< Lieven De Boeck
Objet Trouvé
Lieven De Boeck
Oct 16, 2016 - Jan 15, 2017
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (Belgium)
“Objet Trouvé” is the prolongation of the exhibition “Image Not Found”, which was on display at the Frac in Marseille. Although both exhibitions involve largely the same work, both presentations are radically different. This difference is clearly stated by Lieven De Boeck through apparently contradictory exhibition titles: “Image Not Found” versus “Objet Trouvé”.
For Lieven De Boeck each exhibition represents a challenge to reflect about possible meaningful relations between his works but also to ponder about the relationship between his work, the space and the viewer. Since it is not that challenging to fall into repetition, Lieven De Boeck turns each project into a new encounter. For Frac in Marseille Lieven De Boeck created the work “Puzzle, Image Not Found”. It was the key work of the exhibition but is now stored in what the artist considers the archives of the exhibition.

In his work, Lieven De Boeck likes to play with the meaning of all kind of characters and typologies, ranging from language and symbols to units of measurement and building systems. Lieven De Boeck controls the outcome through sometimes minimal alterations, changing social or political signs abruptly into poetic characters, or new meanings in the logic of the artist. He stripped the flags of the 193 countries of the United Nations of their bright colours turning them into white compositions that no longer refer to nations and their pretence to power and as such become subtle abstract compositions waving peacefully above our heads, creating an intimate atmosphere.

Tanguy Eeckhout