In a French exclusive, the l'Institut Néerlandais presents the monography of the work by the Dutch artist-photographer Luuk Wilmering. The title of his exhibition, A natural story, is inspired by the artist’s frequent visits to the Natural History Museum (Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle) during his stays in Paris.

However, this title is generic, since it covers a large part of Luuk Wilmering’s work, produced over the last twelve years. Featured are A Personal Geographic, Visiting Versailles, Cut Out and also his more recent work Bird needs shelter, a series that was produced during the year spent at the Holboer atelier in the ‘Cité Internationale des Arts’ in Paris

In these series, we find not only photographs, but also installations, collages, drawings, paintings and numerous books. In many of his works, a personal identity is found, as in the large prints where the artist becomes the central character: self-portraits in which he sets himself in everyday situations, as in True believer (2001), or The man who never experienced anything (2009), also the title of a book published in 2010.

According to the author, “these are extremely recognizable works and, without asking direct questions, they incite the viewer to reflect upon their own personal everyday reality”. Works that are sometimes pseudo-events, parallel stories that tend to mean or symbolize decadence. In order to do so, he uses colors or cuts out images to integrate them into other images, as featured in the series on Versailles in which the colored images contrast those in black and white, taken from the World Press Photo annual awards. In the series A Personal geographic, he found material in National Geographic magazine, which had marked his childhood. “For years, I believed that documentary photography showed reality just as it is, but I have since have lost my illusions. Information is merchandise that we cannot sell, and that is thanks to the ‘functional aesthetics’… In the series A Personal geographic the world has turned more fearful. At first glance, the recognizable aesthetics from National Geographic may catch us off-guard, but once the images are closely examined, the horrors from reality are no longer masked, which therefore produces new images”.

His most recent series, Bird needs shelter, produced in the Cité Internationale des Arts, in Paris in 2010/11, studies the hypocrisy found in the relation between men and nature. Birds and the relation with birds play a central role in this series comprised of four parts. “It shows how ‘the abuse of power’ by men is responsible for the extinction of some ornithological species…” The structure of the work is based on four imaginary characters that each embrace a different mentality: gastronomy, science, the hunter and the artist.

L’exposition est accompagnée d’une publication éditée par les Editions Filigranes et qui comprend des textes de Bert Sliggers, conservateur principal du Teylers Museum Haarlem et de Marieke Wiegel, commissaire de l’exposition.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a book, published by Editions Filigranes, comprising texts by Bert Sliggers, head curator of the Teylers Museum Haarlem and by Marieke Wiegel, the exhibition’s curator.

Bernard P. Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Luuk Wilmering
"Une histoire naturelle"
8 September – 23 October
Everyday, 1pm – 7pm, except Monday

Institut Néerlandais
Centre culturel des Pays Bas
121 rue de Lille
75007 Paris
+33 (0)1 53 59 12 40
info@institutneerlandais.com