiative Paraplufabriek is an exhibition space where artists from the Netherlands and abroad can experiment and show new work. For 2011 the programme Plaats Delict (Crime Scene), initiated by Niek Audenaerd, Daniela Schwabe and Janita de Vries, takes place at this former umbrella factory. This programme plays with subjects that will excite, challenge and entice a wide audience. It’s divided into 6 exhibitions with different themes: Violence, Imaging, Power, Color, Contrast and Sex. The themes will be investigated thoroughly and the participating artists will look into the boundaries of each theme. BLEND’s creative direction was asked to fill in the theme Imaging. Read more about how this exhibition was created.

How did you get in touch with the initiators of Plaats Delict?
Wouter: ‘I have done some commisioned work for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. Their art department was already working on a project for the Paraplufabriek and asked me if I was interested in participating. I immediately thought of working together with Perre, to make it ‘BLEND’.’

Did you choose the theme yourselves or was it assigned?
Perre: ‘We were assigned with the theme Imaging, but we didn’t think it was specific enough, so we turned it into Manipulation.’
Wouter: ‘Imaging and manipulation are quite important in media. We deal with both a lot while working for BLEND Magazine so the theme fit us well.’

How did you select the artists?
Perre: ‘We made a diverse list of both national and international artists from our network, which we like and have been featured in the magazine, or submitted work.’
Wouter: ‘We also selected the artists who already worked with manipulation a lot.’

The subtitle of the exhibition is ‘Manipulated images and images that manipulate’. These two sorts of images do not necessarily show similarities, why did you decide to combine them into one show?
Perre: ‘We think both forms of manipulation are interesting as a theme. It was not our aim to select work that fits together perfectly. In fact, I think it is very important that there is plenty of variation.’
Wouter: ‘Some of the artists however combine both forms in their work, such as Koen Hauser and Simon Wald Lasowski.’

Which one of the artists touches the limits of manipulation the most according to you?
Wouter: ‘I think Simon and Elza Jo. Simon applied an 3D/ installation-like piece, and Elza Jo’s photos are art pieces on itself; she adjusts her photos manually because of her use of beads and glitter dust. She manipulates images in an extreme, but non-digital way. The work of Columbian artist Ivan Argote had the most impact on my own perspective. He has a certain view on the Western world, which I find very intriguing.’

What can visitors expect? Is it a mainly photographic exhibition?
Perre & Wouter: ‘Of course there will be a lot of photography, but it’s supplemented with video installations and slide shows. We worked on the space itself as well.’

Do you feel that this exhibition will make people think about manipulation of images, or is its purpose mainly esthetical?
Perre: ‘It would be great if it makes people think, but for me it doesn’t have a very didactic function. I love art that is esthetic and that you can interpret your own way.’
Wouter: ‘Some works are quite manipulative, so they’ll probably make you think, but the exhibition looks esthetically at the same time. It’s the combination of the two that meks it interesting.’

Are you planning on curating more exhibitions?
Perre: ‘This project was great, so I certainly hope to partake in more curating jobs in the future.’
Wouter: ‘Yes I would like to do it more often too, perhaps for small museums or photography museum Foam for instance. It’s great to give new artists a platform.’

‘Manipulated images & images that manipulate’ is on display from April 1 -10 at the Paraplufabriek in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Participating artists are:

Anne de Vries (NL)
Carl Kleiner (ZW)
Elza Jo (NL)
Emilio Gomariz (SP)
Isabella Rozendaal (NL)
Ivan Argote (COL)
Koen Hauser (NL)
Martin C de Waal (NL)
Mykromag (NL)
Pablo Delfos (NL)
Simon Wald Lasowski (NL)
Stephen Shanabrook&Veronika Georgieva (VS/RU)
Taufiq Hosen (NL)
Tim Johannis (NL)
Wouter Vandenbrink (NL)