Gam Bodenhausen - Another scale of time

As part of her Mons residency, Gam Bodenhausen explores the traces left in the landscape by human activity and natural processes. On the slag heaps of the Borinage, she observes how the remnants of mining gradually become intertwined with new vegetation. Among plants and shrubs, black and reddened rocks, fossil imprints, rusted beams and the remains of buildings emerge. What was once an intervention in the landscape has become part of an environment in constant transformation. Her attention turns to the structures of these materials and the different timescales that converge within them. She enlarges a small fragment of coal into a drawing in which details barely noticeable at first glance become visible. The material unfolds as a landscape in its own right, in which the unimaginably distant past takes on a new form. In dark underground passages, where limestone, rust, fungi and rock intermingle, she also experiences how different processes and layers of time come together. At Mons, she searches for similar traces within the city. Figures carved into tombstones have been worn smooth by countless footsteps. Scratches in the stone floor of the collegiate church of Saint-Waudru bear witness to the annual passage of the Golden Chariot during the Ducasse de Mons. Each return of the procession leaves new marks on the old stone. Human actions, too, thus become part of a surface that changes slowly over time. Vincent van Gogh’s stay in the Borinage forms a particular connection with this research. His commitment to the lives of the miners and his attempts to immerse himself in their world resonate with Gam Bodenhausen’s need to experience a landscape not only through looking, but also physically and through the senses. In Van Gogh’s drawings, she also recognises how small lines and strokes build in intensity and form a visual language of their own. Working in pencil, Gam Bodenhausen explores the forms, textures and details she encounters. Through prolonged and attentive observation, drawings emerge in which different layers of time and traces converge to form a new visual reality. The past remains present within them, but takes on a different form: a landscape in which geological time, human history and the ongoing transformation of matter meet. Exhibition presented in the reception pavilion of the Maison Van Gogh. Included in the museum admission ticket. Another Timescale During her residency in the Mons region, Gam Bodenhausen explores the traces left in the landscape by human activity and natural processes. On the slag heaps of the Borinage, she observes how the remnants of mining gradually become intertwined with new vegetation. Among plants and shrubs, black and reddened rocks, fossil imprints, rusted beams and the remains of buildings emerge. What was once an intervention in the landscape has become part of an environment in constant transformation. Her attention turns to the structures of these materials and the different timescales that converge within them. She enlarges a small fragment of coal into a drawing in which details barely noticeable at first glance become visible. The material unfolds as a landscape in its own right, in which the unimaginably distant past takes on a new form. In dark underground passages, where limestone, rust, fungi and rock intermingle, she also experiences how different processes and layers of time come together. In Mons, she searches for similar traces within the city. Figures carved into tombstones have been worn smooth by countless footsteps. Scratches in the stone floor of the church of Sainte-Waudru bear witness to the annual passage of the carriage during the Ducasse de Mons. Each return of the procession leaves new marks on the old stone. Human actions, too, thus become part of a surface that changes slowly over time. Vincent van Gogh’s stay in the Borinage forms a particular connection with this research. His commitment to the lives of the miners and his attempts to immerse himself in their world resonate with Gam Bodenhausen’s need to experience a landscape not only through looking, but also physically and through the senses. In Van Gogh’s drawings, she also recognises how small lines and strokes build in intensity and form a visual language of their own. Working in pencil, Gam Bodenhausen explores the forms, textures and details she encounters. Through prolonged and attentive observation, drawings emerge in which different layers of time and traces converge to form a new visual reality. The past remains present within them, but takes on a different form: a landscape in which geological time, human history and the ongoing transformation of matter meet. Exhibition presented in the reception pavilion of the Van Gogh House. Included in the museum admission ticket.