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Couveuse_install3.jpg

COUVEUSE

KOEN VANMECHELEN

KUBE GALLERY

Apr 1 - Jun 26, 2022, Genk (BE)

Couveuse is an exhibition about unpredictability, coincidence and serendipity. The three guardians of the chamber of the unwritten story we call life. In a world that is becoming increasingly unpredictable. The most striking installation is an almost futuristic object. She resembles a time capsule or even a UFO, but is a great incubator buzzing with basking warmth. Seeds germinate under her. Beneath her grow extravagant, hybrid life forms. It concerns reptiles with a chicken head, and chickens with a reptile head. The entire expo hatches new life. Life forms that we don't really know what they are. They fascinate but also frighten. The lamp is surrounded by videos showing a storm. It's about chicken sperm, a fertility storm. This can give rise to enormously diverse, surprising creations. But that process can go too far. It might as well wipe out its creator because it led to a proliferation of something monstrous. The watchful eye, which is always there, changes from a human eye to a chicken eye. In vitro, the unthinkable awaits. This is also how the paintings and drawings show. They too represent a kind of hybrid reproduction. Painting is the direct flow of energy. The flowing blood that swirls and boils to push something up. Volcanic expressiveness. Unfettered, undirected. The movement is circular, jumps in all directions and is continuous. The result is always a gift, a surprise. Painting is amazing. The exhibition is a puzzle of ingredients that lead to life. Natural reproduction, artificial insemination, hybridity, the right context, danger. Together they always lead to life provided the other key element is present: the unpredictable. A small factor that leads to the anomalous, the extraordinary, the other. To new life, far away from the cul-de-sac. Algorithms only lead to results through anomalies, far away from the hoped-for stability. This is embodied in this exhibition by a minuscule green leaf, which gives life to life.

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