“I don’t agree with the speed of visual perception. I think that ordinarily art takes time. And if something is worth looking at, you want to look at it again and again. I think basically art is meditative.”
– Donald Judd (interviewed by Claudia Jolles, 1990)
Alexandre Lavet has made an exhibition of conceptual art avant la lettre at Dürst Britt & Mayhew‘s.
You may also call it post-conceptual as every detail is labelled more or less as a collector’s item, but, on the other hand, it is a successful show as far as i am concerned.
It is all about looking and seeing in the first place.
It is like walking in the empty spaces in between the objects of a gigantic still-life, with the objects missing that is.
The small items Lavet has left in the room, apart from the dust, are not all what they seem.
Reality becomes trompe l’oeil and vice versa.
It is up to you as a visitor to have your thoughts about that and all other aspects that may spring to mind.
As such these small things may have a maximum input on your behaviour, your thoughts (which may be contradictory) and in the end: your remembrances.
So, go and have a look for yourself and try to have the same care for the items Lavet had when making and collecting them and composing this particular constellation in the gallery.
It may not change your world, but it may influence the way you’ll look at art exhibitions a bit.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to Alexandre Lavet and Dürst Britt & Mayhew
Bertus Pieters
