Wednesday 22 November 2017

Wednesday Talk: Gert Robijns

12.30pm—2pm

The Wednesday Talks series presents leading artists, thinkers and curators who explore the driving forces, influences and sources of inspiration within contemporary art. The series is a collaboration between the Whitworth and Manchester School of Art and is programmed by Pavel Büchler.

Free.

The playful installations, sculptures and interventions, of the Flemish artist Gert Robijns are inspired by everyday situations. Often involving interaction, they try to make the viewers/participants aware of their physical surroundings. Reset, Robijns' most ambitious artwork to date, is a 1:1 remake of the home of the artist's grandparents, rebuilt 10 cm away from the original house. As well as a monumental sculpture the work is also a residential centre for contemporary art that aims to 'reset' the development of a high quality work in the region and has so far hosted projects by Luc Tuymans and Bernd Lohaus. Reset is the artist's second creative return to his native village of Gotem. In 2011, he had realised there a large temporary public sculpture, The Village, a 75%-scale model of a parish house and the Gotem church placed at the head of the runway of a nearby military airfield. Robijns' studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht and lives in Antwerp.

Image: The Whitworth, The University of Manchester (Alan Williams)