Art Gallery - Gallery Deweer, ART Gallery, art gallery, artists exhibit, exhibit graphics, painters, photographers, sculptors, sculptures, sculpture to Otegem

Material Spiritual World (curator Filip Luyckx)

18 September - 23 October 2011


group show with Yehudit Sasportas, Georgina Starr en Marnie Weber. The spiritual world is not clearly defined. Its existence can be completely denied or, on the contrary, situated out of reach, in a world beyond ours. It is impossible to agree on what we mean by the term "spiritual", let alone to discuss the subject consistently. Most of the time there is a task division between science - with its focus on the material world - and the spiritual domain. In order to be taken seriously, spiritual claims must not contradict science and reason. Nevertheless, there are several good reasons - even from a skeptical point of view - to have a continued interest in spiritual issues as a cultural phenomenon, in popular as in high-brow culture. A lot of artists and philosophers have taken into consideration a spiritual dimension, which is related to deeply rooted psychological strivings. In the future, in a virtual dimension, mankind could even strive for goals that do not exist yet. Paranormal phenomena also exist since the beginnings of mankind, only nowadays they look simple in comparison with the concepts about parallel universes elaborated by theoretical physics. This exhibition brings together the work of three very different artists dealing with the spiritual dimension. Rather than to express clear systems of (dis)belief, each work invites visitors to take part in a visual and mental experience. The work of Yehudit Sasportas (Israel / Berlin) combines science, mysticism and craftmanship. Abstract insights about the world are mirrored in multi-layered landscapes, illustrating ways of integrating both knowledge about contemporary physics and spiritual experience into the representation of nature. "The Lightworkers", a double-channel video projection from 2010, is one of her most elaborated video installations. Georgina Starr (UK) presents a new version of a sound installation based on an investigation entitled 'I am the Medium". The work deals with fragmented voices of spirits recorded during seances with psychic mediums. The visitor is invited to experience them interactively and in a personal way. Marnie Weber (USA) will present her new film "The Eternal Heart" (2010). Translucent figures dance on a graveyard and then slide into a story resembling a silent movie. A girl is invited to overcome demons from her past with the help of the force of love. After a hallucinating dance and procession, she arrives in afterlife with all her monsters tamed.