“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Monday May 19th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Monday May 19th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Monday May 19th — —

X by Adam Jeppesen

On the 10th of May the second solo exhibition of the greatly talented, and one of our favorites at this moment, photographic artist Adam Jeppesen opened at the Brussels-based Galerie van der Mieden. As with his earlier series ‘The Flatlands Camp Project‘, the series named ‘X’ is also based on his journeys around the world, in which the Danish photographers takes the traditions of travel photography to new grounds. In his new series Jeppesen has worked with photogravure, wanting to explore the possibilities of further evolving this graphic side of his work. The motives in this series of photogravures stay completely anonymous, every context of place and time is stripped by the artist. Deserted landscapes that are neutral and empty, cold mountains and desserts, located somewhere between documentary and dream, which makes it possible for the viewer to create a personal imagination about the place. Jeppesen’s very private journeys become potentially universal.

Similar to his earlier series, Jeppesen used the photogravure technique but doing it with his familiar ‘non-perfect’ personal approach: “Jeppesen quickly realized that this technique resulted in images that were almost too perfect, and he wanted to let go of the precision and control, which is normally needed in photogravure to replicate images. This led him to experiment with the technique: instead of replicating the same image several times, he only applies ink to the printing plate once, and then prints as many works as possible, until the ink is all gone, and the image has faded away.”

He emphasizes the technical aspect of the process behind the image, integrating the process as a part of the work, while leaving it up to the viewer to decide, when the image is at its most interesting – or perfect? – stage.

The name of the project is a direct consequence from this unique artistic use of the photogravure. The title ‘X’ namely refers to the ancient symbol for change or transformation, to the marking of the final image and the symbol of the unknown- the disappearing.

We love the extraordinary work of Jeppesen!

Galerie van der Mieden is located at the Rue Antoine Dansaertstraat 196 and is opened Wednesday until Saturday 13:00 – 18:00. For more information see here.