04 Jul 2009

Eric Van Hove at Rossicontemporary

For his first solo-exhibition in Belgium, artist Eric Van Hove presents a selection of photographs from the Metragram series.

Bringing to mind the Anthropometries of Yves Klein, the Logograms of Christian Dotremont or the Dactylograms of Piero Manzoni, the Metragrams of Eric Van Hove are found at the crossing of two mediums: image and writing, photography and calligraphy.

It is a rather intimate and spiritual work with conceptual overtones crossing the artistic genres of Self-portrait, Vanitas and Memento Mori, where the artist is shown inking the womb of a woman with monochromic black ink, in what is a symbolic inscribing onto the origin of the world. Eric Van Hove started the series with his mother in 2005 after 5 years spent studying Japanese Calligraphy in Tokyo with master Hideaki Nagano. The Metragram Series includes 52 images to this date.

Interestingly, no works in the series are fictional: all depicted situations are real. They emerge from an insider work in each identifiable community, with no modelling involved. The woman with whom the image is made is by all means herself in her social and cultural reality. This life long project is an introspective kaleidoscope where classical elements and contemporary clichés collide with ethnological satire, journalistic photos, touristy voyeurism, religious symbols and global and political perspectives. Pilgrimage of a sort, each work implies a travel and a story and these geographic displacements are a tangible aspect of the series.

'The Metragram Series originates in my interest in the history of European visual representation of Non-Europeans, ranging from ethnological images to art works, which in fact often tend to mingle into one single and puzzling result.'

Eric Van Hove (born 1975 in Guelma, Algeria) is a Cameroon raised Belgian conceptual artist, poet and traveller. He lives and works between Brussels and Tokyo. He studied at the Ecole de Recherche Graphique in Brussels and received a Master's degree in Traditional Japanese Calligraphy at the Tokyo Gakugei University in Tokyo. He obtained a PhD degree from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2008.

Having an existentialist tone, Van Hove's work is based on the artist's nomadic willing to simultaneously address local and global issues. It encompasses many media ranging from installation to performance, video, photography and writing. At times insubstantial and subversive, Van Hove's conceptually poetic interventions often ponder and cross-refer to sociological, political and ecological issues.

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Eric Van Hove

Solo-exhibitions since 2007
2009 Metragram Series, Rossicontemporary, Brussels; Vacilar, adhoc galeria, Vigo 2008 Freer trade, ::.: ..: ::.: :. : . .: , San José, Costa Rica; Off the record #2, Shimbashi Station, Tokyo 2007 Dan liever de lucht in #1, Royal Belgian Embassy, Tokyo; Dan liever de lucht in #2, Lokaal01, Breda

Group exhibitions since 2007
2009 Jordan Festival, Amman; Last Day of Magic, ScalaMata Gallery, 53rd Venice Biennale satellite, Venice; Cul-de-sac, 53rd Venice Biennale satellite, Venice; The Borders, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, New York; 16th International Festival of Video Art, Haut Institut des Arts Plastiques, Université Hassan II, Casablanca; 4th Urban Scenographies, Johannesburg; Toute cruauté est-elle bonne à dire?, La Centrale Électrique, Brussels; Into the Atomic Sunshine, Prefectural Museum of Art, Okinawa 2008 From Japan, Fordham University's Center Gallery, New York; Michiyuki, De Avonden (Etablissement d'en face projects), Brussels; Boom-Boom, The 4th Bishkek Contemporary Art Exhibition, Bishkek, Kyrghystan; Into the Atomic Sunshine, Hillside Forum, Tokyo; Chinese Character Biennale, Ku art center, Beijing; Localisms, De Paviljoens Museum, Almere; Into the Atomic Sunshine, The Puffin Room, New York 2007 No Man's Land, Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke; Syllabograms, Geidai Art Museum, Tokyo; Water, ink: world of monochrome, Ueno City Art Museum, Tokyo; 30 et presque songes, Zone zital ankorondrano, Antananarivo; Memory in Motion (public art project), Münchner Stadtbibliothek, Munich; Pilot:3, Monastery of St. Damian and St. Cosimo, 52nd Venice Biennial satellite, Venice; Ecumenopolis, Location One, New York; Three Dialogues, Bloomberg Headquarters + Art in General, New York; Resonances, STUK, Leuven