The Mythical Landscape
Opening:
Sunday 11 december
14.00 – 17.30
in presence of the artist
11 Dec 2022 / 29 Jan 2023
The Mythical Landscape is a further discovery of the series Behind the Day (2020), in which Lars van den Brink first piercingly shared his image of the majestic Alps. In doing so, he led us through the French, Italian and Swiss mountains, and in this sequel, too, we see a menacing backdrop that represents the power and grandeur of nature.
The series is a symbol of our quest at a time when mainstream notions of dealing with climate seem to be stuck, and an ode to the landscape that forces us to be humble.
Using a phenomenal technique, where multiple moments of a twenty-four hour period come together within a single image, Lars creates images of a mysterious “in-between land. During his travels, he watches the moon and stars appear, the sun rise and the color of the sky and landscape transform.
Over the past three years, van den Brink has been able to create several new works that take us to hidden places. Mainly in the Dolomites, he discovered new desolate areas, which produced magical images. Thus, he added an intensely dark work of the Piz Boé and a “heavenly” landscape of the Saxer Lücke to the series.
Lars’ series is a representation of the duality and mutability of nature, in which everything can turn from one moment to the next. In doing so, he implies that we make choices about what we want to see; what narrative do we filter out of the world around us?
The magisterial images emphasize that we are only part of an immense whole, but that our actions greatly influence it. But above all, he provides a depiction of the comfort that comes from the awareness of our insignificance, leaving us once again to enjoy and marvel at the (un)bearable beauty of nature.
