11.04-24.05.2025 de boer gallery (BE)
The group exhibition (self-)encounters opens on April 11th at de boer gallery Antwerp, uniting the artistic practices of Dóra Benyó, Sara Carter, Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust, and Meri Toivanen. Most welcome to join us at the opening between 19 and 22h, in the presence of the artists.
(self-)encounters investigates the ways in which we perceive, shape, and articulate our sense of self, whether revealed through inward gazes, or, alternatively, through interrelations and interdependencies. The exhibition lays bare these contrasting angles, guiding us to introspection in their own distinct ways, while alluding to the deeper implications they may carry. In Edward Young's words, we seek to encounter and untangle the ‘stranger’ that quietly resides within us. While seemingly autonomous and self-contained, the self is profoundly entangled with the socio-cultural context we navigate and the relational beings who surround us. In this vein, the artists contemplate their relationships to national identities and ancestral memories. Reflecting on cultural ties as an extension of the self, we come to understand how our past—and our longing for it—shapes us in the present.
Collective bodies hold intricate bonds; whereas these webs of relationships can offer us mutual commitment, emotional synchronicity and a sense of reciprocity and alignment, they may also entrap us in a tangle of imbalanced power dynamics and interdependencies. Rooted in this relational nature of the self, each of us is integral to a social fabric, yet in which the barriers between individuals may merge or dissolve entirely.
Graphic design by Elvira K. Wikman.