Bernard Divendal

Studio and exhibition 16 September to 14 October 2012
Opening hours Wed-Sa: 15-18 o'clock, Sun: 11-18 o'clock u.n.V.
Studio talks on 23 September and 7 October at 16 o'clock in the Kunstverein


"In my everyday surroundings, in the northern Netherlands, there is actually no nature at all. What we call nature has long since been subjected to man's desire for order. Every tree is given its place and should not dare to have wild shoots. Man is tirelessly building a world in his own image. (B. Divendal)
Divendal's installations shown at the Kunstverein consist of everyday objects. He reinterprets their seemingly fixed purposes by making them appear like works of art at first glance. For example, video tapes taken from their covers are wrapped around an image carrier to form an abstract monochrome 'painting'. Wax tablecloths stretched over frames are transformed into ornamental picture surfaces and are reminiscent of the serial painting of the seventies. A three-dimensional collage of familiar sanitary ware resembles the glittering decorative object of a baroque castle. All the individual parts of the sculptures "Open Mind" / keine Ahnung" (360 x 300 x 250 cm, metal profile parts, plastic foil) in the courtyard of the Kunstverein and
"Wall and floor profile objects". In all his works, he fuses industrially manufactured objects of daily use into hybrid forms.
Bernard Divendal was born in 1952 in Amsterdam, where he studied at the Graphic School, then worked in the graphic industry and studied at the Academy of Arts Minerva in Groningen from 1979-1984. He lives and works in Groningen, Netherlands.

supported by: City of Neuenhaus, Emsländische Landschaft e.V. for the districts of Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim