Baudoin Lebon is proud to present this new exhibition "Lines and Lineage" around the work of Tomas van Houtryve.
A pluridisciplinary artist, as well as a journalist, it is very difficult to limit his work to one category. Indeed, his practice often mixes a documentary approach, resulting from long hours of on-field work, with a continual desire to further his techniques and the aesthetic possibilities that stems from those developments.
"Lines and Lineage" is a perfect example of this. This series explores the American identity myth that followed the Mexican war of 1848.
Using glass plates and a XIXth camera, he proposes to represent the Mexican population spoiled by this conflict, as well as their land, something that was never done before. While limited to using the testimony of descendants of this community and those territories, he still manages to question a history and a memory (from 1848 to now) often buried by the dominant American myths. What seems important to underline, is that above the documentary aspect of this series, Tomas van Houtryve, thanks to his eye, his artistic sensibility, does not only transcribe a part of History, but an history about human beings, made of singular portraits and landscapes.
The video installation Divided also follows his personal reflexion on the consequences of the Mexican war but provides this vision to the spectator through an almost abstract and metaphorical work. The repetition of the waves that divide upon crashing on this
border (a metal fence stretching from land to the pacific Ocean between the United States and Mexico), transform a political comment, into a unique and hypnotic aesthetic experience.
