For an artist, public space is an ideal place in which to experiment. There exists a tension between the public and the private, the community and the individual. How would we like to experience the space? Arne Quinze’s large-scale sculptures Natural Chaos Rock Strangers, which are to be found outside on the boulevard side of this museum, are all about this. What are these strange intruders doing here, and how should we react to them? For Quinze it is all about provoking these primal emotions of curiosity and surprise.
The sculptures symbolize the artist’s view of the growing difference between nature and culture. Our towns and cities are becoming increasingly monotonous, busy and uninhabitable. By placing the sculptures in our everyday environment, Arne Quinze wants us to become more conscious of the importance of nature in our society.
About Natural Chaos, the works displayed on the patio, Quinze says: “My new Natural Chaos sculptures came into being after my numerous personal encounters with the unbridled beauty of nature. They symbolise my reflection on today’s growing differences between the diversity of nature and the ongoing expansion of monotone cities. While continuously unravelling the physical processes of complex demographics my sculptures react rapidly to all impulses in order to keep equilibrium, resulting in a play of attraction and rejection that shapes the sculptures' organic forms and electric bright colours. At first glance they seem vulnerable, but they will persist a vigour dialogue just like nature.“ It is as if one sees the different components move in relation to one another. With these vividly coloured works Quinze is also hinting at the effect of a large force of nature.
The Belgian conceptual artist Arne Quinze (1971) works in Sint-Martens-Latem (Belgium), in Shanghai (China) and Los Angeles (USA). He began as a graffiti artist, without any formal art training. In addition to sculpting he creates drawings, paintings, videos and monumental installations.
He utilizes various types of wood, metal, coloured glass and fluorescent paint. Themes that he uses regularly include social interaction, communication, the urban environment and nature.