Joëlle Tuerlinckx: between the house and the museum

In the work of Joëlle Tuerlinckx (Brussels, 1958), the notions of time and space are fluid matter, and are transformed through her artistic gesture. The exhibition 'El caso de l(a casa) museo(a)', opened at the Artium Museoa in November, is a clear and representative example.

This exhibition, curated by Beatriz Herráez and Catalina Lozano , and which can be seen until the end of April, is the first retrospective dedicated to the Belgian artist in Spain. It is the result of a collaboration with the Kanal Center Pompidou in Brussels and brings together pieces created specifically for this project, together with a selection of historical works.

Tuerlinckx has been building a trajectory that combines total abstraction with meticulous attention to concrete space with site-specific pieces. Taking as a starting point the legacy of conceptual art and performance, his work incorporates elements of institutional criticism and sound installation to confront the limits of what we understand by exhibition . In this sense, the protocols and internal dynamics of museums, beyond being the stages that host their works, are also active agents of their production.

© Joëlle Tuerlinckx

The title of the exhibition, 'The case of the (a casa) museo(a)', shows the play between the intimacy of the domestic space, the house, and the public dimension of the museum institution. This dialogue between the inside and the outside, between the original and the copy, creates a fabric of doubles and reflections that questions the traditional categories of authenticity and authority in art. Through collaborative work with Christoph Fink (Ghent, 1963), Tuerlinckx has developed a multilingual symphony that runs through the entire exhibition: a sound palimpsest activated by voices reading texts and answering questions she herself has raised about her work and about the institution.

The reflection on double, repetition and difference has been embodied in previous projects by Tuerlinckx, presented in prestigious institutions such as the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Witte de With in Rotterdam or the Museo Reina Sofía . However, the proposal at the Artium is an exercise in decentering, where the boundaries between the artist, the public and the institution are diluted. In this framework, Tuerlinckx resumes his book Moments d'espace (2011), a key work to understand his retrospective review. Through this rereading, the artist reconsiders his own practice, exploring the strangeness of mixing diverse temporalities and multiplying perspectives and centers through the splitting of the subjects of creation and reception.

'The case of the museum at home' aims to rethink what it means to inhabit a space - be it a museum or a house - and how it can be transformed into a stage where voices, shadows and reflections become in protagonists and an active part of an exhibition.

© Joëlle Tuerlinckx