Although they have collaborated for many years,
now for the first time, Mother and Daughter
combine forces in an exhibition. In "Room for
Thought" (at Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Lausanne, until 27 November) Madelon & Charlie plan to exhibit separate
works with a collaborative piece joining the two
exhibitions in the middle which will overlap and
merge.
The fact that they are related means that one can
see similar themes in their Art - though they have
chosen different tools and vocabularies with which
to express them-selves. Their aesthetics are
derived from 'celebrating everything you have no
control over', thus allowing random connections,
accidental absurdities; the boring, the ugly and the
mundane to inform their work and to point out its
fragile or robust beauty.
Madelon will be exhibiting all of her new works
since her show at the Architecture Association as
well as a selection of her earlier paintings, her new
work will include her "Toy Paintings", her "Life-Size
Mind Game", as well as her "Idol Tower" and
"Chess Board" pieces. For her part, Charlie will
exhibit a series of 5 different windows to give the
effect of standing in a living room and looking out
onto five different global cities. Within a separated
space is their collaborative work in which Madelon
& Charlie are planning on creating a panopticon, a
circular plywood structure which will be a series of
rooms containing dramatic imaginary scenes, using
both photographs and objects. As a testament to
their wonderment and curiosity about the new
condition of our multi-cultural world, for this
exhibition they have created a parallel universe,
where good taste, formal ideals and the notion of
perfection have become obsolete, where all
ideologies and disciplines are embraced and placed
side by side, co-existing without conflict. Where
each scene tells its own story, un-judged and
rejoiced.
The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Photography of the exhibition's installation by Nicolas Delaroche
Room for thought: Charlie Koolhaas and Madelon Vriesendorp in Lausanne

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- Elena Sommariva
- 20 October 2010
