dialogue Academy #01

Rike Bewer · Henning Gundlach · Luca Japkinas · Youjeong Kim · Charlott Meisel Louisa Pieper · Naomi Pietros · Tom Plehn · Elektra Tzamouranis · Jiongji Wang

Déjà Vu

12.04. — 11.05.2024

In an unprecedented collaboration between dialogue gallery, AiR 351, and Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, the first chapter of this year’s inaugural Dialogue Academy is proud to present “Déjà Vu,” a group exhibition that showcases the work of ten emerging artists: Rike Bewer, Henning Gundlach, Luca Japkinas, Youjeong Kim, Charlott Meisel, Louisa Pieper, Naomi Pietros, Tom Plehn, Elektra Tzamouranis and Jiongji Wang. These artists – some still attending and others recent graduates – are in the prestigious painting class of Prof. Tilo Baumgärtel and Prof. Oskar Rink at Burg Halle and just finished an artistic residency at AiR 351 in Cascais. The presented selection of students from those that attended this residency, was based on the quality and depth of the works.

The curatorial team was selected aiming to bridge visions and cultures: dialogue gallery invited Nathan Yeomans, a recent graduate curator of the Royal College of Arts in London, to collaborate with Sonia Taborda – Dialogue’s director, and Aron Fehn an art history student from Martin-Luther University in Halle, who has worked with some of the artists before. This exhibition marks a curatorial dialogue that intertwines academic perspectives with the raw, organic essence of artistic expression. This synergy not only reflects the dynamic interaction between the curators but also mirrors the thematic essence of the exhibition itself.

Despite the artists’ different visual languages, they profoundly explore themes of memory, object permanence, and the intrinsic duality of life and matter, which leaves the spectator with a sense of familiarity, a feeling of a known memory phenomenon, that is therefore expressed as an evidence in the chosen title: Déjà Vu. Déjà Vu is the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before1. It is an illusion of memory whereby—despite a strong sense of recollection—the time, place, and context of the “previous” experience are uncertain or impossible2. Experiencing déjà vu has been correlated with higher socioeconomic status, better educational attainment, and lower ages. People who travel often, frequently watch films, or frequently remember their dreams are also more likely to experience déjà vu than others.3

From more figurative and surrealistic works such as Charlott Meisel’s “Lobster” to a large, abstract work of the same name by Rike Bewer, in “Connections’’ by Naomi Pietros we enter a fragmented and layered reality – expressed by several segments of transparency and opaqueness of oil on canvas. “Corridor” by Elektra Tzamouranis follows a dreamlike deconstructed world out of focus. The duality between life anddeath or presence and absence in Luca Japkinas “Was siehst du im Nebel” (What do you see in the fog) reinforces the idea of the passage to the other side, the mirror, as the exhibition space reflects.

More tangible and mundane objects are represented in Jiongji Wang memorabilia paintings depicting details of his daily life including pop brands that can be seen both as references and statements of our massi- fied identity like “Casio Uhr’’ or the “Guten Morgen’’ greeting by a real scale IKEA coffee mug. Youjeong Kim’s attraction for wrought iron gates and guards in contrast with her obsession with a soft delicate dachshund that she so ironically calls “dog bus”, makes us travel the streets of Lisbon, through the collection of her canvas’s postcard scale, as souvenirs of a journey gently leaning on the wall, with a temporary aspect, assuming an ephemeral nature. Louisa Piper’s vivid and loud visual world in her “Hearing Antagonist” series have the graphic character of an advertising poster enhanced in contrast with the tactile quality of a cuddly toy achieved with fluffy thick brushstrokes, coherent with the pocket scale pillow like canvas, aligned with this kitsch souvenirs aesthetics.

Déjà Vu is set to debut in the Dialogue Gallery’s newest venture, the Dialogue Gallery Project Space, located within the historic confines of the Ermida Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Belém. This venue, a chapel with a storied past, further enriches the exhibition’s exploration of duality. The architectural layout of the space, with its division between a taller, public entrance area and a private, sanctified altar space, embodies the thematic concerns of duality, transition, and the convergence of public and private realms.

At the entrance we recognise traces of an iconoclasm, not of classical sacred art but of our pop culture, which Jiongji Wang venerates in his reliquary-like canvases. Luca Japkinas works are on display along the axis of the Nave and the Altar, playing and emphasizing the symmetry and mirror quality of the space. Youjeong Kim’s smaller works are presented along a horizontal line which can relate either to the horizon line or to the sacred remembrance of the Way of the Cross. The selected works navigate the delicate balance between the ephemeral nature of human experience and the tangible reality of objects, inviting viewers into a space where time, memory, and material coexist.

Déjà Vu emerged as a pioneering initiative under the Dialogue Academy, encapsulating the spirit of collaboration and thought provoking exhibitions. Celebrating the nuanced complexities of life and memory Déjà Vu resonates with the exploration of art’s ability to bridge the gap between the tangible and the intangible, the seen and the unseen, the remembered and the forgotten, consequently presented in a chapel environment.

Sonia Taborda

1. Brown, A. S. (2003). “A Review of the Deja Vu Experience”. Psychological Bulletin. 129
2. “The Meaning of Déjà Vu”, Eli Marcovitz, M.D. (1952). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, vol. 21, pages: 481–489 3. Brown, A. S. (2004). “The déjà vu illusion”. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 13 (6): 256–259.