15 Mar 2012

NICO DOCKX at PREMIERE OPENING of ESTHER DONATZ GALLERY. 17 MARCH 2012

Opening her new gallery in March 2012, Esther Donatz kicks off with Belgian artist Nico Dockx (born 1974 in Ekeren). His intervention at this newly opened space at Munich's Amalienstraße deals with notions of 'communication' and 'transition' – transition meaning an end and a beginning, loss and re-start, finding and searching at the same time. It does not only refer to the change of location and the change from being off-space E324 to Esther Donatz Gallery. In this case, it also implies both the disappearance and the creation of an art work, as the last exhibition of Sonja Junkers' gallery in these rooms included a wall statement by Lawrence Weiner saying: AS LONG AS IT LASTS.

Nico Dockx, whose practice is closely linked to some ideas of both Concept Art and Fluxus, picks up the statement of Weiner's wall work – which has been fully painted over in the meantime – and adds a reply: THE FUTURE WILL BE CURIOUS. Hereby, he starts a conversation on questions of time, duration and (in)finity. By using a variety of communication methodologies, he challenges the mechanisms of exhibitions and the possibilities of art interventions.

Nico Dockx has designed six silver bracelets (edition of 5 + 1 AP, one copy for sale) inscribed with the title of the show. Their particular form symbolizes an ongoing circular flow having neither a starting nor an ending point. The bracelets are given by the artist to the gallery staff and Lawrence Weiner in order to wear them during the exhibition as well as outside of the 'white cube'. They function as a mediator between art and life, time and space, and become a place of memory and exchange.

Apart from designing the invitation card and the labeling of one of the gallery windows, a collaboratively written text by Nico Dockx, Esther Donatz and Anna Schneider that functions as a possible script to the artist's ideas is part of the project.

Nico Dockx works out of a fundamental preoccupation with archives and structural processes such as data, memories, information, distribution and management. Often in collaboration with other artists, his installations, publications, writings, performances, soundscapes, and films investigate the relationship between perception and remembrance, allowing multiple interpretations to emerge.

Nico Dockx has received several grants and awards, amongst others a DAAD grant (2005), the renowned 'ars viva'-Prize (2007) and – in collaboration with Helena Sidiropoulos – the 'Prix de la Jeune Peinture Belge' (2009) of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. In 2003, he participated in the show 'Utopia Station' curated by Molly Nesbit, Hans-Ulrich Obrist und Rirkrit Tiravanija as part of the 50. Venice Biennial traveling to Haus der Kunst, Munich, afterwards. Nico Dockx has shown his interdisciplinary works world-wide, e.g. at Witte de With – Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, S.M.A.K, Gent, WIELS, Brussels, Musée des Beaux Arts de Nantes, Center for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu, Centre international d'Art et du Passage Ile de Vassivière, Kunstverein Hannover, MAMbo/GAM – Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, e-flux storefront space, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and at MuHKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen. In Belgium, the artist is represented by Lightmachine Agency.