OUVERTURE: Jan De Cock :: Flashartonline.com :: The = World's Leading Contemporary Art Magazine

on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 06:59 MST =
Artists:=20 OUVERTURE:=20 Jan De Cock	from FA=20 International n=B0 235

Douglas = Heingartner Supposedly = to appease=20 the ghosts that so many weapons had left = behind,=20 Sarah Winchester, heiress to the = Winchester=20 family=92s gun fortune, spent decades = manically=20 remodeling her California mansion into an = endless=20 maze of windows opening onto floors, doors = opening=20 into walls, and phantom staircases. = Likewise, the=20 ghosts that young Belgian Jan De Cock = addresses=20 haunt the monumental buildings he = sculpturally=20 transforms: museums, libraries, and old = banks, all=20 freighted with a tainted history, hosting = cultural=20 heirlooms of sometimes questionable = provenance. He=20 calls many of his recent pieces = =93Randschade=94 =97=20 collateral damage =97 referring both to = the implicit=20 havoc wrought by the assembly and daily=20 maintenance of these stately halls, as = well as to=20 the damage done to them by younger, leaner = forms=20 of cultural representation: with art = increasingly=20 evolving outside of conventional spaces, = how can=20 these creaking monuments be reconceived = for=20 today=92s needs? Unreconstructed = modernist De=20 Cock skillfully builds sweeping, = right-angled=20 structures out of untreated wood and = commercial=20 particleboard, whose functions are often = as=20 multifaceted as they are indeterminate; = cabinets=20 become benches, floors become pallets, = stacked=20 panels become towers, like superposed = layers in=20 the fossil record, alluding to how museums = accumulate and exhibit a specific version = of=20 cultural history. His lucid = installations=20 make complex references to the buildings = they=20 inhabit; this isn=92t art that can be = arbitrarily=20 dropped into any white cube. In 2002=92s = =93Randschade=20 fig. 7,=94 for example, a dual exhibition = at SMAK=20 and the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in = Ghent, he=20 linked the two by displaying at each space = photos=20 of his parallel installation in the other, = fusing=20 past and present. Yet he didn=92t steal = the show=20 from the original works housed there. His=20 sculptures=92 cinematic sightlines = playfully drew=20 attention to those paintings that depict = artists=20 at work (a gesture repeated in 2003=92s = =93Denkmal 10=94=20 at Amsterdam=92s De Appel, in the form of = Antonioni=20 and Godard screenings). Presenting = familiar images=20 from a new angle, for example pushing us = closer to=20 a wall or seating us on a raised platform, = highlights our sense of watching a staged = event,=20 of following a routine that=92s been = choreographed=20 by architecture. By repositioning the = viewer on a=20 bench that thereby becomes a pedestal, De = Cock=20 transforms the passive art consumer into = an actor,=20 part of the overall work. He also = restructures our=20 lazy patterns of perambulation, forcing us = to see=20 anew the museistic accoutrements we=92ve = become=20 desensitized to: guards, lights, or the = Ikea-like=20 paths we dutifully follow from room to=20 room. De Cock flanks every new = installation=20 with photographs from his previous ones = (which he=20 calls =93Denkmalen,=94 or monuments), = slyly=20 insinuating himself into the rich pasts = and future=20 history of these spaces. His brand of = archaeology=20 is clearly of the punctuated equilibrium = school =97=20 the idea that evolution is not gradual and = polite=20 but drastic, radically reshaped by = powerful=20 events. And this is how things move = forward:=20 through evolutionary bursts that = continuously=20 reinvent our notions of the past. =
Note: Douglas Heingartner = is a=20 journalist based in Amsterdam. = Jan De=20 Cock was born in Brussels in 1976, where = he=20 currently lives and works. Selected = solo shows:=20 2004: =93Denkmal 4,=94 Kunsthalle = Dusseldorf; =93Denkmal=20 1a,=94 Luis Campana Gallery, Cologne. = 2003: =93Denkmal=20 3,=94 Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna; = =93Denkmal 10,=94=20 De Appel, Amsterdam. 2002: S.M.A.K. and = Museum=20 voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Selected = group=20 shows: =93Jeune Peinture Belge,=94 Paleis = voor Schone=20 Kunsten, Brussels

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