Galerie La Forest Divonne Brussels is delighted to present

Marsyas and me, a solo exhibition by Tinka Pittoors from Sept. 12 to Nov. 2, 2024.

For this second exhibition under the gallery’s glass Art Deco roof, the Antwerp-based sculptor will present new glazed ceramic sculptures in intriguing, organic forms inspired by the myth of Marsyas.

The myth of Marsyas is an antique tale of pride between Apollo, the celestial god, and Marsyas, a satyr with the chest of a man and the feet of a goat. Marsyas, full of arrogance, claims to be able to challenge the god of Music to a duel to determine who plays the most beautiful melody. However, Apollo is victorious and decides to punish the satyr by flaying him alive, then nailing his skin to a tree.

This exhibition followsDaphne and me,presented at the gallery in 2019. In that exhibition, the Antwerp-based artist explored the mythological character of Daphne, who transforms herself into a laurel tree in order to escape the pursuit of Apollo. Pittoors, once again, draws inspiration from a founding myth that develops two powerful, contradictory themes: one by which the artist escapes his mortal condition through creative inspiration and the quest for beauty, the other by which he identifies with ephemeral, fragile nature, through his body and sensibility.

Marsyas is punished for trying to equal Appolon through music, and ends up chained to a tested Nature to which his destiny is inextricably linked.

The Marsys and Me exhibition is part of RENDEZ-VOUS, the new Brussels Gallery Weekend running from September 12 to 15, including Sunday.

The landscape, a patchwork of elements dominating each other, a precarious balance stretching out around us, composed of contradictions, both human and natural.
A constant striving for power, utopian domination.

My sculptures and objects arise from this perception and examine the utopia of a malleable world, a reflection on landscape as a metaphor for a condition humaine. The landscape is presented as a plane for the projection of desires and clichés. Its surface is frayed, cut up and glued back together again in a renewed scenery that blurs boundaries between inside and out. This condition implies a constant pushing along, a contortion of form and movement.

By combining recognizable, everyday forms and materials with my own constructions, a new and unique language of form is created. Sculptures and installations function like neologisms: they are grafted onto situations we know, but exist in and create a parallel sculptural reality. Whereas the materials seek to connect with reality, the form actually rebels against it.

Lighting plays a significant role in this process: it encompasses and defines the sculpture,
but at the same time underlines the autonomy of the world presented.
An ambiguous image is created that balances on the verge of reality.
Whether the resulting proposals are utopian or dystopian is left aside.

For us, the question remains: is the temptation of the image really inhabitable?

Tinka Pittoors

Email: info@tinkapittoors.com

© Tinka Pittoors