Art Cologne 2011 entire entrance hall dedicated to PANAMARENKO

ART COLOGNE 2011

45. Internationaler Kunstmarkt

13-17 April 2011

PANAMARENKO

For the 45th edition of ART COLOGNE (13-17.04.2011), the entire entrance hall will be dedicated to the work of Belgian Artist PANAMARENKO, providing a strong visual link and focus on the history of the fair and surrounding region.

Panamarenko was born as Henri Van Herweghen in 1940 in Antwerp (Belgium). Since 2002 he lives in Michelbeke, in the Flemish countryside. Panamarenko is without doubt THE foremost exponent of the contemporary Belgian art scene. He is one of the most evocative international contemporary artists of the past 50 years. His art appeals to both artists and art professionals and the general public. His unbridled imagination and his very poetic, almost anarchic vision on things are the building blocks of his artistic advocacy for unrestricted freedom of artistic and creative thinking which yielded a very varied and extensive body of works.

From the late 60’s, Panamarenko gained fame as the inventor and builder of fantastic aircrafts, powered and propelled by human power or through techniques inspired by the flight of insects. Around 1980, he focused on the possibilities of space travel using the magnetic fields between the celestial bodies. From ’84 onward, he created the so-called Backpacks for which he designed several compact engines and which were meant to enable man to fly; from ’88, he developed the autonomous stepping ‘chicken’ or Archaeoptherix. And in ’91 he introduced the flying car “K2 – The 7000-Meter-High Flying Jungle and Mountain Machine”, to name but a few examples.

The exhibition at ART COLOGNE brings some of Panamarenko’s most important works back to North Rhine-Westphalia, the region where, partly thanks to Joseph Beuys, his international career got started. Here, artworks such as “Helicopter” (1973-1986), “V1 Barada Jet” (1991), “Scotch Gambit” (1966-1999) and “Batopillo” (2005) represent both a historical cross section and a brief but exemplary summary of the versatile and imaginative works of the Antwerp artist.

45. ART COLOGNE
April 13-17, 2011

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Exhibition Archive, Historia Belgica, Panamarenko