Various artists
ROUTE A1

9 February through 13 April 2007, de Inkijk, SKOR, Amsterdam
17 February through 15 April 2007, de Appel, Amsterdam
17 February through 18 March 2007, A1 posterframes, Amsterdam

Route A1 is a guerrilla-style campaign that uses a form of mass media (the poster) in order to appropriate the city as alternative art space. The messages of the
Route A1 posters differ from those on commercial posters in that these art posters don’t intend to sell or announce anything. And because everyone has become so used to the constant selling, the shrieking headlines and the overcrowded images, Willem Oorebeek’s three printed Elle covers, Pae White’s extreme aesthetics and Kai Bernau’s text-oriented works are now able to actually attract attention.

Route A1 is not a thematic exhibition. Instead it was an idea that developed into a form and the subsequent presentation thereof. It does not feature unique works of which there is only one original or a few limited editions but, instead, an infinitely reproducible poster. Each selected artist has a specific reason for working with posters and, for Route A1, each designed an autonomous poster based on his/her disciplinary background and on different intrinsic and formal principles.

Kai Bernau
(1978, German, lives and works in The Hague) Bernau graduated last year from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague with a degree in Graphic and Typographic Design. Stroom, The Hague’s center for visual arts, awarded him an incentive prize because the jury was impressed by ‘Kai Bernau’s extensive typographic project, which encompasses the investigation as well as the design of a ‘neutral’ letter’, an idea that was further expressed in Bernau’s different posters.

Olivier Foulon
(1976, Belgian, lives and works in Brussels) Foulon’s work is based on the reproduction or reinterpretation of works of art. Foulon enjoys his ‘in between’ status of interpreter and reproducer by focusing on what one remembers and perceives after viewing a work. The difference between the original and the reproduction thereof is also something that interests Foulon. According to him it’s hard to tell which one of the two is more or less real and what is added or lost during the reproduction of art. Foulon works in a variety of media and his work includes drawings, slides and an album cover as invitation card.

Kristof Van Gestel
(1976, Belgian, lives and works in Antwerp) Van Gestel experiments with the classic categories of sculpture: mass, volume, proportions and surface, constructive and serial concepts, material and color. This artist combines sculptures with other sculptures and with photos depicting combinations of other sculptures. With the photos and posters that he created and affixed to the walls of the exhibition spaces, he was able to consolidate these constellations. In this way he can also maintain his temporary (studio) constellations. Van Gestel believes that autonomy, one of the central aspects of modern sculpture, is no longer an inherent characteristic but, rather, a temporary setting in a more open and dynamic process.

Jakob Kolding
(1971, Danish, lives and works in Berlin) Kolding researches the concept of urban planning from different angles. He is fascinated by the tension that results from the discrepancy between the intended and actual use of the public domain. Kolding, who was raised in Albertslund, a very rigidly planned suburb of Copenhagen, investigates the relationship between social behavior and architectural space. In addition to the collages and sculptures that he created, Kolding also produced a poster for virtually every exhibition. Stacks of these posters will be available to the public in the exhibition space and will also be distributed around the city.

Ken Lum
(1956, Canadian, Vancouver) Lum’s work focuses on the dialectical relationship between private and public constructions of identity, space and politics. His work provides a nuanced vision of today’s commercial landscape. In his billboard series, he researches the creative possibilities of advertising. One of his most famous billboard projects is titled ’There’s No Place Like Home’ and another work that is well-known in the Netherlands is the poster on the side of the Witte de With building in Rotterdam that features the text: ‘Melly Shum Hates her Job.’

Olaf Nicolai
(1962, German, lives and works Berlin) In his work, Nicolai focuses on the construction and investigation of aesthetic contexts while portraying the difference between nature and art, the natural and the artificial. His work functions on many different levels: from the mass media to the art scene, from astronomy to the Biennale, from science to superstition and from the global to the individual. He has often deployed mass media in his work. For example, at the 2005 Venice Biennale his work ‘Tears of St. Lawrence’, a meteor shower, was announced by Nicolai in catalogs, on posters and by e-mail so that potential visitors could find out the exact times to view this natural phenomenon.

Willem Oorebeek
(1953, Dutch, lives and works in Brussels) In his work Oorebeek uses existing images that reach us on a daily basis by way of magazines and other printed media. In recent times, he has mainly become known for his series ‘Blackouts’. The color black forms the basis of the printing process. A ‘Blackout’ is a black overprinted image from a magazine or poster that is only visible from a specific refractory angle. The original image is lost and can no longer be appreciated in its entirety. Oorebeek characterizes a ‘Blackout’ as an invitation to see things in black in order to re-see and rediscover something.

Lidwien van de Ven
(1963, Dutch, lives and works in Rotterdam) Van de Ven focuses on current political and religious themes and how these are represented by the press. She furthermore poses questions about the invisible side of events that are captured by the media. In order to do this she mainly travels through Europe and the Middle East,
often tracing the footsteps of journalists while exploring questions regarding representation, the effects of visual perception, the scope of images and what is visible and invisible. By seeking out what takes place in the margins, her work often reveals things that aren’t shown on the news and urges viewers to decelerate their viewing habits. In addition to her photographs, Van de Ven also makes large billboard posters that she usually presents along with her photos.

Pae White
(1963, Canadian, lives and works in L.A.) White has embraced the style and function of applied art, which hasn’t been done by anyone since Bauhaus. As a result her work escapes the question of whether or not it should assume the status of art. Through aesthetics and by using images, objects and structures pertaining to the field of design, White camouflages her conceptual ideas. Whether it’s an office, a foyer or a book, she personally appropriates every space.