Ward Denys November 2007

The art of Ward Denys covers a wide field of media: sculpture, photography and installation. Through a visual language that is quintessentially minimalist, the artist addresses notions of physical and mental experience, topography and memory. In CCNOA Denys has created The complete video exhibition set, an installation comprising a monumental black box and a series of small gadgets (pencils, postcards and tape). The complete video exhibition set constantly shifts the boundaries between the inside and the outside, the natural and the artificial. A window extending towards the exterior of the gallery space assumes the role of a video wall; in the house, facing the gallery, an old super 8 movie of a child is playing. Just as the image is being spatially deferred and in this way is widened and opened up, the anonymous video image with regards to its meaning awaits the interference of the viewer. The complete video exhibition set illustrates Denys’ interest in architecture. It identifies the development stage as the basic site of creativity: the air shafts and the portal of the black box are made, as if temporarily, out of cardboard. The accompanying series of gadgets draw from the same logic. As working tools they play an integral part in this set for video exhibition design. Ward Denys was born in Izegem (Belgium) in 1975. He studied at K.A.S.K. in Ghent and later on in H.I.S.K. in Antwerp. Ward Denys has had solo exhibitions at STUK in Leuven and gallery Jan Colle in Ghent. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Centre of Visual Arts in Rotterdam and Croxhapox in Ghent. As an exhibition designer, Ward Denys was involved in Gaude succurere vitae – Jan Fabre at SMAK in Ghent and Africa Remix in Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.