Belgium

Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven

Germany

Berlin

Galerie Barbara Thumm

Drawing

Un Jardin en Méditerran

Rust en Tijd

Spiritist Lounge

1 Intense pleasure means the end of all forms of work and all restraint.

1.	The world of commodities was based not on life but on the transformation of life into work
2.	At this moment the world has reached its tipping point
3.	History is the reversal of individual histories
4.	We will give back to pleasure the energy monopolized by work and constraints
5.	Individual excitement demands collective diversion of the means of production, it is created by the abolition of labor

work is framed

Mixed Media

Maintenant le monde à l'envers atteint son point de renversement (Schoonheid en Sterkte) Beauty and Strength

2 Intense pleasure means the end of exchange in all its forms

1.	In a world based on trade, all change turns into exchange
2.	In this world turned upside down there is no other way out than death or the supremacy of enjoyment as freedom to do what you will
3.	We are going through the reversal of individual history
4.	Freedom of actions by individuals clears the way for universal free activity

work is framed

Il n'y a d'autre issue que la mort ou la suprématie de la jouissance comme gratuité  (Melancholie en Evenwicht) Melancholy and Balance

4 Intense pleasure means the end of guilt and of any repression in society

1.	Life was the unspeakable crime whose punishment was perpetuated by the mercantile society
2.	In this world turned upside down there is no other way out than death or the supremacy of new innocence
3.	We have now gone through the reversal of individual history
4.	This new innocence assures the passage from individual to collective emancipation

work is framed

Il n'y a d'autre issue que la mort ou la suprématie de la nouvelle innocence (Kind en de Ruimte) Child and Space

5 Universal self-management means the free rebirth of the child repressed in each of us

1.	The old world's agony is routed in our childhood desires
2.	The world on its head could only revert when there was no other outcome than death or rebirth of the child in each of us
3.	Individual history has been reversed
4.	The rebirth of our desires heralds a society that is ﬁnally human

work is framed

Il n'y a d'autre issue que la mort ou la renaissance de l'enfant en chacun  (Kerstmis op afstand) Christmas at a Distance

7  The autonomous emancipation of individuals is the only basis for a classless society

1.	The will-to-power is the will-to-live upside down
2.	Down with the individual choice between death and the unlimited expansion of our desire for life!
3.     The expansion of the self is fomenting global revolution

work is framed

A bas le choix individuel entre la mort et l'expansion illimitée de nos désirs de vie! (Architectuur en Utopie) Architecture and Utopia

3 Intense pleasure means the end of both intellect and the State to function

1.	Suppreme intellectualization was the last stage of market expansion
2.	In this world turned upside down there is no other way out than death or the supremacy of the intelligence of the senses
3.	We are going through the reversal of individual history
4.	The end of the State and the end of intellectuality are inseperable

work is framed

Il n'y a d'autre issue que la mort ou la suprématie de l' intelligence sensuelle (Het Nest van de Natie) The Nest of the Nation

Symmetrisch Contact in en uit de klassieke ruimte / Symmetrical Contact in and out of classical space

Artist says Hi!

6 Universal self-management will see the end of inverted pleasure

1.	The dream of an apocalypse haunts merchant society, while the pleasure of life has no rule nor law
2.	From tire of survival's amusements is born the pleasure to reverse perspective
3.     Pleasure creates life

De l'ennui des plaisirs de survie naît le plaisir du renversement de perspective (Antwerpen 2020) Antwerpen 2020

This is the title that Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven has chosen for her new exhibition in the Galerie Barbara Thumm. It is a statement full of uncertainties. Does Van Kerckhoven (although of course as a Belgian
she does not think in German) refer to something finished in grammatical terms, as defined by the Duden, ‘the German perfect tense is used for actions that have been completed’, or does she use ‘perfect’ as an
adjective in the sense of pristine, unblemished? To speak of life in these terms seems problematic, and in the light of current circumstances almost provocatively utopian.

Van Kerckhoven explicitly refers to a book by Raoul Vaneigem published in 1979, Le livre des plaisirs (The Book of Pleasures). All this further complicates possible interpretations since Vaneigem’s book is about
pleasures and not about life. Should the chapters chosen by Van Kerckhoven be read as an instruction for a perfect life, or rather as a manifesto about the (completed) life in the perfect tense?

Born in 1934 in Belgium, Raoul Vaneigem, together with Guy Debord, Asger Jorn and others, became a co-founder and activist of the Situationist International in 1961. He contributed and shaped many of the
ideas of this avant-garde movement, which he left in 1970. Today he lives in Barcelona.

In essence, this movement favoured anarchism and rejected norms, valuing the individuality of every person in society. A self-determined life can be found through poetry and freedom. There could be no better description of Van Kerckhoven’s own ambition to follow the path of these (utopian) aims through visual art, literature and music. Her all-encompassing aspiration is reflected in the broad range of media she uses.

The group of works in this exhibition gives visual expression to a phenomenon which can be described with the term ‘translation’. Through quotes, Van Kerckhoven connects her work to a book which has
fascinated and inspired her, and she responds to these ideals in the language of a very different medium. While these instructions for individual happiness are clear and concrete when expressed in words,
they seem abstract when turned into material, form and colour. This nonverbal translation appeals to our senses: While words express aims and aspirations and give instructions for action, the images inspired by
them create meditation in the abstraction of what forms the composition. Alternating geometrical patches of colour express a tension between figure and ground. Oscillating between foreground and background, they evoke the movement of the act of seeing. Here and there, we can see elements of a figuration which seems to have been modelled on a photograph and thus expresses a moment of memory and of the past.

This takes us back to the ‘perfect’ state of something that has been completed. In times like ours, ‘Life is perfect’ is a statement that can only be understood as an anarchic invitation to work towards a perfect,
flawless life through self-discovery and artistic self-esteem. It is also an invitation to the viewer to engage with this translation.
Friedrich Meschede

Life is Perfect

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