Kunsthalle São Paulo:
Rein Dufait

Kunsthal Gent hosts a special guest: KUNSTHALLE São Paulo, initiated in 2012 by Brazilian curator Marina Coelho. In 2017 KUNSTHALLE São Paulo ended its activities in Sao Paulo to begin a series of international projects. Under the roof of Kunsthal Gent, the institution will present a series of projects and exhibitions of (inter)national artists. Kunsthalle São Paulo is characterized by experimentation and the creation of discussions around current social and contemporary art issues. Artists are invited to develop site-specific projects, most often in response to the local context.

Born in 1978, in São Paulo, Marina Coelho holds a Master in Curating Contemporary Art from the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK). She was awarded a scholarship by the Independent Curators International (ICI) to take part in a Curatorial Intensive course, held at the Mori Museum in Tokyo (2013), and has been visiting lecturer at HISK, in Ghent, and at the ZHdK, in Zurich. In earlier years, Marina Coelho took part in a museology internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, in Venice, and worked as exhibition producer at Galeria Leme, in São Paulo. Since February 2017, Marina Coelho is based in Ghent, Belgium.

REIN DUFAIT – Holle Volte

The first artist Marina Coelho presents in Kunsthalle São Paulo within Kunsthal Gent is Rein Dufait. Starting from the niches in the side wall of the church, the artist gave the work the umbrella title Holle Volte. Some existing works are combined with site-specific works.

Rein Dufait (*1990, Oostende) lives and works in Oostende. For Rein Dufait, the definition of sculpture is the adding or subtracting of material. His rigorous approach to his chosen medium has led him to develop a singular – perhaps also solitary – practice that is nourished by an insistent curiosity about material (whether natural or manmade) and a fascination with form (whether organic or artistic). In his work, Dufait confronts the fundamental questions of sculpture: how to divide space; how to combine textures; how to create volume and height. His sculptures are never narrative, seldom figurative, but often refer to organic structures. Always human in scale, they reveal an efficiency in construction that is fundamental to their meaning.