During the duo exhibition Transformations, Transmutations, Galerie Bart is presenting two artists, the Norwegian Eirik Jahnsen and the German Nomin Zezegmaa, who plunge into a world of material transformation, physical experience and personal history. Their work arises from alchemistic and transformative processes and ways of thinking. Although different as night and day outwardly, their work comes together perfectly on the common ground of viewer experience.

All of the work by Eirik Jahnsen (b. 1985, Norway) that we are showing is made of stainless steel, and this is no coincidence. Eirik plays with the contrast between this robust industrial material and the intangible, formless light reflected within it. He transforms the steel to create unexpected shapes, colours and surfaces in his experiments, using fire, force and self-invented techniques. The refractions and reflections in these works are shown to best advantage when you move around them. In doing so, you often find yourself positioned within the work of art as if in a mirror, and you become part of it for a moment. All of this causes the works to transcend their physical shape and come to life in the play of light.

The versatile Nomin Zezegmaa (b. 1992, Germany) combines a variety of disciplines with her complex relation to her Mongolian heritage. Her narrative work, in which she draws on research, memories, and histories, assumes a multiplicity of forms that are united by Nomin’s characteristic style. This combination of story-telling based on semiotics, language and Mongolian traditions and as such offers a vision through a shamanic gaze. The result is an organic and enigmatic whole, executed in a cool style in which cobalt blue predominates alongside black and white.

Both Nomin’s and Eirik’s work is about transcending the material they work with. Eirik does this by using characteristics, shapes and sheens that he can give to his material. Nomin uses calligraphic symbolism to weave her culture with its history and future into her material. In combination, they make the viewer aware that there is more to art than the material aspect; there is also feeling.

21.04.2022 / 20:00 – 22:00: Movie Night: Undine

Galerie Bart is pleased to present Undine, an animation opera directed by Studio Minailo, in collaboration with Paper Panther Productions and Stichting Wildermoed.

Vocalist, composer and artistic director Stefanie Janssen presents the animated opera Undine, the first production by the cultural platform Stichting Wildermoed. Undine tells the story of how a mermaid addicted to hard plastic ends up in the city, looking for her daily shot. She swims back and forth between an aquarium and a water garden and disrupts the bleak existence of two flat neighbours. The two become obsessed by the mermaid; he wants to have her, and she wants to be her. Contemporary classical opera compositions, in a mix of pop music and electronics, connect the story with William Kentridge-inspired animations by the Irish Paper Panther Productions.

Stefanie Janssen: “Magic and imagination are central to our opera, in which we present an entirely different kind of mermaid than what the public is used to. Our Undine is a junkie. She stands for the blurring of boundaries between humans and nature, between reality and fantasy. Sometimes people are stuck in a rut. Undine disrupts the lives of the protagonists in different ways and exposes powerful longings.”

You are cordially invited.

Our program of the night:

• 19:30 Walk in
• 20:00 Welcome
• 20:15 Live performance by Stefanie Janssen
• 20:30 Screening Undine
• 21:00 Q&A with the director Sjaron Minailo and vocal performer and composer Stefanie Janssen, moderated by Yvonne van Ulden, board member of Go Short – International Short Film Festival Nijmegen.
• 22:00 End of the evening

Please RSVP by sending us an email: info@galeriebart.nl.
€: Pay what you want.

If you would like to know more, listen to our podcast summer special of “Uit de Kunst” about Undine:

02.04.2022 / 13:00 – 19:00: Opening. We will raise a glass to officially open the exhibition at 16:00.

You are welcome to join us for the opening!

We are following the Dutch COVID-19 regulations.