Preface

I make sculptures in folded paper since about twenty years now.

My artistic practice is the fruit of various and diverse influences. I’ve studied the history of occidental art and architecture, though long solitary voyages. I’ve equally been confronted with different forms of popular and folk art.

Over the years, I’ve developed two principal types of production.

The first treats the representation of Man through posters that I fold and transform into sculptures. It’s a material that I pick up by printers or in the streets. I also edit posters if I need.

For this residence at NMA, I choose to photograph part of the people who unpack, hang and keep art works. It’s a way to honour them, a way to make them visible. They have a direct connection with art works, a physical connection, a bit like an artist. In Europe, it’s actually the type of jobs that you make if you are in an art school or if you already finished it.

The second direction I am exploring is architecture. I look to work within the inherent nature and structural possibilities of paper, challenging their forms and properties. To this end in my sculptures, I work also with pure white surfaces so as to arrange within the same space, complimentary yet textured visual effects.

Yves Koerkel