Frieze London

15.10 - 18.10 2014

Routine, order, control and discipline are issues essential to Ante Timmermans work. In addition to works on paper that reflect everyday observations, his oeuvre includes, installations and performance giving insight into a world of repetitive workflows and processes. Thereby, the artist does not only examine bureaucratic but artistic work in equal measures. In his critical analysis of the absurdity of everyday life and existential boredom poetry and humor are central and indispensable elements.

The solo presentation at Frieze London 2014 is a performative installation titled ) pause (. The walls of the booth are covered with large text drawings that refer to the stage directions of the play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett - a play in which the two characters wait endlessly for the arrival of someone named Godot. Throughout the entire fair five dancers are performing the directions of pause, understood as a physical and mental state in which each of them has the freedom to choose between standing still or moving on. Sculptural objects / Spatial drawings refering to this in-between state serve as focus point and mirror the performative installation.

) pause ( reflects upon the absurdity, the tragedy and comedy of progressive movement during a ceaseless standstill. The donkey as the ever-working beast of burden is a recurring motive in Timmermans works and has appeared in the performance ‘Métro-Boulot-Dodo’ and the on-going work series DRUSBA. With the latter – ABSURD in reverse – Timmermans further develops questions about the nature of absurdity and routine, proclaiming that absurdity can only be countered with absurdity: a consideration that equally influences this ‘Marche de l’Ârret’.


Performers at Frieze: Siska Baeck,Ruud Peeters, Manuela Fiori Schneider, Anya Senognoeva, Simon Van Schuylenbergh

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