At Art Amsterdam 2011 Galerie West, Den Haag, was participating in the No Holds Barred section of the art fair with the video installation “In the Company Of” by Simon Gush. “In the Company Of” is a sophisticated singel-channel video, 10-channel audio installation that shows a football match on railroad tracks in the neighborhood of Moscou in Ghent.
“Each player’s voice in this 5-a-side game is separated and played individually through one of the ten speakers that make up the installation. The participants in the game are largely immigrants to Belgium, hailing from both inside and outside the E.U. The piece attempts to bring into focus the fact that the surface of cultural negotiation is a contested space.” (excerpt from the press release).
Simon Gush is a South African artist born in 1981. He moved to Belgium in 2007 from Johannesburg. Gush studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and is Laureate of HISK in Ghent, where he completed a two-year residency in 2008. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Michael Stevenson, Cape Town and at Brodie Stevenson, Johannesburg (both 2009) as well as the following group exhibitions: Lulea Art Biennale, Lulea, Sweden (2009), HISK in Watou, Belgium (2009), Palazzo dele Papesse, Siena, Italy (2008) and Centro Cultural Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2007).
Simon Gush: In the Company Of / Videoinstallation. Galeie West, “No Holds Barred” section of Art Amsterdam 2011. Interview with Marie-José Sondeijker (Owner / Director Galerie West), May 12, 2011.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.