Vicente Baeza (CL/NL)
Cas van Deurssen (NL)
Mariette van Erp (NL)
Michel Hoogervorst (NL)
Seet van Hout (NL)
René Korten (NL)
Marien Schouten (NL)
Joran van Soest (NL)
Dieke Venema (NL)
Ilse Vermeulen (BE/NL)
We live in confusing and confrontational times full of threats. Contrasts are becoming increasingly pronounced, and polarisation seems to be the norm. There is hardly any room left for the different and the unknown. And that is precisely what is so desperately needed. The Wise Up exhibition is a mosaic of different visual voices that testify to the realisation that new connections are indispensable. That we are part of nature, that we must be attentive to our surroundings, and that beauty and meaning can be extracted from transience. And that this enables us to understand ourselves better.
All participating artists focus on movement and transformation in their work: the ordinary becomes extraordinary. The focus in Wise Up is specifically on connection. On the syncretic encounter in which things do not merge, but where the interaction with the different results in dynamics, depth and enrichment. The transformation of materials brings the wonder of original images. Wise Up is an exhibition that embodies a necessary polyphony. Art, without pamphlets and slogans, as a concrete manifestation of interactions between earth and sky, chaos and order, nature and culture, idea and feeling, appearance and disappearance.
The title of the exhibition refers to the song of the same name by Aimee Mann, which appears in Paul Thomas Anderson's brilliant film Magnolia. In one of the film's key scenes, a poignant extra layer is added when various characters in different locations start singing along to the song Wise Up. Within the dynamics of the various storylines, a moment of stillness occurs, all the lines become connected, and there is room for new insights.
René Korten is the curator of this exhibition. He has been a member of the artistic team since PARK was founded in 2013, and this exhibition marks his farewell to PARK.
The opening will take place on Saturday 2 May at 4 pm and will be conducted by Edwin Becker, chief curator of exhibitions at the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. You are most welcome to attend.
On this day, PARK is open from 3pm.
During exhibitions, PARK is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 5pm.