Arne Quinze news Vol.1 / 2020 — A patchwork of drawings, thoughts, sculptures and paintings

printed on 100% recycled paper

Vol.1 / 2020

Welcome to my world.

Arne Quinze

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rtners a P & z t u e r C r o F

A We don’t own ‘nature’. Humans imagine that they are gifted with the supremacy of ruling over it in so many ways. Increased deforestation has led to a catastrophic loss of habitat for animals. We thrust tonnes of toxic waste in the air for the sake of our mobility and meat production.

Our seas are filled to the brim with plastic bottles and particles. While it is truly amazing to see the Earth’s ability to recover and seek balance, the tipping point has now been reached.

Nature truly fascinates Arne Quinze in plethora different manners. He is a real admirer, a true addict.

His flower garden is a laboratory for studies on colours and shapes.

The diversity he finds around his house — only a miniscule sampling of nature — is truly stunning.

If only we could build cities as balanced as nature’s ecosystems, they would be far more human.

Our living environments should look like balanced ecosystems.

Everything is there for a reason.

There’s colour. There’s diversity.

There’s interaction. There’s no waste. Nature has shown us the example of how to organise ourselves, but still, we build grey cities and don’t accept any deviations from the norms. By confronting people with the pure beauty of nature and its magically balanced diversity, Arne Quinze’s aim is to convince all humans to take better care of our planet.

Amazonia is Arne Quinze’s first installation with incorporated LED lighting.

B The idea for Amazonia arose during Quinze’s travels through the jungle.

Stretching throughout Brazil, but also parts of Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, etc., the Amazonia is the gigantic drainage area of the Amazon River. It is the biggest, most important rainforest in the world and boasts the widest variety of ecosystems, plants and mammals known to man. The jungle is simultaneously rough and elegant.

The quantity of beautiful textures and patterns is beyond imagination.

Colours are bright, even luminescent after refraction by the dew drops collected by the flower petals. It’s about giving and taking. Every single creature runs down the path of evolution, rapidly or slowly but unwaveringly, followed by a stadium of transience that nourishes new life. The various layers of the forests – each with totally different resident plants and animals – have no hierarchy.

Arne Quinze tries to unravel the physical processes of botany

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and zoology. Nature adapts to the environment in all sorts of seemingly-incomprehensible ways, feeding on the elements that are available with optimum efficiency. Directly or indirectly, the reciprocal exchanges between fauna and flora keep the ecosystem balanced. Their mutual communication consisting of form, movement and colour convey recognizability to their being. Arne Quinze extracts these recognizable elements from their context to model artistic

creatures that can capture equal diversity. They live in a fantasy, a biotope that reclaims ground from humans, setting limits on mankind’s aggressions towards nature.

The balance of ecosystems has not been rivalled in any town or city, yet we should try to live closer to nature once again…, or at the very least, welcome it back into our cities. Arne Quinze’s art aims to bring the beauty of nature inside the city, as a denunciation on our

ongoing expansion towards grey and monotonous living environments.

The bigger the contrast with the artwork’s environment, the stronger the effect, and the greater the urge to act. The most important question spectators should ask themselves is “why does a colourful object arise such surprise in myself?”

C This installation clearly pleads for the preservation of our jungles around the globe. Economic interests should not rule over our fauna and flora, clean water and fresh air.

Arne Quinze’s battle consists in changing cities according to the model of nature’s ecosystems, while simultaneously increasing awareness on the appalling usage of our most precious environments.

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With special thanks to Creutz & Partners

Creutz & Partners is an asset management compan y in Luxembourg with a genuin e affinity for art. When the company started designin g their new headquarters almost three years ago, they im mediately incorporated art and commissioned Arne Quinze with the task of creati ng an art installation for th eir main entrance hall.

Ultimately, the human ab ility to translate thou ghts into symbols and artefa cts, forsaking traditio na l thinking patterns in th e process, drives all re fle ction and innovation. Creutz & Partners have integrat ed this definition of art into th eir services, and are th erefore strongly committed to su pport art and culture in the broadest sense.

Tupi ---At the heart of São Paulo, the Cidade Matarazzo is planned for completion by 2020. The project aims at becoming São Paulo’s new symbol and “a gigantic pool of brazilianity”. Arne Quinze created Tupi, a Brazilian totem, for a project under the architectural guidance of Jean Nouvel and Rudy Ricciotti.

“Tupi embodies the fabulous Brazilian diversity, which is unique in the world. The sculpture is named after the Tupis, the original inhabitants of Brazil.

Therefore, this installation is more than just a tribute to the past: to this day, the Tupi are still very much present in the DNA of Paulistanos. São Paulo is my favourite city. When I’m here, I feel

the same energy as I did in 1980s New York. Colossal strength and extraordinary creativity blossom in the south-American city. And yet, when we look at images of this economical capital on Google, we only see a succession of ugly grey buildings. I wanted to give the city a symbol that would be the pride and joy of its inhabitants: a totem of the city’s diversity with a worldwide reach.”

The cities of the future will be those that successfully integrate art and nature. Symbolizing the city’s diversity and tolerance, My Stilt house overlooks the new land — a green lung in the middle of Sao Paolo. Artists and architects should be working together for a better (urban) environment.

Arne Quinze Alexandre Allard Jean Nouvel

An urban forest — A green lung in the city

Instagram: @cidadematarazzo @ateliersjeannouvel @arnequinze

Upcoming Light Sculpture

The first permanent public art sculpture by Arne Quinze in Paris

Arne Quinze continues his journey to reshape our cities into more human environments with ‘The Beautiful Dreamer’, a public sculpture in Paris. Curated by Artbliss Paris, Viparis commissioned Arne Quinze to intervene in their Porte De Versailles project. Paris — Porte De Versailles is a sustainable (re)development project of Expo Paris, a new exposition area in the city, including the world’s largest urban farm by Valode & Pistre architects, a 440-room hotel complex by Wilmotte, and a spectacular pavilion facade by Pritzker awarded Jean Nouvel.

