BRUSSELS.- “Emi e dames messeur”, Joël Riff’s fourth exhibition as curator of La Verrière, presents a sentimental encyclopaedia that is the foundation of Koenraad Dedobbeleer’s sculptural practice. For the exhibition, the artist shares some of his kitchen with us— literally. It is in this part of his home that a constellation of affinities unfolds. A memento mural is constructed as a family with analogies nourishing a shared album of images that enshrines the figures of flora and fauna. His project for La Verrière combines existing works with a host of objects from his private sphere, articulated around architectural interventions produced by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.

The mystery of the title invites us to examine the letters before we can understand the words, allowing ourselves to savour the surprise of the elements brought together rather than trying at all costs to rationalise them as a whole. This does not hinder the enjoyment of the phrase by any means. A true game of clues unfolds, nourished by the foundations of daily life in Brussels. “Emi e dames messeur” comes from a sign seen on a street in Saint-Gilles, immediately eclipsing the linguistic pressure in force in the Belgian capital. This stuttering overturns any mechanical reading. A language is thus invented.

The exhibition repeats Koenraad Dedobbeleer’s system, revealing works that reveal. Dedobbeleer’s own display systems are thus examined in the context of the figures he presents, from neighbourly friendships to twentieth-century treasures, avant-garde photographs and other icons of domestic art. After three previous retrospectives in Brussels, the programme at La Verrière continues to cultivate exclusivity by placing it elsewhere, in the trust of an artist revealing what goes on behind the scenes of his work.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer seems to not do anything.

His studio is a complete mystery. It is difficult to know what he toys with. And yet his objects exist well and truly. The good and the true guide his constant search for balance, the tightrope walker’s way of arranging things, of the justness and truth of which he is the sole arbiter. Extreme sophistication is the guarantor of their harmony. To become sculpture, analogies and tensions must hold, and securely locked configurations ensure that they do.

The artist clearly has the keys, but the offering goes beyond the question of ownership. Even though he owns most of what is presented, he is nonetheless giving it away. And that is indeed a panoply. This word traditionally refers to armour, the equipment that forms a barrier and protects against external aggression. Even with this shell, this envelope is an interface. In the form of a trophy, it is displayed when it is not being worn. It’s a finely orchestrated assembly of his own tools of power.

The exhibition “Emi e dams messeur” borrows its title from a sign that Koenraad Dedobbeleer passes by on his weekly routine. It appears repeatedly in his field of vision as he walks down the street. It is both meaningless and real.

The absurdity of a sign that displays its opacity is fascinating. It erodes the effectiveness of communication to allow contemplation alone. And while the artist usually attributes his titles to chance readings, here he takes his head out of the book to entrust us with a beautiful rawness that makes his attention stumble, outside. This movement is essential, at a time when borders are always being crossed between genres, tastes and worlds. All the works gathered here build bridges, celebrate connections and affirm an ecumenical ease, with a sense of humour. In so doing, it doubles the sculptor’s exploratory dynamic, showing his display systems. His practice is brought to a new level of mise en abyme in the vertigo of representation.

The exhibition “Emi e dams messeur” is composed of several others. In small theatres, hubs concentrate another level of navigation, showcasing platforms within a wider panorama. We digest the variety. A reception hall distributes the different zones, possibly a smoking room, library or veranda, as mini-sections of a larger whole, chapters of a house. The home is always there. A thousand details put modern comforts into perspective, humming a lament for progress. It is also, everywhere, all the time, a reminder of the precepts of still life, simply to see better. Without the moralising impasse of vanity. With amusement. Museological conventions are also absorbed. And a taste for the replica, for the double, reminds us of the lesson
of the image.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer is an observer. He scrutinises.

Neither a historian nor a scientist, he has forged an aesthetic culture that infuses all his work, physically punctuating it with clues borrowed from just about everywhere. Quotations and samples escape mere self-referentiality thanks to the sensitive pleasures of his sculptures, which lean towards defiance rather than appropriationism. In this way, he establishes a science of the gaze. This erudition works by collecting. He freely logs what stimulates him, whether it comes from art history or the folklore of everyday life, be it small or large. He groups and cross-references according to sentimental selections.

Then, of course, he cooks. Part of the encyclopaedia he shares with us comes from his home kitchen. To cook is also, according to a certain vocabulary, synonymous with pejorative, allegedly bad, like the Sunday artist. All these kitchens reinforce the drive to dehierarchise in favour of joy.

The exhibition “Emi e dams messeur” brings together a constellation of signatures, a European pleiad that Koenraad Dedobbeleer has chosen to articulate his own objects with freedom, playing with established contours. At La Verrière, Dedobbeleer’s work embraces the all-too- confidential wonders of 20th-century Belgian ceramists Marie-Henriette Bataille and Alexandre de Wemmel, as well as painter Jean Brusselmans, and the Brussels familiar faces Aglaia Konrad and Valérie Mannaerts, avant-garde photography by Martin Munkácsi, Albert Renger-Patzsch and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, a comic strip with Claire Bretécher, and illustrations with Marie Wabbes, a jewel with Karin Herwegh and Simona Denicolai, Albrecht Dürer in the middle, and other domestic icons such as Marc-Camille Chaimowizc. In a completely new twist, novelist Amélie Lucas-Gary, in the fourth and final episode of her contribution to the programme, will reveal her use of gouache, sharing paintings of books. Painting as punctation. A full stop to reading.

Biography

Koenraad Dedobbeleer produces a panoply of objects. Many of them are used to display others. Born in 1975 in Halle, just south of Brussels where he is now based, he trained at the LUCA School of Arts in the same city, at HISK in Antwerp, and then at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. However, his masters were never his teachers. Since 2019, he has been teaching at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. He has also worked as a curator and set designer for dancer Marc Vanrunxt, and has exhibited continuously for a quarter of a century.

La Verrière
Koenraad Dedobbeleer: “Emi e dames messeur”
February 8th, 2024 - April 27th, 2024
Joël Riff, Curator of exhibitions at La Verrière