19 February 2016 // Simcha van Helden //Rotterdam

//JAN DE COCK

This week we’d like to introduce you to Jan De Cock (Etterbeek, 1976) Jan De Cock is a Belgian artist who is considered one of the pioneers of monumental sculptures made directly on location, also known as ‘in-situ.’ Since early 2000 the artist develops work on the verge between sculpture, architecture, photography, painting and film, radically dismantling our strategies of perception. For over a decade, the Brussels artist has used fibreboard and chipboard to build his signature Denkmal pieces. ‘Denkmal’, which is a combination of the Dutch words, ‘Denk’ (think) and ‘mal’ (mould). For De Cock, a Denkmal is a mold of thinking. As he self says about his Denkmal 53 (Brussel, 2007) ‘In my sculptures I integrate aspects of other media, but I use them for their sculptural possibilities. For instance, I create environments in which people can experience something that they cannot actually take part in. For this I use techniques borrowed from cinema, such as the suggestion that something is off-screen. I’m also concerned with colour and composition. I offer people something that they can experience as simply being beautiful. That’s why I don’t plan every detail beforehand. I need the live confrontation with the architecture to make every detail perfect.’