Next, the word went to Wesley Meuris. He started his lecture with a brief but very impressive synopsis of his CV, ending with his current doctoral research; ‘Exhibiting Knowledge’ at Sint Lucas Antwerp Manama and University of Antwerp.
Wesley Meuris explained that he has an investigative urge for knowledge, leading to work that revolves around presentation. He sees presentation in relationship to objects, as a mean to research the tension between matter and spectator, in a physical and intellectual way.
The first series of work he showed was called ‘Zoological classification’. These sculptures are cages for animals, inspired by zoo’s presentation of animals for our 360 degrees viewing comfort. The ‘cages’ are based on the supposed animals’ needs, which were meticulously researched. But, also executed in an aesthetic way, which is not at all necessary for the animal, and refers to the purpose of the ‘cage’ itself: interaction with the viewer. Wesley Meuris states that he makes the viewer question the presentation even more when the ‘cage’ is situated is such a way that it is hard to tell whether the viewer is inside or outside the ‘cage’, as if the onlooker is behind bars himself.
Meuris displays his investigative urge for knowledge even more through his sculptures on archiving. One example he explained in his lecture, is the work ‘The world’s most important artists’, which was exhibited in the basement of a building with a substantial art-library. The enormous installation looks like a huge filing cabinet, including the labels. The fiche tells you where you can find information on the artist you are looking for, divided into three categories: discipline, art inspired by topic, and the artists’ condition. Only when you find that the drawers of the filing cabinet won’t open, you will realize you are dealing with an artwork.
The last artwork discussed in this lecture was ‘Research building, Knokke-Heist 2010’. Wesley Meuris explained how he was invited by the cultural centre of Knokke-Heist to curate the Schelfhout collection: a large collection of never shown tribal Congolese art of questionable origin. To be able to make a decision, he visited the collector at home. It became very clear, that the questionable authenticity of the pieces was not an issue to the collector, what mattered was the need to collect, combined with the sheer size of his collection. Meuris felt he could work with the collection, without taking responsibility for the questionable origin of the works, by building an imaginary museum within the museum. This way the museum becomes an 800m2 artwork itself. To avoid the issue of authenticity, the collector was asked to choose about 15 pieces from his collection to be displayed in the main exhibition area of the art-museum. The 6 statues that were known to be fakes were placed in the entrance hall, clearly visible for everyone, before the purchase of a ticket. To complete the museum-experience, the floor plan of the imaginary museum, was designed to lead visitors to spaces that are usually not accessible in a real museum. For example, an enormous storage space with the remaining 800 pieces installed, a research area, a knowledge centre and a handling and packaging area that supposedly led to the outside world. The exhibition was announced as an exhibition of Congolese sculptures, not mentioning Meuris’ name or work anywhere. But each of the separate museum spaces gave the attentive visitor clues to the unreal, artistic meaning of the building.
Text: Broes van Iterson
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