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Rinus van de Velde
untitled (The Lost Bishop)
For his contribution to the Biennale of
Bucharest, Van de Velde will make a new,
site-specific installation that consists of a
series of black-and-white wall drawings in
charcoal and a narrative text. Together, they
tell a story based on the biography of Bobby
Fischer (1943-2008), who is considered to
be one of the greatest, but also most controversial
chess players of all time.
The drawings Van de Velde presents are
based on existing photographs drawn from
Fischer’s biography and other sources,
which the artist then re-enacted within the
confines of his studio, working with props,
extras and himself as the protagonist. In
doing so, Van de Velde imagines himself to
be the main character of some one else’s
story, which he appropriates and transforms.
The narrative is based upon Fischer’s legendary
victory in the 1972 World Championship
in Reykjavik, where he defeated his
Russian rival Boris Spasski in what has
come to be known as “the game of the century”.
In Van de Velde’s retelling of the heroic
story, Fischer becomes a chess-playing
artist, a heroic but obsessive and worldstrange
hero that controls a game he is
completely absorbed by. The game of chess
thus becomes a metaphor for a studiobased
art practice that revolves around the
ego of the artist and gives structure to the
unsurpassable chaos of the ‘outside’ world,
which consists of an abundance of images.
The large-scale drawings ask the viewer to
‘suspend their disbelief’ and literally step
into the fictive story. At the same time, they
reflect on the illusionistic function of drawing,
storytelling, fantasy and romantic ideas
of geniality and heroism. Although these are
myths, Van de Velde suggests, they could
still be considered to have a productive,
self-realising value in the real of the outside
world. (Koen Sels)
Rinus van de Velde, untitled (The Lost Bishop), charcoal on wall 200 x 140 cm, 2012.
Photo: Ben Van den Berghe. Courtesy of the artist and Ben Van den Berghe.
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