Mark Manders – Acolyte Frena

Mark Manders – Acolyte Frena


After his appraised show for the Dutch Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale last year, Mark Manders (1968) has a new solo presentation, his third in the Netherlands since the beginning of his career. In the Gothic space of the former meat market in Middelburg, now the exhibition space of De Vleeshal, Manders will create a new environment in which he will continue to refer to his series Self-Portrait as a Building.

Started in 1986 Manders constantly works on what should be seen as his life’s work, an imaginary ‘house’ in which he collects his thoughts. The ‘house’ is a construction that exists in the form of preliminary plans. Those plans serve as sketches for the interior design: a collection of objects of which Manders shows excerpts since 1990. These objects are animals, furniture, simple structures and sometimes unsightly utensils. The ‘house’ with its furnishings acts for the artist as a means to analyse and organise experiences, memories and desires in a poetic way. Every installation, sculpture, or drawing he makes are elaborations of these images in his head. They all form a part of his Self-Portrait as a Building.

“There is no difference between a work made 24 years ago or just a single day ago. They are all interconnected. This is the core of my work”. His use of material, where nothing is what it seems – epoxy looks like clay, bronze becomes clay and bronze seems to be wood – strengthens its enigmatic imagination.

Acolyte Frena – the title of the exhibition is based on one of his ‘Fake Newspapers’, a recurrent element in his work – will present a new part in his ‘opera omnia’.

Mark Manders – Acolyte Frena

De Vleeshal, Middelburg

18 January – 23 March 2014