A Balancing Act will showcase the work of a number of Dutch and international artists who explore the quest for equilibrium in sculptures, installations, photographs, paintings, performances, drawings and video works.
Balance plays an important role in everyone’s life. Our lifelong search for balance begins when we build towers of blocks and take our first steps as children. A Balancing Act will showcase the work of a number of Dutch and international artists who explore the quest for equilibrium in sculptures, installations, photographs, paintings, performances, drawings and video works.
The balancing ‘act’ ranges from a sense of complete harmony to the disturbing feeling of teetering on the edge of the abyss. Every contrast – order-chaos, nature-nurture, work-relaxation, rich-poor, strength-load, war-peace, black-white – ultimately finds equilibrium. For many artists, balance is an important visual element, as they attempt to achieve an absolute balance – or indeed deliberately avoid it – and play with balance/imbalance in form, composition, colour and shades of grey. Constantin Brancusi said ‘Beauty is absolute balance’. And Henri Matisse stressed the importance of it, saying ‘What I dream of is an art of balance’.