I’ll keep you postered.
The railway line connecting Roeselare and Mons used to be an important link transporting the great flow of Flemish immigrant workers to the mines in Wallonia. Years later, the railway transformed into a hiking trail that stops at the language border.
‘I’ll Keep You Postered’ by Ellen Pil (°1982, Maarkedal) is a prudent love letter to the other side of that language border. The Walloon mining industry and the Flemish textile industry were extremely important in the region. At the in-situ exhibition at Gevaertsdreef01 (a former textile sorting site) Ellen Pill seeks to connect both sides. Her canvasses, impregnated in coal before being stretched, form a symbolic starting point. On that base, through the use of local stories regarding simple subjects (obsolete crafts, language, food, old symbolism, or recognisable logos) Ellen Pil succeeds in addressing global themes in her work. The exhibition is a marriage proposal between the two regions, with a list of images full of good intentions.
The exhibition opens with the piece ‘Band Zonder Naam’. It refers to the fireplace where they used to cook on coal and which formed the central place of the house due to its radiating warmth. The logo-like imagery of the neon fits the mainly decorative function of the fireplace as we use it today. The neon is placed in the exact same spot –above the mantelpiece- where the words of wisdom of Bond Zonder Naam used to hang. The (closed) barrel full of wisdom of life, wisdom that doesn’t leave room for interpretation. Neither side of the border.
The spatial layout of Gevaertsdreef01 successfully serves as a border area. There’s a space on the ground floor and one on the first floor. On each floor you’ll find an installation, both with remarkably comparable pieces. The installation is composed of neons and several images on canvas. By dyeing the linen with coal residue, the canvas alludes to the weavers and the miners and serves according to Ellen Pil as a base for the ‘list of imagery for new beginners’.
Objects, proverbs and stories are brought together. Based on her own experience and through extensive research, Ellen Pil reconstructs (fragments of) historical facts and narratives. Fusing past and present, in order to give it a new, unique meaning. As an archaeologist and an inventor.. Traditional and future-orientated at the same time, which reflects in her work process and the outcomes of her work. She draws both by hand and in 3D programs. In the final installations, recognisable objects are placed in machine-like settings.
The objects are stand-alone artworks but evolve to series, like in animations, like in a mechanical sequence. They’re almost travel notes, evolvingthroughout time. Would the aim be a scenario for the future, detailing growth and change? There is no morality, only a new boundless future.