24 Apr To be determined. According to the Situation
Dirk Zoete
Not far from the French border, down in southern Belgium a young boy learnt from an early age, how to use his hands properly, helping his parents farming maize, beets and cows. When he turned eighteen Dirk Zoete chose art not farming. Nearly 30 years later and by now well-known for his archaic sculptures and naive-looking drawings things are still the same. The unique amalgam between his hands and every material he comes around emerges ever since in artworks driven by simplicity and rudimentary. While the art cosmos is chasing all kinds of new technological inventions, Dirk Zoete’s world remains flat. Taking this in astutely consideration, it indeed suits pretty well that Mousse Publishing brings Zoete’s latest solo-exhibition on a flat format such as paper. Funny though, by adding one and one together, one flat world within another, his masks, objects and drawings seem to slowly leave their pages – ready to enter the viewer’s universe. Zoete himself was still creating new art works during and after the opening of his exhibition ‘To be determined. According to the situation’ at the S.M.A.K. Museum in Gent and that’s exactly what this publication is about: A celebration of a man who trusts his hands and follows his intuitive-associative methods, so to say, a Gesamtkunstwerk in progress. Hence, an excellent choice to have chosen art.