WORK IN TRANSIT

TIME SUSPENDED [Uitgestelde Tijd]

a project for Witte de With, Rotterdam
by
Herman Asselberghs, Els Opsomer, Pieter Van Bogaert
in collaboration with Ann Clicteur

november 7, 2004 - january 8 2005

Witte de With - Center for Contemporary Arts
Witte de Withstraat 50
3012 BR Rotterdam
www.wdw.nl

This exhibition was also presented at Kunsthal Bergen (Norway) and Netwerk Aalst + KVS Brussel (Belgium).

 

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TIME SUSPENDED [Uitgestelde Tijd]

Concept: Herman Asselberghs, Els Opsomer, Pieter Van Bogaert
Foto's: Els Opsomer
Teksten: Herman Asselberghs en Pieter Van Bogaert
Vormgeving: Els Opsomer
Engels/Nederlands, kleur/zwart-wit, 256 pagina's, 25 euro
Een uitgave van SQUARE vzw (www.squarevzw.be)
Gedrukt in België bij Die Keure, Brugge
Gebonden in Nederland bij De Haan, Zwolle
Verdeeld in Europa door Exhibitions International
Verdeeld in de VS door D.A.P.
ISBN 90 8088 391 3

2006

Exhibitions

Time Suspended, KVS, Brussels, Belgium

2005

Solo Exhibitions

Time Suspended, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
Time Suspended, Netwerk, Aalst, Belgium
Time Suspended, Work in Transit, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

2004

Solo Exhibitions

Time Suspended, Work in Transit, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

In November 2002, three artists and critics from Brussels journeyed to Palestine for a ten-day visit. The knowledge they possessed about the unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine was about as much as any westerner who watches news on TV and reads newspapers. On arrival though, they witnessed first-hand the complexities of daily life in the region, a reality that does not fit into slick media sound bites. Two years on, they have published a book on that journey, illustrated with photos to accompany the text. It is called: TIME SUSPENDED. The time they needed to comprehend the situation was long, particularly at a time when images and reports on the conflict zones across the globe compete on an almost daily basis.

The trio have put together an exhibition for WORK IN TRANSIT, using the same title. New individual works engage in a dialogue with works created in the last few decades of the twentieth century. The clash between the past and the present enables the clarification of a personal perspective from engaged outsiders. The distance between here and yonder seems to be constantly shifting, what seems far away becomes a close-up and vice versa. The works on show diametrically oppose the familiar media hype and sketch the 'timeless' nature of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

To date, in 2004, everything but nothing seems to have changed in the ongoing crisis. 1948, 1967, 1987, 1993, 2000: a never-ending parade of historic moments with devastating consequences for Israeli and Palestinian citizens. The images from the past are the images of today. Military prowess, armed resistance, check points, road blocks, houses destroyed, bloody murderous attacks, fatherless sons, motherless daughters, Sharon and Arafat. They may be the same images but they hit harder, are more harrowing and heinous.

Pressure is rising and at the same time everyone is on hold in the waiting game. Waiting for a passport; waiting at the border; waiting in the transit zone; waiting at the check point; waiting for the next curfew. Waiting for the next attack. For the next reprisal. The reprisal in return for the reprisal. Waiting for a political solution to resolve this side, the other side, no side, all sides. And finally, waiting for it all to pass.

As if time were suspended.


Work In Transit - TIME SUSPENDED [Uitgestelde Tijd] is a production of Witte de With in collaboration with SQUARE vzw.
Ann Clicteur designed the exhibition.