Kunsthal Rotterdam presents My Secret Garden, the first exhibition in the Netherlands of work by the Belgian artist Arne Quinze. On view through 2 September 2012.
Quinze, who works internationally, creates large-scale public installations and sculptures. His works are often built from of various types of wood. My Secret Garden is his first large-scale indoor project. Especially for the installation, Quinze has introduced light and sound compositions by music duo Danny Mommens and Els Pynnoo. Visitors can follow the artist at close range while the installation is being set up and during the exhibition, which will be held from 24 May to 7 June in the Kunsthal. Quinze can also be seen via live stream during the preparation and realisation of his work. This Kunsthal exhibition is part of a double project. At the same time, the permanent installation Rock Strangers will be opened at Beaufort04 in Ostend, and the exhibition entitled Cities like open air museums is in full swing at the Venetiaanse Gaanderijen (Venetian Galleries) along the Belgian coast. On the Zeedijk (sea dike) in Ostend the visitors will be in direct contact with the Kunsthal via live stream. They are able to see the visitors in Rotterdam walk through the installation.
My Secret Garden comprises two sections: a remarkable wooden installation and a space that Quinze calls ‘the temple’. With this wooden labyrinth, he provides a framework within which people can consider how they organise their lives in relation to others. Quinze considers a ‘secret garden’ to be a place where we can feel safe, secure and in control of who and what has access to our very own distinctly-bound territory. A ‘temple’, on the other hand, is a place where we can simply be ourselves. Branches from an altar reach out towards the surrounding space. Quinze’s most recent works are exhibited in metal display cases. In addition to the installation and ‘the temple’, visitors can watch the films Rock Strangers and My Secret Garden, including the making of in Kunsthal and interviews conducted with the artist and others by Saskia de Coster.
Arne Quinze (1971) lives and works in Sint-Martens-Latem in Belgium. He began work in the 1980s as a graffiti artist but never followed an official course of training. Quinze concentrated on creating large and small sculptures, drawings, paintings and large-scale installations, his smaller artworks, sketches and drawings serving as studies for his large installations. Social interaction, communication and urbanism are recurrent themes in Quinze’s oeuvre. Quinze has constructed installations including Cityscape and The Sequence in Brussels, The Visitor in Lebanon, Uchronia in the Nevada Desert and The Traveller in Munich. My Secret Garden is comprehensively documented at http://www.arnequinze.com/mysecretgarden