First commissions: Miguel Palma and Marjolijn Dijkman 5 – 21 March 2009
Bloomberg SPACE, Finsbury Square, London EC2 Admission free
Opening Private View: Wednesday 4 March 2009, 6.30 – 8.30pm (invite only)
This March, Bloomberg SPACE launches COMMA, a dynamic new programme of commissions enabling artists to experiment and expand their work. Twenty of today’s most outstanding established and emerging international artists will be invited to create new work, installations and architectural interventions in a fast paced succession of exhibitions. Every month, two artists will each be invited to use this central London gallery to create new work in a series of shows which will open to the public on the first Thursday of each month, starting in March 2009.
COMMA kicks off on 5 March with the work of two very different artists Miguel Palma (COMMA 01) and Marjolijn Dijkman (COMMA 02).
COMMA 01 – In the front gallery Miguel Palma presents a fragile equilibrium with two water tanks holding two fish; the surroundings are full of pumps, wires and machines. One tank contains salt water, the other fresh water yet it is the same water being recycled, being pumped through a salination point and then a de-salination point, the delicacy of the balance is revealed through the transparency of it all. Palma wants us to think about the relationship between machine and life but also ideas of sharing and division. The work continues an ongoing interest in a central idea of balance and in it he makes what at first seems like a simple demonstration something dramatic, compelling and full of suspense. Miguel Palma (b.1964, Lisbon) lives and works in Portugal.
COMMA 02 – Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman occupies the rear gallery with an epic photographic installation where hundreds of images flood the space, each pasted directly or projected on to the walls. Her evocative images represent her ongoing investigation into representations of the world. Dijkman is interested in place, how we find a sense of place and how the human can be seen in every intervention in the landscape, be it accidental or with purpose. She has been gathering photographic ‘evidence’ of these human traces as she travels. Marjolijn Dijkman (b.1978) lives and works in Rotterdam.
Bloomberg SPACE is a gallery based at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London and is dedicated to commissioning and exhibiting contemporary art. It welcomes visitors six days a week and admission is free. It complements Bloomberg’s programme of arts sponsorship throughout Europe and the world.