‘The Beautiful Dreamer’ is Quinze’s ode to the beauty of nature and was developed to inspire visitors while triggering automatic spontaneity. Having lost our dialogue with nature, we are now stuck with grey & uninspiring public spaces. ‘Le Beau Rêveur’ sets out to counteract that.

Quinze tries to convey absolute beauty and sculpts his pieces in a surrealistic, abstract manner to initiate a dialogue with its visitors, forcing them to fill-in the image with their own imagination. With ‘The Beautiful Dreamer’, Arne Quinze has captured the beauty of nature and brings it back to the city to remind us of its inspiring diversity.

“In my work, I have always been attracted to the way we live, our dwellings, how cities grow and evolve. Where does individualism end and where does society begin? In my earlier work, I made series like ‘Bidonvilles’ and ‘Cityview’ as a criticism on the repetitiveness and the lack of distinctiveness we see in cities all over the world. There must be something in human nature that makes us build the exact same urban environments every time. After studying nature for many years – not only in exotic locations, but also in my own garden – I started thinking that there are countless advantages to being surrounded by nature and by being closer to it. We should integrate natural processes in every aspect of our urban architecture. It’s utopian, but by introducing

this message in the cityscape, by breaking through greyness and monotony, we can provoke a conversation, a debate.”

Arne Quinze feels that it is crucial to expand and develop our cities in a closer dialogue with nature, and this project perfectly encompasses his theory.

It’s about creating an ecosystem for a wide diversity of visitors, aiming for a balanced society. The areas around the city gates – the main entrance roads to city centres nowadays – have a hugely important role in urban planning. Historically, they were always very busy and peopled with an interesting mix of individuals with different economic interests or intentions. These areas have become the engines of our cities.

“In a metropolis like Paris, it is very easy to avoid one another, to forget the concept of ‘cohabitation’. So many different people and cultures.

That is why I wanted to install this dreamer here, a work that refers to the diversity and perfection of nature, that imagines an ecosystem full of colour and movement.”

Arne Quinze wants his work to echo the beauty of nature in an urban context. His pieces should invite people to communicate more and better for a more human environment.

*** See the making of: arnequinze.com ***

The ‘Apple Tree Saver’ illustrates nature’s quest for balance. The sculpture takes a dead tree trunk under its wings.

Nature will always foster each of its components, from the smallest microbe to the tallest tree. Man should not undermine this delicate balance. Dead elements have their role to play in the biotope and form part of the diet of other organisms. As human beings, we must respect the perfection with which nature is integrated, and even more: we must finally see how we can learn from nature and develop our living environments as nature would.

Strelitzia is Latin for the commonly known crane flower, or ‘bird of paradise’, a plant indigenous to South Africa with sharp and very elegant flowers. Its orange and purple spines sprout from the green plant as if they were origami butterflies sitting on a leaf. The idea of giving a subtle hint of paradise, utopia, and colour inside a mostly grey urban context is a concept Arne Quinze aims to conceive with most of his art. His only wish is to make people smile and be more open towards the other, towards the unknown.

The ‘Lupines’ series is the artist’s attempt to capture the power of nature and to shift our focus back to the importance of our relationship with nature. Arne Quinze focuses on different questions in the evolution of anthropology through botany. The unbridled evolutionary strength of plants to develop into a broad spectrum of diverse forms, structures and colours are the basis for Arne Quinze’s visual storytelling.

Founded in 1995, Maruani Mercier is a contemporary art gallery focusing on established 1980s American artists.

Promoting more than twenty artists, they have maintained a long-term representation of influential figures including Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl, Peter Halley, Jonathan Lasker, and Sue Williams. Over the years, the gallery has developed its program with reputable artists like Lyle Ashton Harris, Titus Kaphar, Hank Willis Thomas, George Shaw and Gavin Turk, while supporting emerging artists such as Manuel Mathieu, Jaclyn Conley, and Justin Brice Guariglia. Arne Quinze is the only Belgian artist represented.

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Representing Arne Quinze since 2016

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Ron Gorchov Peter Halley Justin Brice Guariglia Hank Willis Thomas Jaclyn Conley Lyle Ashton Harris Titus Kaphar

Linen I Wildflower fields 2.05 m X 1.45 m Oil on canvas Solid oak frame

*** Nature should not only enjoy our protection in Amazonia. It starts in your own back-garden, in your home cities. Arne Quinze asks all of us a favour ***

Linen II Wildflower fields 2.05 m X 1.45 m Oil on canvas Solid oak frame

“If you don’t act in your own neighbourhood today, soon you might need to go to a natural history museum to admire the beauty of wildlife. These paintings echo my personal research to inject equilibrium in the composition and the rhythm of nature. I’m confronting myself with the wild flowers in my garden in order to stand closer to nature. Seeing its evolution throughout the seasons is so much more rewarding. We really need to appreciate the little areas of countryside that are still left. For our bees, it’s a question of “every tiny bit helps”. Please turn your trimmed green lawns into riotous fields of colour and biodiversity: grow your own mini wildflower field, attract more bees, introduce a dose of wilderness and you will enjoy your garden much more”.

Soon on show.

Maruani Mercier Gallery representing Arne Quinze

Oil - Black Wildflower fields 2.05 m X 1.45 m Oil on canvas Solid oak frame

Oil - Sky Wildflower fields 2.05 m X 1.45 m Oil on canvas Solid oak frame

*** See the making of: arnequinze.com ***

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