Route A1

The Shadow Cabinet - part II:

Participating artists: Kai Bernau (NL), Olivier Foulon (BE), Kristof van Gestel (BE), Jakob Kolding (DK), Ken Lum (CAN), Olaf Nicolai (DE), Willem Oorebeek (BE), Lidwien van de Ven (NL) and Pae White (USA).

Curator Petra Heck (1975, NL) presents a poster project that playfully explores the polarity between uniqueness and reproduction. Ten artists were asked to design an A1 format poster. The reproductions are on show in de Appel and lie piled up on the floor as free give-aways. In addition, each poster design is on display for a week in and around SKOR's location, de Inkijk. The framed posters will also be on view for four weeks throughout the city.

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Route A1 is a guerrilla action that utilizes the poster as mass media exponent to lay claim to the city as an alternative art space. The message of the Route A1 posters differs from that of commercial statements: the art posters promote nothing and have no announcement to make. Everyone is used to non-stop advertising, screaming texts and overloaded images, that's why Willem Oorebeek's triple printed Elle covers, Pae White's extreme aestheticism or Kai Bernau's text orientated works grab your attention.

Route A1 is not a thematic exhibition. It is an idea leading to a form and the consequential presentation thereof. Not a unique artwork of which only a single copy or a limited edition exists, but an endlessly reproducible poster. The selected artists all have a specific reason for working with posters. From different disciplines, based on various content and formal principles, they have designed an autonomous poster for Route A1.