A matter of Life, Death and Singing, Jimmie Durham at the M HKA (Antwerp, 2012)

Ok so, I got a bit bored of just going over and over The Venice Biennale, so to give it a rest I thought about giving a second look to some of the exhibitions I've been in since fall, last year. Starting with Jimmie Durham which was one of my favorites. Later I'll continue with the Biennale.

"I am a fool in my love of material of any sort. It must be obviously true to observers of the works. That is neither the beginning nor the end – not the point – of my work and not the method." Jimmie Durham, 2012 

Jimmie Durham's retrospective at the M HKA in Antwerp is the most complete gathering of a lifetime of doing and playing.


Durham is an american born (1940), sculptor, essayist, poet, activist and performer and his work has been remarkably influential in the art world over the pass two decades. During the 60's he was very much involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM) in Minessotta, they where fighting for better treatment and opportunities for Indian families in matters of housing, jobs and education.

In 69 he left to Geneve, Switzerland and studied at L'École des Beaux-Arts. Later, he returned to The US and until 1980 he worked as a political representative for AIM and even as a representative of the United nations. when AIM disfragmented, Durham went to New York to pursue his art, he worked on sculptures depicting American Indians, like no one ever did before him.

Afterwards he moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico and settled there until 94 when he moved definitely to Europe. Since then he has been working all over the place. Then he focuses on more architectural sculpture, he works with stone, wood, makes sculptures, machines, videos and texts.

  A matter of Life, Death and Singing features his early works, which have never been displayed in another retrospective of his. It featured between 120 and 130 of his works, in which he uses all elements he can to make them part of a visual work. That includes, sound, image, movement, drawing, writing, painting, sculpting, making assemblages, installations... sometimes made along with his wife and artist Maria Theresa Alves.

His work can be considered as a kind of interruption in this world full of belief systems such as religion or money, post-collonialist transformations or the claim for territory, bringing, art, literature and science together in timeless pieces, which will always be rebels of the art. Durham is full of questions, and he inviteds us to think about them as well, he is also not intending to preach anything, he is like a child playing, using every material and media he can, passionately transfering his activist feelings fueled with intellectual and historical awareness into every piece he makes.

(This work, deppicting how the jesus would've probably look like), was at the Venice Biennale, as a part of the show curated by Cindy Sherman.

link: http://blog.frieze.com/55th-venice-biennale-the-arsenale/

Recommended links: http://www.muhka.be/jimmiedurham/en/theexhibition

http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/a-matter-of-life-and-death-and-singing-jimmie-durham/