Belgian artist Roeland Tweelinckx creates objects and site-specific interventions in autonomous gallery spaces or public places.
In his interventions, in which he utilises everyday materials and often duplicates reality, he subtly plays with his surroundings and our powers of perception. His work draws on trompe l’oeil references – it subverts the ordinary with discreet but precise visual and conceptual twists, creating a slight sense of confusion in the audience, while at the same time inviting a more focused look at reality.
“A wedge lifts a wall. A radiator appears to have melted by the very heat it produces. A wall seems to grow out of another. The universe that Roeland Tweelinckx (1970) creates is indeed quite a strange one. It is not a new world that he devises; he rather works from existing reality, adding new accents or shifting extant elements. His, as Beatrice Eemans aptly phrased, is an acupuncture of the space.
Tweelinckx, through small interventions, creates surreal situations and short circuits. He makes pillars float, bends steel beams and ties a knot in a tube. Something between John Massis and David Copperfield. The artist does not work with marble or bronze, but with sockets, walls, electrical cables, pipes, trestles and baseboards. His attention shifts from the painting on the wall to the actual wall. Like the plumber or electrician of conceptual art.
Tweelinckx plays with our optical observation and perception. ‘Read it, it is not what it says,’ wrote the Dutch poet Martinus Nijhoff. Roeland Tweelinckx turns this into: ‘Look, it is not what it is.’ The artist encourages us to better observe the surrounding reality. Through his minimal interventions, he sharpens our perception, finely adjusts it. He transforms the everyday reality we are so familiar with to the point where we no longer pay any attention to it. Those slight, homely disruptions often provoke moments of doubt: Where is the work? Was this like that? We are often seeing blind. The artist asks nothing better than that visitors engage in dialogue about his interventions. And that the work, in this way, lives on in those conversations.”
– Sam Steverlynck, Reality Under High Tension, 2015
[READING LIST]
Essays:
Selected press articles:
Galila Barzilaï Fondation (BE)
SECONDroom POSTED, Anvers (BE)
Business as usual, but how did I get there?, Galerie Fontana, Amsterdam (NL)
What I wouldn’t give to see you smile once in a while, Lauwer, The Hague (NL)
Things you can rearrange, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
(My) Pockets full of water, Galerie Marion De Cannière, Antwerp (BE)
Trumpery & images from the studio, SECONDroom, Antwerp (BE)
Déformation professionnelle, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris (FR)
Duplicates, cur. Maja Lozic, Irène Laub Gallery (FEIZI), Brussels (BE)
Nothing but good intentions, CC Merksem, Merksem (BE)
The Dialectics Of Paper (Woot), Antwerp (BE)
Secondroom Gent, Ghent (BE)
Roeland Tweelinckx, Base Alpha Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
The lost art of keeping a secret, Galerie De Ziener, Asse (BE)
Domestic, Brdg, Antwerp (BE)
Gmsav, Lomak, Tessenderlo (BE)
Borders and perception, Roman Road Brussels, Brussels (BE)
Registation, Hesitation, Ruimte Morguen, Antwerp (BE)
Off the record, SMAK/Citadelpark, Gent (BE)
Let’s get out / Outdoor ARTfestival, Kasteel Ooidonk, Deinze (BE)
Prelude, Gent (BE)
Eat your words, Galerie Lauwer, The Hague (NL)
Henk Delabie – Roeland Tweelinckx, Salon blanc, Oostende (BE)
P(ART)cours / Par(KUNST), Brussels (BE)
ART.-TECTUUR, CWART, Knokke-Heist (BE)
3rd Biënnale van België/Biennale de Belgique, Floraliënhal, Citadelpark, Ghent (BE)
Achrome, Irène Laub Gallery, Bruxelles (BE)
‘allo ‘allo, Barbé Urbain Gallery, Ghent (BE)
Duo show, Galerie van den Berge, Goes (NL)
YUGEN#16ART, Ghent (BE)
Het Voorstel, Menen (BE)
Krasj4, Ninove (BE)
The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, Deutsches Straßenmuseum, Germersheim (DE)
Workflow, Museum Sint-Niklaas, Sint-Niklaas (BE)
Politics of Discontent, cur. Jonathan Sullam, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Slice and dice, cur. Gregory Lang, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
VK20, Grimbergen (BE)
Wunderkammer, Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen (BE)
Present, cur. Michel Van Dyck, Van Buuren Museum, Brussels (BE)
No modulare, no more sculpture today, Sint Niklaas Academie, Sint Niklaas (BE)
C’est dur quand c’est mou, Espace Galerie Flux, Liège (BE)
Showroom Robin Pourbaix, HA Gallery, Brussels (BE)
One night stand, SECONDroom, Antwerpen (BE)
Bastion 10, Menen (BE)
Le décumul intégral, cur. Lino Polegato, Espace Galerie Flux, Liège (BE)
Le Nouvel Observateur, Beveren (BE)
FRArGILE Fragile / Argile / Moments / Fragments, cur. Jean-François D’Or, Maison des Arts de Schaerbeek, Brussels (BE)
True Story, In De Ruimte, Ghent, (BE)
30 Jaar De Ziener, De Markten, Brussels (BE)
Whatever You Do, Don’t Tell Anyone, Galerie Van Der Berge, Goes (NL)
Artist Trading Card (Atc), Galerie Martin Van Blerk, Antwerp (BE)
Twintig, Vorkamer, Lier (BE)
Around The Corner, Cc Zwaneberg.Be, Heist-Op-Den-Berg (BE)
(Le) Silence, Galerie Valerie Traan, Antwerp (BE)
Rhizoom #5, W45kunstruimte, Goes (NL)
In One Way Or Another, Plataforma Revólver, Lisbon (PT)
Teardrops (In My Eyes), Base Alpha Gallery, Antwerp (BE)
A Belgian Politician, Marion De Cannière Art Space, Antwerp (BE)
Virus, Netwerk / Centrum Voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Aalst (BE)
Concentration(S), At Nicolas Tourte, Roubaix (FR)
De Vierkantigste Rechthoek. Belgische Kunst In Perspectief, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort (NL)
A Simple Plan, Group Show, Villa T.D.R, Kruiskerke (BE)
Alpine Club Boechout, Group Show, Mortsel (BE)
Al Mijn Vrienden Zijn Wetenschappers, Kontich (BE)
Not All What I See Is There, Eva Steynen Deviations, Antwerp, (BE)
Can I Play With Madness, Designcenter De Winkelhaak, Antwerp (BE)
Nieuw/Nouveau/ Neu, Voorkamer | Kunstenaarsinitiatief, Lier (BE)
(B)Elgium, @ Pop-Up, Osijek (HR)
Dublin Doubles, Voorkamer | Kunstenaarsinitiatief, Dublin (IE)
Verzameld Werk, (Woot), Antwerp (BE)
Transformaties, De Markten, Brussels (BE)
Pak, Gistel (BE)
Een Groe, Galery De Ziener, Asse (BE)
Revisite, Secondroom, Antwerp (BE)
Alpine Club Boechout, Berchem (BE)
Gratis Toegang, Secret Kitchen Gallery, Westmalle (BE)
Bones, Ciap, Hasselt (BE)
Bhart#01 Exhibition, Engelslei/Hogeweg, Antwerp (BE)
Over De Schutting, Oranjeboomstraat, Breda (NL)
Here We Are, Nicc, Antwerp (BE)
Roeland Tweelinckx & Geert Opsomer, Zaal 29, Waregem (BE)
Contextual Impressions, Domein Le Paige, Herentals (BE)
