Rinus Van de Velde at Kunstmuseum Luzern
Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …», February 20 until June 20, 2021
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Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, Luckily I fell asleep., 2020, Crayons on paper, 37.6 x 40.2 cm» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Rinus Van de Velde (*1983) tells fictional autobiographical stories by means of large-format charcoal drawings, three-dimensional cardboard worlds, films, photographs, coloured-pencil drawings, and ceramics. Hovering between reality and fiction, imperfect heroes inhabit his works, high-minded researchers, and lanky tennis players in long hotel corridors.
Exhibition Overview
With "I’d rather stay at home, ..." the Kunstmuseum Luzern is devoting a first comprehensive solo exhibition to the Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde. At the heart of the presentation are the videos The Villagers (2019–2020) and La Ruta Natural (2019–2021). The Villagers tells the stories of various protagonists linked by a mountain village and rainy weather, while La Ruta Natural is Rinus Van de Velde’s second film, featuring a hero adhering to a plan that ends with him blowing up a red balloon using complicated machinery and then letting it fly away.
The exhibition does not follow a linear narrative. The same protagonists, props, and scenes turn up in drawings, films, and sets, often revealing themselves more clearly after a second encounter. Visitors become immersed in Van de Velde’s cosmos, making decisions at every crossroads until almost getting lost among the props.
Rinus Van de Velde builds his sets in his studio with great attention to detail, using wooden slats, cardboard, and papier-mâché. The heroes in his works recall types from films and stories, figures who are no longer significant, evoking curiosity and smiles at human inadequacy.
The drawings cite pseudo-autobiographical moments from the artist’s life, adopting random identities as a researcher in a dugout canoe or as a painter in his studio. Playful ceramic pieces referencing Bob Dylan or Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde constitute independent objects.
Curatorial Context
Rinus Van de Velde uses drawing to give form to an idea or plan, visualizing ideas and creating fictional universes. The artist freely uses the art-historical repertoire of painting styles, creating a unique and engaging body of work.
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, I want to come as close as possible., 2016, Charcoal on paper, 102 x 96 cm, Collection Elke Segers, Antwerpen» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, Some art historians and lousy curators kept searching in the totally wrong directions., 2016, Charcoal on paper, 100 x 120cm, Tim Van Laere Collection, Antwerpen» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, It must have been somewhere here ..., 2020, Crayons on paper, 35.5 x 46.1 cm» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucernce, 2021 / Photo: Marc Latzel / Courtesy: the artist and Kunstmuseum Luzern
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, La Ruta Natural, 2019-2021, (video still)» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, La Ruta Natural, 2019-2021, (video still)» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, La Ruta Natural, 2019-2021, (video still)» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, La Ruta Natural, 2019-2021, (video still)» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen
Exhibition View Rinus Van de Velde Solo Show «I’d rather stay at home, …; view on Rinus Van de Velde, La Ruta Natural, 2019-2021, (video still)» at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, 2021 / Courtesy: the artist and Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerpen