Contour Gallery Contour Gallery
Contour Gallery is an evolving and ever-changing space for photography and sculptures, based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Representing a forward thinking base of artists.

Exhibition

O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times

O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times

Artist Talk
Pim Zwier

June 4th. 2023
Time. 15.30 – 17.00

13.05.2023 — 10.06.2023

Rotterdam

 

May is the month in which we commemorate the victims of war and celebrates freedom. Eggs and war, a greater contrast hardly seems possible, yet they are bound together in O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times. Through the correspondence on Max Schönwetter’s untimely embarkment on oology, or the study of birds’ eggs, and Zwier’s close-up photography of the eggs together with peculiar cinematic juxtaposition of human and fowl, a new light is shed on the formerly-unknown slice of history.

Cacophonies of goose honks and explosion, footages of marching Nazis switched up with those of birds nestling in the tree and clean close-ups of speckled eggs make for an unlikely set-up for this unconventional documentary. Awarded for Best Directing in the Envision Competition at IDFA, O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times is praised by the jury for its combination of intense archive images, the tranquillity that the study of 19,206 eggs of 3,839 bird species brings, and the unique editing style that offers the viewer an unparalleled insight into the “times” of the war-torn Europe in the 20th century. Between the cold and clinical scientific research of and genuine passion for collecting the birds’ eggs, the film creates an interplay of contrast by placing side by side the fragility of the eggs, a metaphor for life, with the harshness of the war that entails millions of deaths.

Through the personal story that is recorded in these letters Schönwetter exchanged with the oologists and experts, or as Zwier calls an “intimate chronicle”, can we relate to the happenings and, as a result, better understand the nuance of history and see the past in a different light. These exchanges of letters also reveal something universally human: our attachment to certain objects that we hold so dear to and of which we shall not let go despite the circumstances. For Schönwetter, we could see his relentless curiosity that led up to his determination to study the “entire avifauna” and contribute to the field of oology. Ultimately, it was simply his love for the eggs and the quest to collect them that withstood the inconvenience and hardship brought about by the raging war.

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O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times – Pim Zwier

 

Contour Gallery is delighted to be welcoming you to our new show full of eggs and birds: O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times (2021), a series of photographs and a documentary film based on Schönwetter’s egg collection by Pim Zwier, opening on 13th May.

 

May is the month in which we commemorate the victims of war and celebrates freedom. Eggs and war, a greater contrast hardly seems possible, yet they are bound together in O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times. Through the correspondence on Max Schönwetter’s untimely embarkment on oology, or the study of birds’ eggs, and Zwier’s close-up photography of the eggs together with peculiar cinematic juxtaposition of human and fowl, a new light is shed on the formerly-unknown slice of history.

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The shadowed people – Saïdou Dicko

Saïdou Dicko

18.03- 30.4.2023

Saïdou Dicko is a self-taught multimedia visual artist from Burkina Faso who engages in photography, videography, installation, and paintings. Coming from a background of a Fulani shepherd, he began his artistic pursuit from drawing shadows of his sheep. Later on in his career, those shadows became his focus and present in all of his work.

Coming from a background of a Fulani shepherd, he began his artistic pursuit from drawing shadows of his sheep. Later on in his career, those shadows became his focus and present in all of his work.

Being a reflection of his years of work, “The Shadowed People” aims to anonimise the subjects and subsequently break down the concept of the individual, democratizing his characters by removing key societal indicators.

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Gongshi and the White Cloud

Gongshi, and the White Cloud

by

 

Petra Laaper
& Le Nghi Teng

 

 

 

 

 

11 feb – 11 maart 2023
Contour Gallery

The very concept of Gongshi translates into Petra’s sculptural works, alternative embodiments of the scholar’s stone, where four different aesthetic qualities are identified: upright stature, openness, perforations and folding. Along the same lines, the space and floating quality in Le Nghi’s photographic creation is reminiscent of a white cloud. This imagery of white cloud (白云), up and away from the modern world of noises, visually translates into moments of tranquillity and meditation on the transience and impermanence of all things.

Rather than to provoke or break, Petra and Le Nghi seek to show vulnerability that is human and to build bridges and connections among the people and the surroundings. Upon looking at the leather sculptures, gazing through floating cranes, and admiring the semi-transparent prints of faded nature, what questions would you be asking yourself as you let your mind roam free while looking at these photographs and sculptures.

PETRA LAAPER

Petra’s work implicitly questions our perceived individuality and independence. Her sculptures in Gongshi poses questions such as: “How are we being shaped and formed? Do we really consider ourselves on our own without connections in the world?” Petra believes our times asks a different approach; it is no longer a time for fixed and radical views. In her work, she calls for space for flexibility and mobility, open-mindedness, and seeks to look and observe, creating work that encourages a sense of introspection and the softness of dialogue.

images by : Jacqueline Fuijkschot

LE NGHI TENG

In Le Nghi’s most recent work, she reflects on capturing the scenes intuitively and spontaneously, setting out on a shoot of sceneries — no staging, no planning. Together with this newfound way, Le Nghi incorporates her Chinese cultural and traditional background to her new series. 

The crane, a symbol of happiness and relates to the idea of long life and peace according to Chinese belief, is the link between heaven and earth. After her mother passed away, the crane has become the symbol of Le Nghi’s journey.

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The Mythical Landscape

LARS VAN DEN BRINK

The Mythical Landscape

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.

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Make love not war, the power of the flower

Make

Love

Not war

_the power of the flower

Margriet Smulders

26 May – 16 July
FINISSAGE Saturday 16 July at 13.00

Still-life by Margriet Smulders (Bussum 1955) is characterised by a sumptuous visual language. She finds inspiration in the Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century, in the painters of the Flemish Baroque, in eighteenth-century Italian and German ceiling paintings, in Greek mythology, literature, poetry, contemporary society and herself.

Her photos are close to the tradition of the Dutch still-life because of her dedication to material expression and her use of symbolism. In addition, her work refers to the colourful and limitless Baroque and Rococo ceiling paintings. While Smulders’ photos are now represented worldwide in numerous museums, company collections and private collections, they are created in the privacy of her studio:

“In my studio, there is a mirrored container into which I pour water, sometimes mixed with milk or ink or beet juice. I drape pieces of cloth and branches above my mirrored container and in the water I put feathers, winding glassware and blooming flowers from our flower garden. I take the photo diagonally from above so that I can see the composition reflected in the mirror below the rippling water surface.”

text: Karin van Lieverloo

Spring Exhibition

in 2022

Margriet Smulders

Contour Gallery’s latest exhibition highlights the well-known Dutch female artist Margriet Smulders, who has been working for over 25 years in art and has  a deep fascination with the changeability of nature and femininity.

Her photography is reminiscent of eighteenth-century ceiling paintings that offer a glimpse into eternity. With flowers, fruit, shells and water – the fruits of nature – Smulders creates sumptuous paradises.

In her layered still lifes, Margriet bends nature to her will in an attempt to order the chaos. She invites us to indulge in an abundance of colours and shapes.

 

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