In 2010, Tom Bogaert embarked on a two year Grand Tour of the Near East to work on ‘Impression, proche orient' (IPO) an art project referencing issues relevant to the contemporary Near East society including politics, artistic identity, the new Arabs and the local cuisine. The artist’s intention is to interpret understandings (or lack thereof) of the region from the inside out into relevant contemporary visual art.

The first tangible results of Bogaert’s work on the IPO project were available to be viewed while on a residency at Makan Art Space in Amman, Jordan from March to April 2010.

In the summer of 2010 Tom Bogaert will be based in Syria where he will be working on the second chapter of ‘Impression, proche orient'.

The final IPO results - in the form of a new site-specific installation - will be presented in New York City in 2013.

Opening: 25 May 2010, 7pm

Beit Aneeseh | Al Hajjal Street
Ramallah, Palestine

Artists: Jonathan Grassi, Larissa Sansour, Kifah Fanni, Ilaria Lupo, Youmna Chlala, Daniel Lachenmeier, Raouf Haj Yihya, Linda Tegg, Benedikt Partenheimer, Daniel Tischler, Ben Washington, Elsa Quintin, Mohammad Alhah, Fatima Chafaa, Tom Bogaert, Karin Lustenberger, Khaled Jarrar, Rudd Van Thanh, Madeleine Strindberg, Abu Naser Robii, Louise Spira and Mirna Bamieh.

I said, “I am the Juice Man, You are the Juice Man." The curators Juliana Irene Smith and Misbah A. Deeb open the exhibition with a performance about curatorial practice, the artworks and the juice man.

<-

KO MPR ESS OR
Tom Bogaert
2010

auto body parts, wax and Mercedes-Benz emblems

4 x (50 cm x 50 cm)

In 2010, Tom Bogaert embarked on a two year Grand Tour of the Near East where he is working on ‘Impression, proche orient' (IPO) a project referencing issues relevant to contemporary Middle East society including politics, artistic identity and cucumbers.

The first tangible results of the artist’s work on IPO were on view during his residency at Makan Art Space in Amman, Jordan in February, March and April, 2010.

The final IPO results - in the form of a new site-specific installation - will be presented in New York City in 2013.

LZ PROJECT SPACE
164 SUFFOLK STREET, NEW YORK
APRIL 16 – MAY 15, 2010
RECEPTION: FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 6-9 PM

ARTISTS: Tom Bogaert, Marcy Brafman, Sally Curcio, Gabert Farrar, Amy Greenfield, Debra Jenks, Moira McDonald, Annysa Ng, Kaeko Shabana and Michael Zansky.

CURATORS: Lynn Del Sol, David Gibson, Linda Griggs, Jennifer Junkermeier and Savannah Spirit.

http://lzprojectspace.blogspot.com/

EFA Project Space announces Companion, an exhibition of artworks contextualized with the source that influenced their creation. Companion culls together cultural projects that draw inspiration from references mined from history, culture, and science.

Projects by: Tom Bogaert, Cui Fei, J. Blachly & Lytle Shaw, Pablo Helguera, Sarah Oppenheimer with Edward Stanley, Karina Skvirsky, Yuken Teruya, Saya Woolfalk with Rachel Lears.

Tom Bogaert’s installation 'an autobiographical reading is to some extent unavoidable' centrally features a photograph he took while working as a human rights worker in Burundi, Africa. A picturesque photograph of an illuminated window taken from inside a dark room belies a story of horror: as the artist came to learn, the room was a former site where hundreds of Tutsi women and children were burned to their death in 1993. The window functions not only as an architectural division between death and those who lived but as a emblem of Bogaert’s role as a mediator and witness.

Curated by Marisa Jahn for REV-

Permanent installation of 3 floating safety cones on Lake 'Halve Maan' in Diest, Belgium. In cooperation with performance artists Stef Standaert and Marc Smets. Commissioned by 'Provincie Vlaams Brabant - Diest Cultuur' - Mr. Egide Rabau.

The Piso Mojado series is a succession of performances in which Tom Bogaert mounts a yellow multi-lingual safety cone onto a mooring buoy. The buoy travels to varying bodies of water. As of yet, Bogaert installed Pisos Mojados in New York City, Miami and now most recently in Belgium.

The Piso Mojado series functions as an “open” work with no specific meaning imposed. This allows the interpretation of the work to change with it’s content, which is fluid and changes with time, context and audience. For example, in Miami the buoy was interpreted as a comment on the ‘Wet Feet, Dry Feet Policy’: a Cuban citizen, who is caught on the waters between Cuba and the United States (i.e.’wet floor’), would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore (‘dry floor’) gets a chance to remain in the US.

At the time of writing, interpretations of the 'Piso Mojado Para Diest' are being gathered.