The Measurement of Presence

The Measurement of Presence

Iris Kensmil and Remy Jungerman

176 PAGES - 30 X 21.8 CM - SOFTCOVER - ENGLISH EDITION - ISBN: 978 94 9267 780 8 - € 30

For the Venice Biennale 2019, Benno Tempel,

director of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

curated the exhibition The Measurement of

Presence, in which he combines installations

by Remy Jungerman with wall paintings and

paintings by Iris Kensmil.

The Measurement of Presence is a

transnational presentation that explores

traditions and the past, bringing them into

contact with the present. Jungerman and

Kensmil gather influences from different

backgrounds.

Remy Jungerman is interested in the path

travelled by patterns. In his work he combines

motifs from Africa, Maroon culture, and

twentieth-century modernism. Iris Kensmil

invites us to expand our consciousness on

utopian twentieth-century avant-garde and

introduces us to Black female activists and

artists who have been neglected for too long.

This sensitive and critical stance towards

abstraction and modernism is what connects

the work of Jungerman and Kensmil. In

their work they combine the inspiration

they draw from twentieth-century utopian

abstract art – in particularly Mondrian and

De Stijl, the Russian avant-garde and stanley

brouwn – with elements of other traditions

and positions. In so doing, they size up the

world. They explore how the presence and

visibility of spirit and history are necessary

to exist. The exhibition also interacts with

the architecture of the pavilion, designed by

Rietveld.

The book is published on the occasion of

The Measurement of Presence. The Venice

Biennale 2019 takes place from 11 May ‘till 24

November.