Don't mention the war: Thorsten Brinkmann

Hopstreet Gallery may still bear the name of the street in the Dansaert district where the gallery was originally based, but it now operates in the Louiza/Louise district in a splendidly restored building next to Xavier Hufkens’s second branch. The exhibition of work by the German artist Thorsten Brinkmann, with which the new space has been inaugurated, has got it off to a flying start. Brinkmann is known, among other things, for photographs in which he or other figures pose with a wide range of found objects; in these, the artist combines cleverly worked-out compositions that include references to old masters with a dose of slapstick. This exhibition contains a few examples, including Hakon del Plume, showing a character with wings, a tin pot on his head as a helmet, and a few pieces of wood that together serve as a sword. Still lifes also get the characteristic Brinkmann treatment: he constructs his own off-beat versions, using a series of found objects, including table-legs, hallstands, rolls of textile, and old wallpaper. The results are clever and show great imagination and creativity. Brinkmann also exhibits a number of old wooden cabinets that he has converted into rubbish bins on wheels. Through the windows, you can see a configuration of objects, as in a display window. The bins contain, among other things, the refuse left over from his earlier work: the ensemble is given the ironic title of “Junk de Luxe”. In the box gallery, finally, Brinkmann presents a mini-universe that refers to his current exhibition (open until 4 January) at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres. In a black and white video, we see the artist playing soldier with a bucket on his head, while a variety of assembled sculptures in the space refer to the war: an amputated leg, for example, or a death’s head formed by bullets. They offer an idiosyncratic way of looking at the “Great War”, in which the artist once again gives his unrestrained imagination free rein.

THORSTEN BRINKMANN: JUNK DE LUXE & THE CANARIES > 25/10, do/je/Th > za/sa/Sa 13 > 18.00, Hopstreet Gallery, Sint-Jorisstraat 109 rue Saint-Georges, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-511.05.55, www.hopstreet.be