Ensemble

BEYOND KNOWLEDGE

This theme came about when investigating the work of Thierry De Cordier, Nicos Baikas and Ivan Kožarić.

Mysticism is theologically sometimes described as the negative path. Also philosophical investigations may not only begin but also end in the unknown. It is valid to focus on the unknowable, delineating the limits of science and technology that appear all too powerful in contemporary culture. Artists, in their capacity to oscillate between societal factuality and the space investigated by mysticism, can make sense of the need to ask questions that cannot be answered.

The torso in Cordier's Hoofdbreker [Head-Breaker] can be seen as expressing an awareness of the fact that profound happiness can only be obtained if man proceeds to a vegetation like state and loses all memory, for example by hitting ones head against a head-breaker. Likewise Kožarić's I'm Feeling Like the Belly of a Lion That Has Eaten Too Much evokes a roam beyond knowledge. Baikas' structured intensity reflects on forms of energy, vertical and horizontal, embodied in the depth of the gesture of the hand, action as reflection on visual and physical enigmas.