Arletta's work in EXPO5 touches us and reflects current events: nature's response to the current crisis.
With EXPO5, the new showcase exhibition space at Langestraat 56, Concordia offers you a different way of experiencing art that is unintentionally very topical. The video art in EXPO5 can be viewed safely by anyone walking (or cycling) past. What's more, it allows you to experience art in an exhibition context without actually having to visit an art institution...
Concordia is keen to show the broad scope of visual art, as well as the diversity of materials and applications. That is why, from June onwards, national video art will be on display 24/7 in the new ‘space’ EXPO5. This will take the form of a relay, with each artist choosing his or her successor. Video art is also interesting because of the experimental nature of the use of the medium of film. It has a different structure than regular film. For example, there is (often) no plot, the time span is short, and the medium with all its possibilities and limitations often serves as the subject. A simple recording of an event can take on a meaning in the presentation of video art that goes beyond its mere recording character. This layering has great appeal.
Anyone with a smartphone can make a video. But video artists can still show us the beauty of this phenomenon in a world full of moving images and media violence. Video artists use a medium that is very close to us. Think, for example, of the use of film in Instagram stories and TikTok. Through this now everyday medium, these artists link fantasy to the visible and tangible world.
Now in EXPO5: work by Arletta Elst-Wawrzyniak
Arletta Elst-Wawrzyniak, born in Kraków, Poland (1980), has been living and working in the Netherlands since 2004. In 2009, Arletta graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Enschede, specializing in media art.
Arletta on her work at Concordia: "The video art is inspired by the events during the lockdown. Nature reclaimed its space. In Lithuania, a moose walked between apartment buildings. In Asturias, Spain, a bear roamed the streets. In San Francisco, a coyote took a look at the Golden Gate Bridge. The water in Venice became crystal clear again. Thousands of dune plants are now sprouting on the beaches. In short, the virus contributed to the return of many animals and plants and the recovery of urban ecosystems. During this crisis, I often hear that nature is fighting back. Revenge is taking its toll on us. We are at war with an invisible enemy, many presidents have said. We think more in terms of war than symbiosis. That is funny and unfortunate because we are part of nature. Just as this virus is part of our complex system. This virus is nature's well-known mechanism. It is nothing new, only its spread is overwhelming. Here (in my work), I approach the body as a time-bound form. It decays. It dissolves back into nature. We are essentially part of nature. We try to rule over nature with a harsh, despotic hand. Yet we never gain control over it, just as we never gain control over time and death. The coronavirus outbreak touches on this primal fear: decay."
Images are illusions, just as a reflection is never a true image of reality.