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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 EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND in industrial design, he soon began creating three-dimensional works at the intersection of architecture, painting, sculpture and installation.

The surface describes the exterior or visible part of something. Boris Tellegen wants to see further in order to detect what is hidden behind. Like Guy Debord and the Situationist drift, or Theseus outwitting the complexity of the labyrinth, Boris Tellegen seeks to reach the secret spaces of the city.
The interweaving of geometric forms creates a metaphor for the city, an intricate architecture of various eras on which the 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 speaks of chaos in the midst of order, or order in chaos. Perhaps there is a kind of random logic to be seen in it, which is paradoxical. (…)
Ideal constraints are like boundaries within which you can evolve, and which push you to go deeper rather than to disperse. The more freedom there is, the less you need to rack your brains. »

Biography

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

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

  • 1988-1994 / Degree 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.

GRANTS AND AWARDS

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

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

  • 2017-2018 / Rietveld meets Mondrian, 10 sculptures, 6 m high, made of different materials along a cycle track connecting the studios of Mondrian (Amersfoot) and Rietveld (Utrecht), Netherlands.
  • 2014 / «Huis van Hendrik», commissioned by Ymere, Berlage laan, Haarlem, Amsterdam.
  • 2013 / FAULT ZONE, Palais de Tokyo (Level 1 – Descente Grémillon), Paris.
  • 2012 / Building Facade, Berlagelaan, Haarlem, Netherlands.
  • 2011 / Statue for Ijside.
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