Katinka Bock: The Sound of Distance

This spring, De Vleeshal will be staging the first solo exhibition of German artist Katinka Bock (Frankfurt, 1976) in the Netherlands. Entitled The Sound of Distance, Bock’s presentation focuses on the dialogue between landscape and memory, between space and the marks of history. Bock has previously exhibited at venues such as the Tate Modern, in London; and the Centre d’Art Contemporain la Synagogue de Delme, in France.

Bock reconceptualizes the environment of De Vleeshal through installation works and sculptures that create a relationship between the space’s interior and exterior landscapes. As so often in her work, this joining of inside and outside explicitly includes the weather. Rain, wind and sun are allowed a direct influence on De Vleeshal’s interior. Consequently, the art works exhibited here will be shaped by time, changing over the duration of the exhibition.

Space and landscape are recurring features in Katinka Bock’s work. In De Vleeshal, this fascination with environments is related to the longstanding Dutch tradition of landscape painting. Using simple, natural materials – employed in such a way that their fragile, precarious changeability is revealed – Bock creates physical, historical and social interconnections between elements of De Vleeshal’s environment. Die Diagonal (2009), for example, explores the space of the hall through measurement of its components. April Table (2009) reflects the passage of time. A final example is the ceramic installation The Ground of the Sea (2009), which analyses how elements of a space may display the traces of time.

On the occasion of the opening of The Sound of Distance, on 10 April 2009, the band Infinite Mind will give a live performance of their project Studio Visit (concept: Katinka Bock, text: Thomas Boutoux, music: Infinite Mind) in the basement of De Vleeshal.

Opening Friday April 10, 4 – 6 p.m.

Katinka Bock is born in 1976 in Frankfurt/Main (Germany).She lives and works in Berlin and Paris. Bock is represented by Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris.

Katinka Bock
The Sound of Distance