Greyzones
Nabuurs&VanDoorn
November 2023
"epic, mythical, heroic. The impossibility of getting the whole picture."
The publication GREYZONES is an attempt to grasp the scope and width of the work of artist duo Inge Nabuurs and Erwin van Doorn, in particular their series Zwischenlandschaften which is ongoing since 2014. neither the term Zwischenlandschaften, nor the title Greyzones gives us anything concrete to hold on to, rather, they define the inexhaustible space-time in which the duo operates.
GREYZONES, whispers from Zwischenlandschaften, is not just a book, but a portal to a realm where language, human beings, stories and locations coalesce into an ever-changing landscape of ideas, experiences and possibility. (Nabuurs&VanDoorn)
GREYZONES, conceived and edited by the artists Nabuurs&VanDoorn, holds the middle between an artist's book and a art publication, it is part and parcel of the Zwischenlandschaften series -- with a narrative of its own. The publication consists of interviews, conversations, with experts on the various themes addressed in each episode of the Zwischenlandschaften, often drawing the work into a particular strand of the art narrative. First readers, share their perspective on those conversations to add to the perspectives that within a landscape are indeed myriad, and highly individual. A visual narrative is carefully laid out by the artists weaves itself through the book.
"Zwischenlandschaften is an enigmatic multidimensional concept; an ever-shifting realm of meanings and references, and a versatile methodology with which the twoheaded artists collective Nabuurs&VanDoorn unearth hidden layers of meaning to (re-)construe a sense of the present. It is also the collective term and a blueprint for a series of complex multi-component works of the same title, numbered one to five so far. Each Zwischenlandschaften—plural as the complex constellations contain infinite in-between prospects and perspectives—physically consists of paper documents, projected text fragments, merged maps, charts and legends, scores and protocols, booklets, photography, video, and interactive game pieces; and is based on extensive archival research, embedded local investigations, performance, minimal interventions, dialogue and audience participation.
The duo are meticulous, studious observers and compulsive explorers constantly on the lookout for typical histories that trigger their imagination; alert artistic investigators dissecting historical events that lay dormant and unobserved in the present, linked to specific locations, which they perceive as in-between spaces, empty spaces, the spaces that go unnoticed." (from the preface)
Their works arise between unannounced performances and archival projections, stretched videos and exformational paint overs, architectural installations and theatrical settings, formal paintings and situationist mapmaking, instant photography, and invisible edges. They produce large-scale multidisciplinary projects, and the production often requires the collaboration of several participants: passersby, audiences, and professionals. Experimenting the mechanisms of artistic research and the dramatic impulses of adventure, the artists succeed in transposing self-reflection out of melancholic actions and in revealing the belief systems on which perception of reality relies.
Their work thematises hidden past, art history, industrialisation, migration and (im)material heritage. They make narrative gaps visible from an understanding of place, environment, people and culture, nature and the environment. Distilling poignant fragments from hidden sources that render ethical questions from history topical, Nabuurs&VanDoorn elaborate those through quotations, censorship, repetition and simulation in film, intervention, performance and photography.
Conversations with: Weiyi Chang, Maria Rey-Lamslag, John C. Welchman, Giulio Verago
Contributors by: Laura Herman, Steven ten Thije, Marie de Brugerolle, Jeannette Bisschops, Oscar van den Boogaard
And a preface by: Andrea Wiarda
Editors Inge Nabuurs and Erwin van Doorn
Copy editing Janine Armin
Graphic design Ilse Meulendijks
Edition 400
language English
Pages 144
Paper Munken Polar
Printing and binding Kostopoulos Printing House, Athens
Published by Kunstverein Publishing Milano
Distributed by Les presses du réel, Idea Books, Kunstverein Milano
ISBN 978-88-32125-11-5
Realised with the support of Cultuur Eindhoven, Kunstloc Brabant, Provincie Noord-Brabant, Kunstverein Milano, and Van Abbe Museum
