Marjan Teeuwen at Bruce Silverstein

Thu, Feb 8 - Sat, Apr 14  2018

Bruce Silverstein

From February 8, 2018, to April 14, 2018, works by Marjan Teeuwen will be on view at Bruce Silverstein in New York.

Bruce Silverstein is delighted to announce the representation of Dutch contemporary artist, Marjan Teeuwen. In her aptly titled body of work, Destroyed House, Teeuwen reclaims the wreckage of abandoned buildings assembling each fragment in painstakingly detailed installations, set within the original structures.  These temporary living artworks are present for their surrounding community to experience, but they ultimately exist only through the carefully composed photographic images which Teeuwen captures for posterity with her large-format camera.  Her images illuminate the precarious balance of the power of destruction with the constructive implications of order and function.

Destroyed House

Marjan Teeuwen creates large-scale architectural installations in buildings that are dismantled after her intervention. She demolishes and strips, intervenes on the structure and structure and builds up a new artistic image with the demolition material. Independent photo works are created on the basis of these installations. In her work, the constructive power of building goes hand in hand with the power of devastation and decay. Floors are tilted or fall perpendicularly downwards; walls are partially or completely smashed out. Stacks of debris branch like a virus through the building, covering all walls or being carefully organized into architectural sculptures. There is only a short line of artists who cut into buildings, artists who perforate buildings. Gordon Matta-Clark is the pioneer of transforming architecture into sculpture. Richard Wilson and Urs Fisher sometimes use this approach. Marjan Teeuwen determines her own comprehensive and radical approach. In 2016/2017, Teeuwen Verwoest Huis realizes Gaza. Working in occupied territory infiltrates the social context in a powerful way in her work. The tension between the artistic and political context comes to focus. Precisely by strengthening the artistic context, it increases the autonomous meaning in this very politically sensitive region. Working in occupied territory infiltrates the social context in a powerful way in her work. The tension between the artistic and political context comes to focus. Precisely by strengthening the artistic context, it increases the autonomous meaning in this very politically sensitive region. Working in occupied territory infiltrates the social context in a powerful way in her work. The tension between the artistic and political context comes to focus. Precisely by strengthening the artistic context, it increases the autonomous meaning in this very politically sensitive region.Marjan Teeuwen – Destroyed House shows the work in Gaza, but also the six other installations in the Verwoest Huis series, as well as the Archive series, which she has been making since 2008. This publication presents the polarity of Teeuwen’s penetrating images in extensive photo series: memory and amnesia; chaos and order; destruction and construction; fall and stand; horror vacui versus spatiality. The authors generate new perspectives on the art-historical, architectural, philosophical and social meaning of Teeuwen’s work.

About Marjan Teeuwen

In her aptly titled body of work, Destroyed House, Dutch artist MarjanTeeuwen reclaims the wreckage of abandoned buildings assembling each fragment in painstakingly detailed installations, set within the original structures.  These temporary living artworks are present for their surrounding community to experience, but they ultimately exist only through the carefully composed photographs which Teeuwen captures for posterity with her large-format camera.  Her images illuminate the precarious balance of the power of destruction with the constructive implications of order and function. Her first solo show with Bruce Silverstein Gallery will open February 2018.