Herman de Vries (I prefer to write his name with capitals instead of the lowercase he choose to write his name himself) represents the Netherlands in the Rietveld Pavillion at the 56th Biennale in Venice.
He is one of the most essential and poetic artists I know. Herman de Vries Is. He makes me, although I have been there many times, see Venice with different eyes. In his work he pays tribute to nature. Nature as the mother earth that reabsorbs and transforms everything. She is alive, while all (culture) may disappear and vanish, she comes back, again and again. To be..always to be…
While his work is exposed in the Rietveld Pavillion in the Giardini, his representation on the Biennale isn’t complete without a visit to the abandoned island of Lazzaretto. An open invitation to connect with nature.
‘Human existence is not rooted in thought but in consciousness. It is a primarily sensorial consciousness.’
September 2015, Venice
Read/see also Soil Matters and Zero with Herman de Vries
And more on the 56th Venice Biennale here.