Fiona Banner, Runway (AW17)
Museum De Pont, Tilburg, The Netherlands
29 April - 27 August 2017
Opening on 29 April 2017, Museum De Pont presents Runway (AW17), the first major exhibition of British artist Fiona Banner held in the Netherlands. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002, Banner’s artistic production consists of sculpture, drawings, video installations, performances, posters and books; while opposition between word and image, man and machine and physical and virtual worlds figures prominently in Banner’s body of work.
At De Pont, Banner has created a theatrical mise-en-scène in which the gigantic rotor blades of helicopters and re-purposed parts of military aircraft play a central role. Banner is fascinated by fighter jets, finding them both beautiful and horrifying: “almost prehistoric, from a time before words.”
A constant power struggle between words and their meaning lies at the heart of her conceptual approach, which is reflected in the exhibition’s title. Runway (AW17) refers to a runway as a space of performance, evoking the architecture of fashion shows, as well as a site associated with aircraft. These two ideas converge in the video installation, Phantom (SS17), which reveals only the shadow of the Drone Phantom camera as it aims its lens at a magazine, that, thanks to the windy approach of the drone, remains unreadable. Protruding from both sides of the projection screen is a long, raised platform, conjuring the drama of fashion shows. In this case, the catwalk is host to a graphite drawing where pinstripe patterning morphs into runway markings, creating a possible stage for the cast of characters seen in the main space. The prey being hunted down by the hawk-like Phantom is the artist’s recent publication, Heart of Darkness, an illustrated reprint of Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella.
Banner sees a "dysfunctional relationship with the image", as expressed in her wordscapes, transcriptions of films that become vast cinemascopic drawings, and characteristic of her body of work. Banner’s controversial entry for her the Turner Prize nomination in 2002 comprised a description of the porn film Arsewoman in Wonderland; she often refers to words as her medium. Portrait of the artist as a publication, for instance, is a small framed portrait of Banner shown with her own ISBN number tattooed onto her back: Banner is officially registered as a publication.
While it has a certain playful quality, Runway (AW17) exudes the menacing atmosphere that currently has a hold on European politics. The connotations of words and artworks change; they are not carved in stone. "The work is un-static," notes Banner, "and that’s what really interests me about being an artist."
National Press Contact
Hedwig Zeedijk at Museum De Pont
Email: h.zeedijk@depont.nl Tel: +31 13 543 8300
International Press Contact
Eveliina Petäjäaho at Pickles PR
Email: eveliina@picklespr.com Tel: +31 (0)6 44 52 40 85
EDITORS' NOTE:
Museum De Pont
The museum was named after attorney and businessman Jan de Pont (1915–1987), whose estate provided for the establishment of a foundation to promote contemporary visual art. De Pont is housed in a former wool spinning mill, transformed by Benthem Crouwel Architects into a space where contemporary art can be seen at its best. The vast, light main area of the monumental old factory and the intimate 'wool storage rooms' constitute a beautiful environment for the many works of art that De Pont has collected since opening to the public in September 1992. From the start, an aim of the museum has been to build a collection that concentrates not only on the breadth, but also represents the depth of important artists of our time. The museum strives to own at least one key work by any artist within its collection in which the specific and underlying interests of that artist’s oeuvre converge.
Key artists represented in the museum’s collection include Tacita Dean, Marlene Dumas, Roni Horn, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long, Thomas Schütte, Rosemarie Trockel, Bill Viola, Mark Wallinger and Ai Weiwei.
Currently on view at Museum De Pont is the recently opened exhibition Fiona Banner: Runway (AW17) (29 April–27 August 2017), Fiona Tan: Ascent (11 February–11 June 2017) and Doorenweerd & Doorenweerd: The Holy Spirit (8 April–2 July 2017).
Opening times:
Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am – 5 pm
Every Thursday from 5–8 pm, with free admission
Address:
Wilhelminapark 1, 5041 EA Tilburg
Route: De Pont is located at the heart of Tilburg, approximately one hour from Amsterdam or Antwerp by car or train.
