Opening of New Exhibitions and Presentations | 11 September 2021, 14:00-18:00

June Crespo
Am I an Object, part III

Opening: 11 September, 14:00-18:00
12 September – 24 October 2021
Thu-Sun, 14-18 hrs

June Crespo is conducting research with a particular focus on the relationship between the body and its representation. (…) The starting point is a shape that can be traced back to the body, but the investigation leads in different directions, constructing forms that allude to other things as well (…) a sensual analysis of contemporary models of representation, commenting on the actual and symbolical dynamics enveloping the body. Crespo’s interest in the concrete and corporeal conditions of the object/body, as well as in the immaterial contexts where it circulates and shifts—as seen in her recurring interest in figures such as conductors and vessels—questioning contemporary life’s composite configuration made out of material and discursive dynamics. In a moment in which visual culture is dominated by stylized and hyper-perfect portraits, the work challenges homogenous approaches to the corporeal, proposing dissident images that liberate our gaze and our bodies themselves.*

As Crespo likes to work quite intuitively her approach for the project at P/////AKT has been decidedly open – just two molds and a mental baggage of older unexecuted ideas to experiment with. And as other materials (large blocks of Styrofoam, textiles, resin, flowers) have started to arrive at the space since her own arrival early August, things are still very much in progress. Or rather, in a process that is based on, and executed as, an investigation towards a state of transformation or [removed];

A space and an artist working inside it, molding and casting, fluids solidifying into objects with an outside and an inside, things that are hard and things that are stretchy, the body and the object, the subject and the object, the chicken and the egg. The answer to the question of what is leading can, for the time being, only be answered by trying to find the right tension and watching things transform into a state of [removed];

*João Laia (curator), John Colpans + June Crespo, P420, Bologna, 2018.

Benjamin Francis & Tessa Langeveld
P/////AKTPOOL part 3/3 & part 1/3

Opening: 11 September, 14:00-18:00
12 September – 24 October 2021
Thu-Sun, 14-18 hrs

Benjamin Francis, part 3/3

Benjamin Francis’s research focuses on non-harmonic chords and errors shifted to related themes such as discipline, power relations, hierarchy, religion and cleansing. Through a juxtaposition of several disciplines and hierarchical systems, he tries to force systemic errors that lay bare the foundations of power and vulnerability involved in human growth. Francis graduated from ArtEZ BEAR (Arnhem) in 2020.

Tessa Langeveld – The Endless Echo of a Closing Door

Staring at a blank sheet of paper is the hard part;
In search for lost drawings that had nourished her
It’s something we talked about
Something that is neither interior nor exterior, neither public nor private
(It took me a while to understand that everything is real
It took me a while to understand that everything is to be made)

Intrigued by the time-based element of video, Tessa Langeveld creates moments that slowly unfold as a fragmentary narrative – the act of making is not in the choice of the subject, but in the choice of the meaningful moment. Langeveld graduated from AKI (Enschede) in 2020.

Ricardo van Eyk
Overture

Opening: 11 September, 14:00-18:00
12 September – 24 October 2021
Thu-Sun, 14-18 hrs

Two repaired; sanded; chalked perspex panels are reused from their original act as windows in a large greenhouse-like installation shown in Delft, referred to by the artist as Opera. Opera, in Italian means work, as a result of an activity by a farmer for example; counterintuitive to what we may think of when seeing/hearing the word. The “overture” of an opera is its opening gesture, seducing the audience to enter the [removed];

Overture is an installation by Ricardo van Eyk specifically conceived for the space of our P/////AKTSALON. The work is on view in conjunction with the artist’s solo exhibition at 427 Gallery in Riga (more information below).

The P/////AKTSALON  is a club/reading room dedicated to publications, artist books, editions and small works by P/////AKT alumni artists (and beyond). These materials give form to P/////AKT library and collection. The room is also a space that hosts small book presentations in conjunctions with openings and events at [removed];

Ricardo van Eyk
El Camino 427

15 September – 16 October 2021
Thu-Sat, 16:00-19:00
427 Gallery – Riga

Following the successful collaboration with 427 Gallery for the exhibition Artist Crisis Center II: Tact Gear by Ieva Kraule-Kūna & Elīna Vītola at P/////AKT in 2020, we are now proud to present a new solo exhibition by Ricardo van Eyk at 427 Gallery in [removed];

Often large in scale, many of Ricardo van Eyk’s works resemble, at first glance, neglected or else partially restored surfaces familiar from the built environment: temporary panels put up around construction sites that have attracted crude graffiti, say, or else cracked walls that are halfway through the process of being re-plastered. Perhaps his practice is, at base, a meditation on time. Not only because his paintings hum with an awareness of the history of his medium, but because of their playful way with the language of entropy and repair. Patching something up – whether it’s a wall, or an entire cultural edifice – is not a done-in-one job, but an ongoing process. As van Eyk is aware, palimpsests are where we are fated to make our homes.

During a two-week working period at 427 in Riga, observations during walks in the Baltic city will inform a site-specific process in the exhibition space. As a guest to the city, Van Eyk’s fascinations for the public domain and its traces of the old and new as expressed in architecture, infrastructure and other visual identities will surely be met, resulting in a temporary interpretation.

Join our Facebook event here.
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P/////AKT works in accordance with the guidelines of the RIVM.
Please read our covid-19 protocol here.

P/////AKT would like to thank:

Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and Ammodo