MIGRATIE | MIGRATION
Collectie M HKA, image: (c) M HKA
‘My work has nothing to do with the architecture, the style, or the aesthetics of the exhibition space, but rather with “what an exhibition space is”. An exhibition space is a power structure. My work adopts a critical attitude toward that power…’
- André Cadere
André Cadere refused to adapt to the exhibition system and infiltrated galleries and museums (both solicited and unsolicited) with his ‘barres de bois ronde’ (‘round wooden bars’), handmade wooden sticks constructed from painted sections. The sequence of colours and the number of segments are determined by a self-devised mathematical series (including one intentional error). In this way, each individual work is a manifestation of the same overarching process. The so-called ‘endless paintings’ are limited in length in order to always be light enough to be carried by the artist. Consequently, Cadere regularly visited exhibitions unannounced with a ‘barre de bois ronde’ on his shoulder, temporarily turning the former into Cadere exhibitions as well. In 1975, he realised a long-term intervention at the ICC in Antwerp, where a work remained visible for a year while the surrounding context changed. For Cadere, precisely that continuous shift in meaning was the essence of the work.