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Boris Tellegen

Boris Tellegen began his artistic career as a graffiti artist in the 1980s, treating the two-dimensional framework of letter and word as sculpture. Combining this practice with his training in industrial design, he soon began creating three-dimensional works at the intersection of architecture, painting, sculpture and installation.

The surface describes the outer or visible part of something. Boris Tellegen wants to see further, to detect what lies hidden behind. Like Guy Debord and the situationist drift, or Theseus thwarting the complexity of the labyrinth, Boris Tellegen seeks to reach the secret spaces of the city.
The interweaving of geometric forms forms a metaphor for the city, an interweaving of architectures from different eras on which great metropolises are built.

The title of this sculpture-painting, 16 bits, is taken from computer programming. Tellegen's style always induces a complex, scientific mathematics. His work takes us beyond the Euclidean geometry of volume, to the quantum theory of equated time and space.

"My work is about chaos in the midst of order, or order in chaos. Perhaps it's a kind of random logic, which is paradoxical. (...)
Ideal constraints are like boundaries within which you can evolve, pushing you to go deeper rather than spreading yourself too thin. The more freedom there is, the less need there is to wrestle with the mind."

Biography

Boris Tellegen was born in 1968. He lives and works in Amsterdam.

TRAINING

  • 1988-1994 / Diploma in industrial design engineering, Delft, Netherlands.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS - SELECTION

  • 2018 / UnPlot, Ron Mandos, Amsterdam.
  • 2017 / Friendly takeover, curated in collaboration with Daniel Hofstede, MIMA Museum, Brussels.
  • 2017 / Rietveld meets Mondrian, Mondriaanhuis Amersfoort.
  • 2012 / Stuck on the city, Prague City Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • 2011 / Kunstraum.ch, Basel, Switzerland.
  • 2011 / Subduction zones, Muziekgebouw 't IJ, Amsterdam.
  • 2010 / Exothermic, De Fabriek, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
  • 2007 / VHDG, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
  • 2004 / CUBEX, SGP.SLAM JAM, Ferrara, Italy.
  • 2004 / 6X6, Hoogt4, Utrecht, Netherlands.
  • 1998 / Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

  • 2009 / Amsterdamprijs, Amsterdam.
  • 2004 / Boursen, Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst.
  • 2001 / National Millennium Award, with Maurer United Architects and Ronald van der Voet for 'Inconstruct'.

PUBLIC ORDERS

  • 2017-2018 / Rietveld meets Mondrian, 10 6-m-high sculptures in various materials along a cycle path linking Mondrian's (Amersfoot) and Rietveld's (Utrecht) studios, Netherlands,
  • 2014 / "Huis van Hendrik", commissioned by Ymere, Berlage laan, Haarlem, Amsterdam.
  • 2013 / ZONE DE FAILLE \ FAULT ZONE, Palais de Tokyo (Level 1 - Descente Grémillon), Paris.
  • 2012 / Building facade, Berlagelaan, Haarlem, Netherlands.
  • 2011 / Statue for Ijside.
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