BENANDSEBASTIAN ’MADE IN RUINS’


BENANDSEBASTIAN ’MADE IN RUINS’

Bendixen contemporary art is pleased to announce the opening of the solo exhibition Made in Ruins by ‘benandsebastian’.
The artists / architects behind the inter-disciplinary group ‘benandsebastian’ are Ben Clement (GB) and Sebastian de la Cour (DK). At their first solo exhibition at bendixen contemporary art they’ll be showing a new architectonic sculpture that once again invites the spectator to explore benandsebastian’s characteristic and complex universe.
benandsebastian’s fascination with urban and architectural subjects is evident in the exhibition Made in Ruins, where they examine the fragmented qualities of a deconstructed ruin.
‘benandsebastian’ have created a beautiful and well-crafted spindle staircase, which doesn’t seem to lead anywhere; on the contrary, it seems to fall apart. Underneath the stair’s functional steps there exist complex, underlying constructions with their own extensive urban structures. In this very spatially-orientated sculpture, the inner, complex constructions appear in a wonderful and yet disturbing contrast to the solid and coherent baluster, casing and skirting boards.
As the title Made in Ruins reveals, the subject of time is of great importance. Even though the the broken spindle staircase stands as if frozen in time, the exposed parts of the sculpture leads the imagination past the frozen present and towards unknown tales of a past and a future.
In many ways Made in Ruins seems to trifle deal with questions about the power struggle between the inner and outer constructions, between construction and deconstruction, and finally between beauty and decay.
The inter-disciplinary artist group ‘benandsebastian’ are able to embrace the boundaries between art and architecture in a very characteristic way. This is not only due to the fact that they can excite the curiosity and fascination of the spectator in a superior manner; ‘benandsebastian’s works of art become architectonical and sculpturally interesting because they can play so brilliantly with different scales, materials and have a high standard of craftsmanship. There works of art also become artistically interesting because they not only focus on aesthetics, but are also able to incorporate political, ethical and cultural motives in their sculptural works.
Ben Clement (1981) and Sebastian de la Cour (1980) live and work in Copenhagen and are both graduates from The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College in London. They have been working together for the past three years as the artist duo ‘benandsebastian’ and in 2008 received several national prizes and awards for their artworks. ‘benandsebastian’ were the exhibition designers for the recent Fifty/Fifty SE exhibition and will be participating at several other exhibitions this year, for example at the Museum of Modern Art (Roskilde), Kunsthal Charlottenborg and Riot Pilot (Copenhagen). Just recently they have also contributed to the artists’ paper Internationalistisk Ideale #2, which was released in connection to the exhibition Utopia, at Arken – Museum of Modern Art.

Bendixen

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.