2024 STADSGALERIJ BREDA

Installation views, Linea de hormigas (Tree Column), 2024
Part of Barn to Stable, a group show organized by Zhixin Angus Liao
Stadsgalerij Breda, Breda
August 10 – 13, 2024

Participating artists: Clemente Edwards, Daniel Mullen, Felipe Mujica, Gayatri Kodikal, Jorge Luis Barragán Castaño, Kimball Holth, Lisa Smithson, Muxingye Chen, Ottokaji Iroke + Koen van Santvoort, Paraskevi Frasiola, WINKs Winkel & Jincent Jan Joh, Sunny Yanyi Jiang, Salim Bayri, and Zhixin Angus Liao

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Linea de hormigas (Tree Column), 2024, wood and insulation tape, variable dimensions

Linea de hormigas [Line of Ants], is a series of sculptures built from thin wood bars and electric insulation tape. Mujica builds them yet they can also be made by other people following instructions: artist friends, curators, and art space employees, as well as children and seniors who take part in art workshops given in different locations. Always documented in a place chosen by its manufacturer, they are ephemeral sculptures, improvised actions, and failed modern attempts, they open, fold, and are transportable works that circulate and dialogue with people, spaces, and landscapes. 

The first Linea de hormigas was made in collaboration with artist friend Cristóbal Lehyt, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2007. Since then the project has evolved and has visited places such as Santiago de Chile, New York, Newcastle, Shenzhen, São Paulo, Guatemala City, Valparaíso, Zürich, and now, Breda. This latest version, in shape and positioning, was inspired by the wood structure of the Flemish barn on Moersebaan in Zundert. Columns and beams as trees, trees as columns and beams, shelter as the natural result of organic growth. 

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Exhibition text:

TICK CHECK! 

The exhibition Barn to Stable, just like the term ‘farm-to-table’, brings to you fresh art directly from the countryside for your gastronomical delight. It is the result of inviting a number of artists, enticed by exquisite locally brewed beer, hearty home-cooked meals and copious amounts of ‘gezelligheid’, to visit and stay in a stunning Flemish barn surrounded by flowers, trees, birds, moles, and horses in the Dutch-Belgian borderland. They learned how to perform full-body tick-checks and how to remove them with a special tool. Which is essential because there are health risks associated with being bitten by a tick. That’s why tick tools are available in the barn, and one of the reasons why slippers are encouraged; they ensure proper isolation from the floor when examining yourself. 

The Flemish barn on Moersebaan in Zundert, once a royal tax warehouse (the ancestor of the Belastingdienst), is now used as a residency studio. Likewise, the Stadsgalerij, formerly a horse stable in a national military camp, has been converted into an experimental art gallery (not for blasting experiments). This presentation reflects the mix of tension and relaxation that accompanies artists during their summer break after the second quarter of tax declarations. This is crucial, since a fertile ground for art requires an even mix of labor and leisure. There is a physical toll from years of practicing art; an artwork is a form of labor after all. However, it can also be fun if conditions are right. Fourteen participants present unique ideas, methods, and interpretations in response to an invitation, moving from the barn to the stable with paintings, drawings, sculptures, videos, installations, and other delicacies.

Tickext checks by Angus / Kimball / Jorge

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