Ives Maes - PROGRESS -

Press Release

■Artist: Ives Maes
■Exhibition Title: PROGRESS
■Date: April 3rd (Sat) to 24th(Sat), 2010
■Reception: April 3rd(Sat) 19:00-21:00
■ Venue: void+ 3-16-14 1F Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062 Tel: 03-5411-0080 Fax: 03-5411-0051
■Hour: Tue to Fri 14:00-19:00; Sat　12:00-19:00　Closed: Sun, Mon and Holidays
■Planning: Michiko Ogura
■Supported by: Embassy of Belgium in Tokyo, Flanders Center, EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee

©Ives Maes
Pabellon del Futuro (Exposicion Universal de Sevilla, 1992)
Duratrans on acrylic, light box 100 x 125 cm

void+ is honored to present “PROGRESS,” a exhibition by artist Ives Maes from Saturday April 3 to Friday April 23, 2010.
Ives Maes is a contemporary artist based in Antwerp, Belgium. Although Maes uses various mixed media, his main medium of choice is photography.
This exhibition showcases a series of photographs from one of his most well-known projects, where Maes stages familiar characters from science fiction movies at world exposition sites.

Maes' subject, the world exposition is a global event promoting world peace through exhibitions of art, technology and science from participating countries.　The world exposition brings a sense of anticipation of a positive future full of hope. This subject is contrasted with characters from science fiction movies, which tend to be critical of overdeveloped technology and science with themes that foresees the future as a metaphor of human tragedy.
Maes showcases this contradistinction with a unique perspective through his photographs of familiar scenes with extra-terrestrials or characters, which one may perceive as "peculiar" and / or "comical." If artists are agents of social absurdity and truth like prophets, then Ives Maes is definitely one such artist.

This exhibition introduces photographs of the European exposition sites from his photography series.
Please come and see the one of Belgium’s up-and-coming artists, Ives Maes' first solo exhibition in Japan!