Sayart.net - [Kiaf SEOUL] Artist Rene Rietmeyer, Gallery PALZO / perception represented by a ′box’

Sayart.net
Maria Kim sayart2022@gmail.com 

ReaA Jung queen7203@gmail.com

Artist Rene Rietmeyer

Nowadays, you can think of a subject in terms of color or texture, there does not necessarily need to be a figurative image anymore. The formal elements determine the surface of each Box or installation, but they are not only the form of the artwork, they are part of the content or meaning, too. Take for example the surface structure of “EL HIERRO 2011“

: it has different colors of red, partly also black; it is rough, lively, wild, and gives the feeling of fire. Of course, it remains a personal expression, but you can understand a feeling that fits to the compact, volcanic island of El Hierro (part of the Canary Islands in Spain). The surface structure itself gives a certain feeling that differs from “Portrait of JK and Rome 2010”, in which Joseph Kosuth is portrayed by a thick, strong white that is covering an initial vibrant red surface color. The color and surface structure that are visualizing Joseph Kosuth varies from that of El Hierro. Comparing the two installations, however, it is clear that Rietmeyer himself is very much in these objects. It is he who makes the choices for the materials, structure, color etc. The work – as everything we perceive in life - is personal.

The artist considers each Box, each work, as a unique moment of his autobiography: “[The work] is an encounter with myself, with me as a person, with my past and my reflections.”

Rietmeyer’s oeuvre reflects an accumulation of impressions of a specific time and location – a life. But the work is not only about the choices that are particular for the person Rietmeyer, choices that he – coming from the Netherlands, from a particular generation, having traveled to certain parts of the world, etc – makes and that someone from, for instance, Brazil would have chosen differently. Each Box is also the result of the situation Rietmeyer was in at the moment of creating the work.

: whether it was hot or cold, his own physical state, if he could afford bad or good quality materials, etc. “That ‘same’ experience at another moment in time, the creation and execution of the series shortly after or much later, would unavoidably lead to a different result.” The Boxes are a combination of predetermined choices and the situation during the actual making of the work.

​Besides these particular moments in his life that are reflected in Rietmeyer’s various installations, the artist concentrates on the passing of his lifetime. This tension between moment and passage brings with it an awareness of how short life actually is. He described this awareness as we were standing together in front of the house of the American artist Robert Rauschenberg in Captiva Florida, USA, in 2008, just a few days after his death.

: “An intense consciousness about Time, Space and Existence puts your own existence in a larger perspective, shows you how small you are, makes you realize the importance and beauty of being alive and makes you aware and accept the ‘finalness’ of death.” Rietmeyer related how Rauschenberg once told him something that had left a deep impression: when Rauschenberg was younger, he had believed that there was not enough world for him to discover. During his conversation with Rietmeyer and conscious of the fact that he would soon die, 

Rauschenberg admitted: “I am running out of time.” Rietmeyer adds: “Time itself does not stop. We just cease to exist.”

2012 Essay
In: Simulacrum, Netherlands, January 2012 By Karlyn De Jongh & Sarah Gold

The Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer (*1957, ‘s Hertogenbosch) creates abstract, three-dimensional wall objects, which he calls “Boxes”. These Boxes address his own, personal existence within time and space. His work is about expressing his existence, about living out the consequences of his thoughts, about living a conscious life, and creating an awareness about this in others. In his work, Rietmeyer focuses on his own personal life, his own existence, and is unapologetically straightforward about this

: “My objects become what they become. Always. They do not aim to be ”beautiful” or “ugly”. Each Box I make is a honest result of me, a reflection of my existence, of me at that moment in time and space, an object from that specific time in my life.” 

Whether beautiful or not, each work has this Box-shape and consequently its skin or surface structure stands out. Besides the primary fact that ‘the work exists’ and the meaning it contains, Rietmeyer’s art is about this surface.
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SELETED EXHIBITIONS

2021 JPS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2021 MODEM, Debrecen, Hungary
2021 The Antal Lusztic Collection, Transsilvania, Romania
2021 Kudan House, Tokyo, Japan
2020 Gallery Chabot, The Hague, The Netherlands
2019 58th Venice Biennale, Personal Structure, Italy
2017 57th Venice Biennale, Personal Structure, Italy
2017 Gallery Cadoro, Mainz, Germany
2015 56th Venice Biennale, Personal Structure, Italy
2015 2nd Bodrum Biennale, Turkey      

and so on.