.
100 Details
On Monday 010.002.020 around 009:003 this text was presented to 023 students during their project week Second House: ‘In March, the Graphic Design programme exhibits itself in the Wintertuin. Under the title 100 Details, in texts and images, for 014 days, particular attention will be given to the detail. What, there and then, are these details with which the programme puts itself in the spotlight, in a literal way? The question, for example, arises as to whether they are peculiarities or, on the contrary, trivialities that speak most for themselves: a touching serif, the old scent of people (around 017:043) in an empty studio, an excellent design of characters, a surprising glitch, an empty coffee flask, a dead fly on page 005 or the cheek of a cleaning lady. Though this presentation of details does not necessarily need to be a detailed presentation, in the sense of an as accurate as possible representation of detailed circumstances, perhaps, it could become one when both bagatelles and curiosities are shown and described in an equal and/or indifferent manner, one after the other.’
Now, from Monday 009.003.020 to Friday 020.003.020, the work that the group of students performed in February is exhibited in the Wintertuin. (*) Their response is an attempt to represent the detail in its double and ambiguous capacity: the insignificant as most meaningful, and the aspectual as most disrupting the overview. Of all that does not seem unclear, mostly the fact that a presentation of details need not be a detailed presentation speaks for itself.
(*) While setting up the exhibition, corona virus measures were taken in Belgium: closing all schools and exhibition spaces, leaving our exhibition unfinished, and cancelling the Open House event that would open it. No exhibition, no public. At the time of this writing, one month after it was supposed to open, the exhibition is still set up in an unfinished way with no one to see it, and it remains that way while measures are in effect. Somewhere in between being opened and opening, and already being closed and closing. However unfortunate, this in-between state is also a fortunate addition to our efforts. We always meant to move our programme out of its habitual campus, into another space. That space, we believed, would be at the heart of our Academy. Unexpectedly it was pushed towards a different, more virtual and more open space. While our campus is currently closed and empty, a labelled flag by Ines Cox that was installed for the opening, is flagging its façade. On it, an empty shell of a sea snail. A quote from the story Ines wrote on the label, in tempore non suspecto: ‘[…] the snail spew so hard that it flew out of its own house.’
Thanks to Hussein Ali Hadi Sheikha Al-Lami, May Antoine, Janna Beck, Yanis Berrewaerts, Charly Bönner, Myrthe Bouwens, Jip Brantjes, Annelise Cerchedean, Floor Compeers, Ines Cox, Thomas Crombez, Lynne De Kok, Lore Donckers, Agata Dudzińska, Irma Janssens, Marie Janssens, Jonathan Lambrix, Yi Ting Lee, Luka Lenie, Amber Lybeert, Vitória Mattiello Damiani, Nel Nuytkens, Lisa Reckeweg, Nanna Reseke, Bas Rogiers, Michaël Segers, Sofie Stikkers, Boris Van den Eynden and Sari Vandersmissen, and to everyone else involved in the Graphic Design programme of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.
↑