Arthur Kleinjan | Exhibition and Video viewing
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Opening: Group exhibition Dutch Central Bank Video viewing: Jeu de Paume, Paris |
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1) Opening Exhibition Dutch Central Bank, Amsterdam Opening Thursday June 9 from 4 – 5.30 pm in the artspace of the Dutch Central Bank. Arthur Kleinjan is part of a group exhibition Amongst Treasures, composed by Scarlett Hooft Graafland. She collected works by artists that inspire her. The title is a direct compliment towards these fellow artists and of course the treasures being held in the Dutch Central Bank. Arthur Kleinjan will present a work from the Giza series from 2006. In this ongoing project Kleinjan covertly takes pictures at touristic sites of tourists posing for their holiday snapshot. In this photo series, the pyramids of Giza (Egypt) are taken as the setting in front of which small, solitary human figures try to withstand the elements of time as they mark their future memory. Because of the entrance procedure at the Dutch Central Bank, please apply for the opening by sending an email to kunstcommissie@dnb.nl or by phone: +31 (0)20 524 2183. Provide your complete name and number of your identification. Please bring your identification. |
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2) Collection of Isabelle & Jean-Conrad Lemaitre | Paris, Jeu de Paume Monday June 13, from 7 – 9 pm, Jeu de Paume, 1 Place de la Concorde, 75008, Paris If you happen to be in Paris on Monday June 13, from 7 – 9 pm. a viewing will be held at the Jeu de Paume. Multiple video’s will be shown from the amazing Lemaître collection. The video Skipping by Arthur Kleinjan will be shown. Skipping (2004) is an engaging video of a girl skipping rope while her father enthusiastically jumps alongside her, simultaneously- but without rope. Beautiful music compliments the slow and rhythmic movemengts. It is unlcear whether Kleinjan happened to stumble upon this scene or if it has been staged. A simple scene is transformed into an enigmatic sequence. |
ABOUT Arthur Kleinjan
Arthur Kleinjan studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and later also at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 2001 until 2002.
He is particularly drawn to the media of photography and video. His work attempts to explore human experience in relation to the metaphysical experience of time, place and identity. Kleinjan integrates the viewer by playing with these concepts. He does this for example by transforming seemingly ordinary and simple moments into something unique. In his photo series ‘Paris Looks’ he photographs the uncomfortable poses and gestures that accompany the ‘holiday photo’. Whilst each individual tourist takes position for his or her travel companion, Kleinjan as a second photographer captures the scene from an elevated viewpoint. Despite this distanced perspective, these images have a certain intimacy and fragility, via which the viewer identifies him or herself with the piece. Kleinjan is able to register these scenes at such an exact point as to bring out the spectacle in them, as if the tourists are actors on a stage. He demonstrates how they allow themselves to be immortalised in an attempt to resist the passing of time, attempting to obtain something meaningful at a later point in the form of memory.
Video works by the artist also show his keen interest for the themes of time and place. His work ‘Traverse’ has a cinematographic, narrative nature. It is a complex story that traverses narrated childhood memories, recent experience and dream. It is not clear whether the central figure of the piece is dreaming what he had experienced or that he is experiencing that what he had dreamed. His work is located in the space where reality, memory and dream meet.
‘Moments of Considered Time’ was shown at ‘ROAM’, the first time this most recent work had been seen in the Netherlands. It interweaves images of modern Cairo with the history of film, photography and Egypt itself. This together with personal observations and memories creates a complex work of undeniable interest.
