tlnts, 2016 - Mandla Reuter
about this work
tlnts, 2016 refers to another work by Mandla Reuter titled Atlantis, 2016 which was recently acquired by the Friends of S.M.A.K. for the museum collection.
Atlantis, 2016 references to the fictional island which fell out of favor with the Greek gods and wass submerged and lost in the Atlantic Ocean. Reuter’s large-scale sculpture consists of an inflatable lift bag also known as a salvage balloon. Lift bags are primarily used by archeologists and submarine salvage teams in order to transport material from the ocean ground back to the surface. This is often man-made material which has encountered ill-fate or has been lost at sea. Poetically the function of the bag is to return to the light, that which was hidden and often forgotten.
The artist’s version liberates the lift bag from its intended use, lending it the appearance of a beached whale. Atlantis aims to salvage ideas of history making them legible at the surface, at the same time reflecting upon the past in conjunction with the present.
Mandla Reuter explains how both works are connected “Atlantis can be rather seen as a link, an object, which is referring to other matters, exceeding its own materiality and form. tlnts can be seen as a part of the work, but in contrast to Atlantis, it is a purely decorative work, connecting technical material with elements, which clearly come from nature."
Due to the fragile nature of this work, it can only be picked up at our partner in Ghent (BE)
