To Burn Oneself with Oneself: the Romantic Damage Show

Opening: Friday 22 February from 6 pm. onwards in de Appel

Romanticism is back with a vengeance. A few years ago it seemed to be a notion unearthed from a dim past and revamped in order to lend some substantial emphasis to a disoriented contemporary art practice. Romantic themes exert an almost universal attraction, which is why they resurface at regular intervals. But what’s really going on? Is the current interest in Romanticism - an epoch in which thinkers, poets and artists took their own subjective feelings as the basis for their work - an expression of a paradigm shift in art? Is this the art world’s way of bidding farewell to the 1990s, which were dominated by ‘relational aesthetics’ and the cultivation of collective experiences and social actions within the realm of art? Has ‘the urgency of a new scenario for the visible world’ (Pierre Huyghe) become obsolete? Are artists nowadays developing their scenarios again according to an individual/personal viewpoint? “To Burn Oneself with Oneself: the Romantic Damage Show” is all about these questions. It is an exhibition set up as an investigation into, and a plea for, the Romantic stance of the artist.

Guest curator Mark Kremer (NL), together with Ann Demeester (NL/BE), has selected ten artists who regard their oeuvres as their lifework. The concept of lifework refers to the complex and ambiguous relation between the life of the artist and his/her work, and the way in which this relationship develops through time. The artist who lives ‘a life in art’ must face the possible fatality of that choice. Subjectivity as imperative has a reverse side: art and life can fuse and burn each other.

Participating artists: Harmen Brethouwer (NL), Günther Förg (DE), Rodney Graham (CA), Joan Jonas (US), Michael Landy (GB), Renzo Martens (NL/BE), Jewyo Rhii (KR), Christoph Schlingensief (DE), Annika Ström (SE/GB) and Richard T. Walker (GB/US)

Curator: Mark Kremer (NL) in collaboration with Ann Demeester (BE)

To Burn Oneself with Oneself: the Romantic Damage Show
Kuratoren: Mark Kremer, Ann Demeester

mit Harmen Brethouwer, Günther Förg, Rodney Graham, Joan Jonas, Michael Landy, Renzo Martens, Jewyo Rhii, Christoph Schlingensief, Annika Ström, Richard T. Walker