05.04.2012 - 10.06.2012

Secret Gardens

Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Club Donny, Anne van Eck, Wim van Egmond, Diederik Klomberg, Giuseppe Licari, Maurice Meewisse, Johan Meijerink, Olphaert den Otter, Daniele Pario Perra (i.s.m. Loredana Longo en Leo Micali), Yvette Poorter (i.s.m. Donna Akrey en Annika Grill), Schilte & Portielje, Janine Schrijver, Wouter Venema, Marleen van Wijngaarden

Sometimes romantic, meditative, fickle, alluring and at times even threatening; nature plays the leading role in the group exhibition Secret Gardens. Fifteen artists take nature as a symbol of longing for beauty, mystery and aesthetics in new works that focus on introspection, emotion, spontaneity and imagination. Installations, sculptures, photo series and drawings transport us to an insatiable desire to give meaning, a craving for a world view less defined by material and economic factors.

The artists in the exhibition mainly depict nature as an environment, which the visitor becomes part of by walking through it, such as the installations by Daniele Pario Perra, Yvette Poorter, Edward Clydesdale Thomson and Giuseppe Licari. The central space in TENT is dominated by a spectacular ceiling installation by artist Giuseppe Licari. A system of tree roots protrudes into the space and transforms it into a dreamlike underworld. Photographers Schilte & Portielje and Janine Schrijver transport us to a garden of earthly delights and romantic city parks. Nature in the city is the focus of the work by magazine collective Club Donny. Maurice Meewisse seeks the confrontation between unspoilt and manipulated nature. The cycle of growth and decay – and particularly the poetry thereof – is the leitmotif in the nightshade paintings by Olphaert den Otter, and in the works by Anne van Eck, Wouter Venema, Marleen van Wijngaarden and Wim van Egmond. In his installation, Diederik Klomberg formulates a layered commentary on the contemporary secret garden. More than just a place of beauty, it has become a place for illegal activity, for civil disobedience; or is it indeed a spot that provides space for the imagination?

Also on 5 Prils, the exhibition De Geheime Tuin opens in Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam. Secret Gardens and De Geheime Tuin mark the 30th anniversary of CBK Rotterdam.

Secret Gardens wishes to thank: Mondriaan Fonds, Stichting Stokroos, s' Zomers
Secret Gardens is curated by: Willie Stehouwer

Filmed by Marieke van der Lippe