Art Rotterdam 2023
9 — 12 February
Presenting new work by
Anne Geene,
Elsa Leydier
Anne Geene, Field of Grass #2, 2023. C-Print on archival matte, inkjet, framed in white-painted oakwood frame with museum glass | 106 x 83 cm | Ed. 5 + 1 AP
With the help of photography, Anne Geene (NL, 1983) investigates, collects and organises the world around her. She captures the hidden beauty of plants and animals and – with a nod to the human urge to order and to know – she examines concepts such as possession, completeness, selection and desire. The artist’s interpretation of her findings is strictly personal and refers to our urge to regulate and understand the world around us. At Art Rotterdam, Geene will present large prints from the new project Fields of Grass and her newest developments of the series Eeuwig Herbarium. Eeuwig Herbarium is a combination of preserved plant material and its photographic reproduction. In this way, an eternal comparison is created between the original colour (captured at the time of picking) and the fading organic equivalent. Fields of Grass consist of individually scanned blades of grass from a field in the direct surrounding of Anne Geene, each work considering a different field. “There are about six hundred trillion blades of grass on earth. Still it is an undervalued plant — everyone just walks on it. Time for an ode to grass,” says Geene.
A vast selection from the oeuvre of Anne Geene was just acquired by The Kröller-Müller Museum for their collection. Her work can also be found in the collections at a.o. Rijksmuseum, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam, Van Gogh House, ING, LUMC, KPMG, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science & Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recent museum exhibitions include a.o. the Kröller-Müller Museum, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Museum Jan Cunen.
Elsa Leydier, Untitled #22, 2022. Fine art print on Hemp Hahnemühle paper, framed (wood chops, gold taint, 20mm (front) x 40mm (side), made in China) | 90 x 60 cm, 60 x 40 cm | Ed. 5 + 2 AP
Elsa Leydier (FR, 1988) lives and works between France and Brazil. Her artistic practice revolves around the political charge of photography. Her recent series LUTOA (The Disobediences) is framed by ecofeminism and concerns the authorized deforestation of the Atlantic Forest. Currently, only 8% of the surface which covered Brazil when the Portuguese invaded, remains. The construction of the new industrial port that is currently underway further destroys acres of forest and the seabed. Leydier echoes the recent spread of feminist street collages in which the word ‘luto’ is changed into ‘luta’ in black paint. In Portuguese, ‘luto’ means mourning and ‘luta’ means fight. In her presentation at Art Rotterdam, Elsa is referencing these collages by adding pamphlets in black paint on the wall next to her work. With this project, Leydier speaks of the rise against such injustice and points at the connection of climate change to the economy. The artist highlights that the frames for her works were made in China. Even with the best environmental approach to materials, in a work calling out about an ecological disaster, Leydier demonstrates how the whole system is interlaced: materials from Latin America and a cheap labour force from Asia. In this work, Leydier speaks of how environmental issues do not exist in a vacuum, but cross paths with other forms of injustice. In LUTOA (The Disobediences), Elsa Leydier poses a question whether the entire system, rather than the individual behaviours, should be destroyed in order to make a change.
Elsa Leydier’s recent exhibitions include Jeu de Paume outside-the-walls (Le Cellier, France), Festival Encontros da Imagem (Portugal), Festival Photo Climat (France), Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie – Fondation Manuel Rivera Ortiz (France), Atelier Noua (Norway), Hosoo gallery (Japan) among other shows in in Colombia, the US, the Netherlands, Portugal and France. Elsa Leydier was one of the finalists of both FOAM Talents 2020 and 2019, Dahinden – Photo Climat Award 2021, a laureate of the French national Photographic commission Image 3.0 (2020) and for the Mentorat Des Filles de la Photo (2020-2021). In 2019, she won the Prize Maison Ruinart Paris Photo 2019 and was one of the winners of the Dior Photography Award for Young Talents.
Van Nellefabriek
Van Nelleweg 1
3044BC Rotterdam
https://www.artrotterdam.com
Opening Times
Thu, 9 Feb, 11.00 – 19.00
Fri, 10 Feb, 11.00 – 19.00
Sat, 11 Feb, 11.00 – 19.00
Sun, 12 Feb, 11.00 – 19.00