Joëlle TuerlinckxChicago Studies: Les etants donnes

The Renaissance Society is pleased to present the first American museum exhibition by Belgian artist Joelle Tuerlinckx. This project represents The Society’s long-standing commitment to producing site-specific works that focus on the formal properties of the space, our role as museum, and our relationship to the larger Chicago community. Artists who have recently worked in this manner include, Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, John Knight, Maria Nordman, Stan Douglas, Heimo Zobernig and now Tuerlinckx. Building on a legacy established by her compatriot Marcel Broodthaers, Belgian artist Joelle Tuerlinckx works in the vein of institutional critique. Her practice, however, is distinguished by its ephemeral, transient and contingent nature. Projections, video, and drawing are often mixed with subtle alterations to the gallery space, and gestures that call attention to the time and space of the viewing experience.

For Chicago Studies: Les etants donnes SPACE THESIS, Tuerlinckx took her cues from The Society’s location in Cobb Hall, a building filled with classrooms devoted to undergraduate courses. Part laboratory and part classroom, Tuerlinckx’s exhibition is designed to facilitate the study of relationships between a wide range of exhibition components that includes the formal properties of the gallery space, as well as the surrounding spaces used for various educational or insitutional purposes by the University. Toward that end, Tuerlinckx’s exhibition changes throughout the course of the day. Throughout the exhibition, a gallery attendant will continuously make changes to the configuration of the exhibition. Components of the installation, including video, slide projections, sculptural elements, and portable walls are rearranged out of a desire to investigate the properties of these components relative to one another as well as the ever-changing light conditions in the gallery.