Artist: Koenraad Dedobbeleer

Mai 36 Galerie presents 4th solo exhibition with Koenraad Dedobbeleer (*1975 in Halle, Belgium) on two floors of the Mai 36 townhouse. In his exhibition titled That Is All There Is, Perception and Memory, the artist playfully presents artworks as intricate vessels of histories that evolve and transform freely based on their juxtapositions, contexts, and modes of display.

The title of the exhibition might raise questions about how perception and memory can (re)shape our understanding of reality. Our perception is not just a direct reflection of the world; it's filtered through our experiences, biases, and emotions. Factually two people can witness the same event and come away with entirely different perceptions and interpretations.

Memory further complicates that dynamic. As it’s never a perfect recording of past events but a reconstructive process influenced by our current state of mind, depending on context, and influenced by suggestions of others. As memories fade or are reshaped over time, they tend to become more about the feelings they evoke than the actual events they represent.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer is inspired by how objects, (his)stories, images, texts, and artists interact, influence each other, and derive meaning from their surroundings. With this in mind, he transforms found objects, allowing them to reference their originals while adopting a new form.

His works enhance our understanding of the complex relationship between objects and their presentation. As an experimental sculptor and observer of cultural phenomena his creations can function both as art pieces while potentially turning into pedestals for other sculptures – or put more accurately, objects are only perceived as sculptures based on their arrangement.

In recent years, the artist has regularly visited the island of Murano, known since the Middle Ages for its renowned Venetian glassmaking. For the lamp-works on view, he selected each piece from a “glass sanatorium” where spare, broken, and discarded glass is kept. This results in a juxtaposition of different time periods and styles: a remnant from the 1990s sits alongside a 1930s casualty, Venini-esque pieces and blown glass hallmarked Barovier are paired with more modest items. The chandeliers straddle the line between functional and sculptural, allowing the artist to explore themes of artistic and design production, as well as the history of display. Notably, Dedobbeleer has consistently shown a strong interest in exhibition accessories such as podiums, wall hooks or even radiator covers. Here, he cleverly addresses the issue of lighting in gallery spaces by designing the works themselves to emit light.

Throughout the exhibition everyday objects are freed from their typical functions and are reassessed through their recontextualization. Koenraad Dedobbeleer constructs references that act as perceptual traps. The artefacts we encounter here, may appear familiar but may also have the ability to unsettle. They are riddled with subtle allusions, ironic commentaries, and art-historical references, designed and arranged in response to the architecture in which they are placed.

What cannot go unnoticed are the marvelous titles the works carry. The artist comments: “What a gigantic problem the titles of works are: they load the object with meaning”. For Koenraad Dedobbeleer, titles never give a direct description of the objects that they name. The exhibition lets the viewer emerge into a humorous and playful world of the practice where sculptures, titles, found words, architectural features, and other objects ambiguously disrupt traditional, professional, institutional, and functional hierarchies with an elusive lightness. Ultimately, it invites us to question our assumptions and be open to the multifaceted nature of truth.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer had several institutional solo shows throughout Europe, such as: La Verrière / Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, Brussels, Belgium (2024); Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (2019); CAC, Vilnius, Luthuania (2019); La Salle de bains, Lyon, France (2019); Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2019); WIELS, Brussels, Belgium (2018); GAK, Bremen, Germany (2015); Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp, Belgium (2014); Credac, Ivry sur Seine, France (2013); De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands (2013); His work has also been shown in numerous group exhibitions and was included in the Luxembourg Pavillion at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice; Liverpool Biennale; Biennale of Moravia, Brno; Biennale of painting, Deurle; the Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre. In 2009 he won the Mies van der Rohe Award in Krefeld.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer’s work is part of the collections of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; S.M.A.K., Ghent; MHKA, Antwerpen; Mu.ZEE, Ostend; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Kunstmuseum Winterthur; Kunstpalast Düsseldorf; Centre national Georges Pompidou, Paris; Lafayette Anticipations/Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris; Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris; Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain, Ile de France/ Bourgogne/Pays de la Loire/Basse-Normandie; and V-A-C Foundation, Moscow.

Koenraad Dedobbeleer is a conceptual artist, a designer of sorts, an amateur publisher and an occasional curator. Since October 2019 he has been a professor of sculpture at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His work engages with themes of decolonisation, challenges established historical narratives, and naively reexamines the hierarchies of time and space. Dedobbeleer lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.