Jaap Borgers Exhibition
about the event
Date: November 15th – December 15th 2013
Schedule: 10am – 20pm
Location: Belmonte Cultural Club Cafe
Address: Pateo Dom Fradique, 14 – 1100-624 Lisboa
Contacts: +351 218816600 _ office@palaciobelmonte.com
Artist/Author: Jaap Borgers
Curated by: Maria and Frederic Coustols / Belmonte Cultural Club
Partners: DaST, WOA-Way of Arts
Sponsors: CML-Agenda Cultural de Lisboa, Palacio Belmonte Lisboa lda
about the artist
Jaap Borgers (Netherlands 1947) was educated in the 60’s and 70’s as a painter, sculptor and glasblower at the Art Academy in Utrecht and the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Denmark and England.
Lately his work is getting more conceptual.
After meeting his wife, Pike Räsänen, Finnish ceramist, he got in touch with the Japanese firing method ‘Raku’. This finally resulted in sculptures constructed with thin Raku fired clay-slabs and glazes with metal effects. In his work he integrates imprints of portraits. At the moment he combines this way of working in clay, with parts of old, rusty iron. They depict the metamorphoses of life, caused by time.
Besides his work as an artist he is very proactive in his community. He managed a cultural centre and organized for the last fifteen years an Art-Biennale in which over a hundred artists of all disciplines participate. There he also has a platform to make installations and performances in coöperation with other artists, like for instance a performance with 20 actors and dancers and a windmill or a live concert for 6 motorcars and a Harley Davidson. Also several installations based on the rusty carcass of a Citroën DS, once the symbol of modern design and man’s technical achievements, now an object slowly changing in form and colour.
Recent exhibitions where Jaap Borgers’ work was shown, were held at Chateau de Sully in Burgondy France, Kulturhuset Brønden in Copenhagen Denmark, Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen the Netherlands and at the gallery of the American Book Center in Amsterdam.
the exhibition
For twenty days, starting november 15th you can visit the exhibition of Dutch artist Jaap Borgers, at the Cultural Club of Palácio Belmonte at Páteo Dom Fradique, 14 in the city of Lisbon.
In april this year Borgers was on holiday in the city, walking down the hill from the Castelo and decided to have a drink at a lovely little terrace next to the ancient walls of this tourist attraction. There was a curious cloud hanging in the yard, made of rusty steel wool, that caught his attention. Inside the café adjoining the terrace he found a whole collection of art displayed and was introduced to the owners of the place Frederic Coustols and his wife Maria Mendonca, also an artist.
Borgers had seen a variety of Lisbon’s art treasures at Museu do Chiado, Gulbenkian, Colecão Berardo, Palácio Pombal, Casa da Achada and several art galleries and artists workshops, and he became convinced that Portuguese people have a warm heart towards art, so he pronounced his wish to be able one day to show his own work to these art lovers. That is when Frederic and Maria offered him the possibility to have this exhibition at the Cultural Club of Palácio Belmonte.
Recent exhibitions where Jaap Borgers’ works were shown, were held at Chateau de Sully in France, Kulturhuset Brønden in Denmark, Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen, the Netherlands and at ABC-Treehouse in Amsterdam. The work you will see consists of sculptural pieces, drawings and an installation. You are very welcome to come and see Jaap’s vision on live in it’s many aspects.
