1. You have decided to take part in the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Has there been any challenges?
2. The traditional exhibition model no longer applies in the post-pandemic era, calling for alternatives. What kind of role do you think biennales and art exhibitions should play in the future?
3. Offline visits to indoor exhibitions (Main Exhibition, Special Exhibitions 1 & 2) were restricted due to the government’s social distancing policy from September 17 to October 4, 2020 during which the audience were able to enjoy artworks only through online platform. The exhibitions have been made available both online and offline afterwards. What do you think of the online exhibitions at the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020?
4. Do your submissions to the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020 have any connections with its theme, “Non-Sculpture: Light or Flexible“? If they do, tell us your thoughts in relation to materials, forms, methodologies and contexts.
5. What’s your impression of the Biennale in Korea?
6. What do you make of the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020, compared to other biennales? Tell us your honest feedback.
7. What are your plans after the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020?
Artist: Nicoline van Stapele
Artwork: Untitled(Red dots forming a square)
Q. The traditional exhibition model no longer applies in the post-pandemic era, calling for alternatives. What kind of role do you think biennales and art exhibitions should play in the future?
A. An alternative is, making the biennale accessible through a platform/website, with good documentary, photography, film. What the Changwon Sculpture Biennale did. In this way biennales and art exhibitions are more visible for a bigger public and more interference is possible between public and artists. On the other hand, artworks only seen on a computer screen have the same reflection of light, the light reflection of a computer screen. The whole playground created by different reflections of light and tactility within an artwork falls out. And the experience of a bystander with proportions of space fall out. This is a disadvantage.
Q. Do your submissions to the Changwon Sculpture Biennale 2020 have any connections with its theme, “Non-Sculpture: Light or Flexible“? If they do, tell us your thoughts in relation to materials, forms, methodologies and contexts.
A. The artwork ‘Sixteen circles making a square’ 1987, fits very well in the theme of the exhibition: “Non-Sculpture: Light or Flexible”. The dots are both light and flexible and play with light. They are light of weight (multiplex wood with red layers of paint), and work in space with the reflection of light on the dots on the green grass. The flexibility of the artwork is shown on different moments throughout the thirty-three year long traject of the red dots. It has been shown three times forming a square (diamond) on green grass. It is also two times partly shown with eight dots during an exhibition (in progress, 2014, ‘Softpower’, Loods 12, Wetteren BE) and during a performance (12 October 2014, ‘Bubble Gum stories - a lyrical abstract performance’, during Nucleo open studio’s, Ghent BE). Sixteen circles making a square, or, if you turn one turn, making a diamond. Circles and diamonds are standing for life and enrichment, the red color for love. What the world needs now.
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