“WELCOME – NOT WELCOME”
AT SCHMALL GALLERY

Following an invitation from Schmall Gallery, I made a work using the gallery, exhibited April 11th - 18th, 2014 on Sint Jansstraat at the red light district of Amsterdam. Schmall Gallery is initiated by Doraan Schmall, which is basically a traveling tiny gallery that turns into something new each time it is exhibited.

The text from the work:
“In my opinion, there are three layers, stages or areas of personal space for each individual. The third and the grandest one is the public layer, which includes the majority of the audiences and common encounters of an individual with them. It is where anybody who meets the person can enter and be a temporary visitor. The middle one relates to relationships. It includes usually two individuals (sometimes a few more) and their internal codes, mutual trust, joint memories, and their ways of encountering with the third stage. And for the first stage, it includes only the inner voice of the individual. It is a much smaller layer where the person looks through at the other two, in order to capture the world outside and interact with it. This stage relies on the knowledge, memories, and experiences from the other two stages, but stays carefully hidden and safe with the inner voice.

Roland Barthes introduced Punctum in order to read photographs and to be stung by the sharp tip of the mesmerizing contents of a special image. Punctum may be one of the few bridges to connect the first stage to the other two because as a photograph, the mysterious subject is visually visible to see, and to deal with.

The stories behind the roots of this gallery, and also the story of the image behind the hesitating doors of it, may not be narrated for all, neither may they be necessarily needed to be told, but they can act as bridges to connect the stages to one another, for only the memory remains.”

With special thanks to Cathelijn and Gijsje for welcoming us into there space for the opening.