On Saturday September 1st 2012 at 16:30h Galerie Waalkens Finsterwolde will be (re)opening their doors with the international group exhibition The Only Rule is Work.
In the beginning of the 60s Dutch farmer Albert Waalkens started a gallery in his cowshed. In the years that followed the site became one of the most experimental centres of the Dutch art world and attracted many young (avant-garde) artists. The most well-know project from that history is the land art work: Directed Seeding/Cancelled Crop (1969) by Dennis Oppenheim.
Albert Waalkens died in 2007 and since 2009 his granddaughter Merel Waalkens and her partner Boudewijn Rosman live in the unique house annex gallery on the main road in Finsterwolde. In the spirit of Albert Waalkens they now continue the remarkable history of this place and invited artist Marijn van Kreij to co-curate the opening exhibition.
The rich history of the gallery has been the starting point to make an exhibition, specifically adressing the present and looking forward. The approach is very much related to Marijn van Kreij’s own artistic practice. For him the interesting part is how each work can influence the reading of the other works. The exhibition is about this (mental) space that is created in between the separate works. Important in this sense is the relationship between the artist, the artwork and the spectator; what lies ‘behind’ the image and the potential meaning that may arise by seeing the works in this context: the exhibition as artwork.
The Only Rule is Work will show a selection of works connected to the history of the gallery by artists Douglas Huebler, Dennis Oppenheim and Karl Pelgrom (and the Institute for Creative Work). These pieces are associatively combined with works by contemporary artists such as WJM Kok, Klara Lidén and Marijn van Kreij himself. A few artists will create new work on the spot, relating to the rural area of Finsterwolde. Los Angeles-based artist Jennifer West will be making a new experimental film by having her 16mm celluloid film covered in cow dung, trampled by the hooves of diary cows, smeared with weed butter and sprinkled with rapeseed flowers. The abstract and psychedelic film will be shown in the gallery. Maarten Sleeuwits will create a new minimalistic sculpture with the typical Groningen clay. For Graham Hudson’s piece Survey some of the rubble found in the proximity of the gallery is used to erect a sculptural ‘ready-made’. The young Swedish artist Karin Hasselberg will add another chapter to her Hole-series by producing a new work at the opening.
The exhibition poster by Marijn van Kreij will be available as a limited edition to support the gallery. An introduction to the exhibition will be held by Harm Evert Waalkens and Steven ten Thije (Research-curator at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and the Universteit Hildesheim).