For everything a name,
Every season counted.
Spring brings the rain,
The stream renewed.
Leaves waving.
Flowers waving.
The stream enlarged,
Today a torrent.
The path, swallowed by the meadow,
Is still marked on the map.
The title of the exhibition refers to the sentence A rose is a rose is a rose from Gertrude Stein's poem Sacred Emily, written in 1913. Repeatedly quoted, transformed and parodied, this line moves back and forth between the many meanings of the rose: the rose as object, idea, metaphor, sonority, color, perfume...
In the imagery of the exhibition, the metaphorical counterpart to the rose is the rat, often regarded as a repugnant, harmful animal. The formula thus explores the same linguistic notions while escaping the romantic imagination.
The plexiglas engravings, hung like lanterns or fixed to the walls, show the rat and the rose, the two main figures of the exhibition, in text and figurative representation, in opposition or communion. Echoing Gertrude Stein's linguistic loop, a series of ribbon chutes rotate, carried by motors. As they resonate, they interpret a musical and visual track written for the exhibition.
The works occupy the exhibition in its verticality, falling from the ceiling to reach the visitor.
On the evening of the opening, the exhibition is activated by an organ performance played by Hugo Dinër, in harmony with the motors and the gallery space.
Hugo Dinër lives and works in Brussels. His artistic practice focuses on platitudes and visual clichés such as performative speech and collective animal imagery. Through his practice of drawing, sculpture and performance, he exposes the tension between expectation and disappointment, irony and honesty, hope and anxiety.
