AKT SALOON (2005)

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A happening at the HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium

Excerpts from a text by Heike Wetzig:

In a good quarter of the exhibition space the scene took place; spotlights, some straw; one edge of the room hidden behind a large panel covered with a photo studio background paper in a smooth cashmere pink colour, like a leaf of a rose blossom. This very easy installation of ground and background was filled with the presence of a posing bodybuilder and a sheer cooperative Shetland pony (both paid for participation).

Art students, participants from evening drawing classes and all kinds of art lovers from the city of Antwerp were invited to this free evening drawing class. – Adequate to the ambient country music from CDs, the title of the show – AKT SALOON, cut out in plywood and over-painted in brown veneer style “ was fixed on the back wall of the room. Finally, after about two hours of drawing, you could cross an identifying swinging western saloon door: two little brown plywood horses, nostril to nostril. Thus you had access to the real „Saloon“?, situated in a second, small dark room where you could sit at long tables and sip whiskey while watching a video screened on the wall. The video showed a recent sample of the bodybuilders acting together with the pony in a landscape nearby.