Katinka Bock, « Umland »
Katinka Bock’s work Umland (2007 – 2011), which was awarded the Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard 2012, is entering the collections of the Centre Pompidou.
Starting on June 19, 2013, Umland will be exhibited in room 25 of the Musée national d’art moderne (level 4 of the Centre).
Like a mobile studiolo, Umland features mysterious elements collected in the Garonne river, some in rubber, others in foam, fabric and marble. These elements lie on the base of the structure or hang from it, like objects born of a dream. The fragility of the piece contrasts with its weight, while its movement gives it an almost human gestural ability, like an animated scarecrow or weather vane seeking to leave a lasting mark in space and time.
Umland is now part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou, in the wake of works by Didier Marcel, Natacha Lesueur, Tatiana Trouvé, Boris Achour, Matthieu Laurette, Mircea Cantor, Loris Gréaud, Vincent Lamouroux, Christophe Berdaguer and Marie Péjus, Raphaël Zarka, Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille, Isabelle Cornaro, Benoît Maire and Adrien Missika, which were previously awarded the Prix.
The works of Katinka Bock (b. 1976) deal with space, its perception and its measure, in the form of sculptures and in-situ installations. Striking in their formal simplicity, they are made of elementary or organic materials (wood, tar, stone, newspapers, salt). These are as many elements awaiting transformation: the artist approaches materials for their capacity to produce energy and represent the passage of time. Bock, whose formal lineage may be traced back to arte povera and Minimalism, gives shape to uncluttered, condensed objects. She organizes them in tense arrangements, subjecting them to potentially unstable situations. The result may be a wood parallelepiped balanced atop a rice bag through the attraction of two magnets (Zone II, 2003, collection of the Centre Pompidou) or an in-situ installation in dried mud, with cracks slowly developing over the period of the exhibition, to mention but two examples.
The feeling of an imminent danger, of a possible fall, or even of the annihilation of the works draws the eyes of viewers, palpably connecting them to the space of the exhibition. With their connotation of atemporality, water, glass, wood, stone, clay or paper only further emphasize the possibilities of balance, tipping over, fall and suspension built in the works. The humble character of these materials calls into question the monumental aspect of traditional sculpture.
Since 1999, the Centre Pompidou has been hosting the Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, which is awarded to a young French artist every year. The works of the recipients, donated by the Fondation d’entreprise Ricard to the Centre Pompidou, thus contribute to enrich the collections of the museum.
