Dré Wapenaar

Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples
Through February 28

In the middle of the gallery, a huge structure on a circular base stretched up on high, opening like the whorled corolla of an enormous lily. The thick, cream-colored canvas that extended over the light scaffold of metallic tubing concealed the interior. At first the impression was of coming across a colossal, access-free sculpture, but walking around the perimeter, one discovered a threshold and passageway.

In this, his first Italian solo exhibition, Dré Wapenaar confirmed his interest in inhabitable models with the construction Newspaper Kiosk, which revealed a process with dual valence, delimiting a circumscribed space while avoiding the impression of isolation. The Dutch artist even included a circular wooden bench whose formal aspect, in both color and design, emphasized its cultural matrices.

It was an object to share, an “instrument” of socialization for the visitors, who were invited to sit and read newspapers purposely left by the artist with the aim of establishing contact, however brief and random, between individual viewers. In this way Wapenaar created a kind of igloo whose external reality was enacted by means of the written and oral communication triggered between those who gathered there.

Wapenaar has used this structure in past works, including his winter bivouac tents and village for artists. In this case, his artistic/architectonic vision reaffirmed the edifice, conceived not as an element of nomadism or a womb for protecting oneself against the outside world, but rather as a habitable space for holistic living. This concern was also evident in the second piece on show, Shower Tent, whose fascinating sail-like shape housed a shower compartment of transparent plastic.




Francesco Galdieri
Translation by Amanda Coulson