Pyrrhic Fortune (27 May 2010 - 11 July 2010)
Opening: thurs may 27th 21.00 h
Pyrrhic Fortune is the third exhibition curated by Sils which presents works from artists Mai Hofstad-Gunnes and André Kok.
With Pyrrhic Fortune, Sils hosts for the first time a site-specific installation, inviting Dutch artist André Kok to develop a new project for the exhibition space. Kok's installations, involving the perception of expectation, fear and habit in everyday life, transform spaces into maps scattered with elements and objects through which the spectator is invited to walk. These elements almost work as nonsense hints to construct a general meaning at the end of the path.
Mai Hofstad Gunnes presents her video Once Globular together with a series of new works on paper. The video, partly based on writings from Virginia Woolf’s visit to Constantinople, presents us with dreamy fragments of literature and history. A character who seems to be reminiscent of Bauhaus dancers wanders around the city, imitating and playing with its architecture.
Pyrrhic Fortune draws part of its name from a pyrrhic victory, the idea of a ruinous state left behind as a remnant after conquest. However, a certain sense of triumph emerges from the confrontation with spaces and history, specifically within the works of Hofstad Gunnes and Kok whose metaphoric deconstructions and constructions are rebuilt exposing delicate structures.
Mai Hofstad Gunnes (b.1977, Lørenskog, Norway) lives and works in Berlin. Selected recent exhibitions include “A shape of love you can never imagine”, Oslo Fine Art Society, Oslo, “Take me into the wonder forest”, Mercian Art Museum, Karuizawa, Japan, 2009, “Bunnies, It Must Be Bunnies”, Lautom Contemporary, Oslo, “The Intimate and Extraordinary Life of Rocks”, Program, Berlin, 2008, “Ghost in the Machine”, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, 2008.
André Kok (b. 1967, Edam, the Netherlands), lives and works in Groningen. Recent exhibitions and theatrical projects include: “What’s the point of giving you any more artworks?”, stichting KOP, Breda and Operation broomstick2, 2010 “my work by others” (internet project, 2009 – ongoing), “was ist ist, was nicht ist ist möglich”, Rosa, Breda, Amen is Af, Amen, 2008, “Kofnie, zap weer die vonk”, residency Syb, Beetsterzwaag, 2007.