Christophe Gallois – författare

"It is no longer we who cross the land, the border, the sea; they are the ones who cross us."The 2019 Biennale di Venezia offered a special experience: not only was the Luxembourg pavilion assigned its first new location on the Arsenale grounds, but Marco Godinho’s exhibition Written by Water, which was shown there, was an all-the-more impressive research how we move today in a world engaged with current migration issues and its relation with the sea. The sea may have fascinated for centuries, with its endless legends, adventures survived, and voyages of discovery that have further connected mankind. But behind the romantic façade, a complex geopolitical dimension with a far darker chapter has been hidden since the early twenty-first century at the latest. Waves of failed attempts at migration are still occurring today. Written by Water is a geopoetic odyssey that takes the reverse path of today’s migratory routes across the Mediterranean, the cradle of modern society and birthplace of founding narratives that underpin our common heritage. The documentation of the exhibition is accompanied by seven essays, which are just as thought-provoking and a wide range of singular works and recent exhibitions of the last fifteen years.Languages: English and French

Concerned primarily with the medium of painting, the work of Tina Gillen examines how we relate to the world around us, namely through the themes of landscape and dwelling. Her paintings often originate in photographic images that she modifies, simplifies, pictorially "translates," and pairs with other elements to arrive at compositions that purposefully nurture a certain ambiguity, somewhere between abstraction and figuration, construction and improvisation, the surface of the canvas and the translation of a space. This book is being published in conjunction with her exhibition Faraway So Close, presented at the Luxembourg Pavilion as part of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Richly illustrated, the catalogue also includes three essays addressing various aspects of Tina Gillen’s work—the relationship between painting and space, the ties between painting and photography, and the meaning of landscape today—as well as an extensive interview with the artist.